Breaking Stones for Road-Mending and the Stone Project

I went to a very interesting talk in Maxton, Scotland on Monday evening by Jake Harvey, emeritus Professor and former head of Sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art, about the international Stone Project.

He talked for well over an hour, with interesting slides and videos, about quarrying and stone working techniques, sculptors and stone workers, sculptures, and exhibitions.

For me, one of the most astonishing views was that of a female quarry worker in Peenya Quarry, India, breaking up stone using a 15kg (33 lbs) hammer. She must have tremendous strength and I wonder if her back aches too ? She has no protection from chips on splinters, not for her bare arms, feet and ankles, or her head, particularly not for her eyes. I suspect her sari is pretty thin and chips could easily fly through thin cloth. I also wondered if she had ever hit her feet, a blow from that hammer would surely break foot bones.

When Jake said she was breaking stone for road repairs, I immediately thought of the women described in the poor registers (for example, Widow Davidson of Jedburgh, Scotland, aged 45, who 'breaks down stones into sand, and makes about 3d a day'), and in the poorhouse at Jedburgh engaged in breaking stones.

There's more about Widow Davidson of Jedburgh in our publications, Jedburgh Parish (1852-1874) and Jedburgh Parish (1875-1893).

I wonder how Widow Davidson was attired, whether she had any protection, and whether she did the work at home or in a quarry, and whether she was supervised. I haven't managed to find any detailed descriptions of this type of work.

Maps Implemented on our Parish Pages

At the Scottish Borders Tourism Industry Conference on 1 December 2011, Martin Ogg mentioned Visit Scotland's intention to geo-web some of their pages.
I thought it would be nice to do that for our parish pages but I didn't know how, so I didn't mention it as one of the ideas.

After looking at the new additions to digital six-inch maps of Scotland, I noticed that the National Library of Scotland have created a Maps API (application program interface) which makes it possible to put their maps on our website.

I've used this to put maps on to the Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire parish pages for the following parishes:
Ancrum, Abbey St Bathans, Ashkirk, Ayton, Bedrule, Bowden, Broughton, Glenholm & Kilbucho, Bunkle & Preston, Caddonfoot, Cavers, Channelkirk, Chirnside, Cockburnspath, Coldingham, Coldstream, Crailing, Cranshaws, Drumelzier, Duns, Earlston, Eccles, Eckford, Eddleston, Edgerston, Ednam, Edrom, Ettrick, Eyemouth, Fogo, Foulden, Galashiels, Gordon, Greenlaw, Hawick, Hobkirk, Hounam, Hutton, Innerleithen, Jedburgh, Kelso, Kirkhope, Kirkton, Ladykirk, Lauder, Legerwood, Lilliesleaf, Linton, Longformacus, Lyne & Megget, Makerstoun, Maxton, Melrose, Minto, Mordington, Morebattle, Nenthorn, Oxnam, Peebles, Polwarth, Roberton, Roxburgh, Selkirk, Simprim, Skirling, Smailholm, Southdean & Abbotrule, Sprouston, St Boswells, Stitchill, Stobo, Swinton, Teviothead, Traquair, Tweedsmuir, West Linton, Westruther, Whitsome, Wilton, Yarrow, Yetholm.

I haven't yet added maps for these parishes:
Castleton, Kirkurd, Langton, Manor, Mertoun, Newlands because the API method I'm using doesn't work for these parishes, however I hope to rectify this in the next week.

The maps appear below the Magazine Articles listing.
The maps used are the Quarter-inch to the mile, Scotland, 1921-1923 and/or the One-inch to the mile, Popular edition, Scotland, 1920-1930.
You can use the control at the top left of the map to zoom in or out and drag the map left, right, up, or down as you wish.

If you've looked at these pages before, you may need to refresh the page once or twice in order to see the map.
Please let me know if you have problems or if you see a mistake.

New Additions to Digital Six-inch Maps of Scotland, 1892-1960, at National Library of Scotland

The National Library of Scotland have made available a full range of the Six-inch 2nd and later edition maps of Scotland, 1892-1960.


That's just what we've been waiting for. It was revised for Scotland from 1892-1907, and then updated regularly until the 1940s. You can zoom into the detail of the OS six-inch maps using an interactive index map, and search by county, parish and a gazetteer of place names.
You can order digital images and prints.

Use the maps link or the county links below, click the sheet on the map that you want, then at the left select the actual map you want.



Berwickshire

Peeblesshire


Roxburghshire


Selkirkshire

Scottish Borders Tourism Industry Conference on 1 December 2011

I went to the Scottish Borders Tourism Industry Conference today, organised by Visit Scotland and Scottish Borders Tourism Partnership held at the Buccleuch Arms Hotel, St Boswells. There were about 50 delegates.

I didn't know what to expect and I thought it wasn't likely to be useful particularly as I had intended going to the monthly Scottish Borders Social Enterprise Chamber Business Group meeting.

I'm glad I attended, and fortunately the Salmon Room at the hotel was warm on arrival.

I was very inspired by Professor John Lennon's talk on 'Tourism businesses and how to survive in a recession'. Although Borders Family History Society is a charity and not a tourism business that needs to make a profit, much of what Professor Lennon said was valid for us, too. It's also important that as a charity we generate a surplus to help us remain sustainable and improve facilities for our beneficiaries. We're also members of Ancestral Scotland and we think it's so important that we have the Ancestral Scotland logo on our home page.

I got some good ideas from Martin Ogg's presentation on the new Visit Scotland website and the work that the website team are undertaking.

I didn't understand a lot of the Marketing presentation but there were some stunning images in their new campaign, and as a regular user and reviewer for Trip Advisor , I was interested that there was a widget available (though it costs £200) for tourism businesses.

Nice buffet lunch especially the tomato soup.

After lunch, David Taylor told us about the Year of Creative Scotland set up to 'celebrate and promote Scotland’s cultural and creative vibrancy, shine a spotlight on our creative assets, provide a test-bed for new initiatives and a launch platform for activity to support Year of Homecoming in 2014 .'

I also attended the Accessible Tourism session after the main conference, telling the fewer people that remained about the importance of accessibility and how to improve. I think this session should have been in the main conference.

We were told the slides for the presentations will be on the Visit Scotland corporate site, and I found them useful.

Here are the ideas and inspirations I took away from the day:

• It would be nice to show equivalent prices in euros and US Dollars for the sterling prices on our website
• Put testimonials by users of our services on the website
• Put highlights of our Annual Report on our blog
• Put the top 10 surnames in the Gravestones Index on our parish pages

From Kelso to Kalamazoo

I’ve just returned from our November open meeting in Melrose.  The speaker was Margaret Jeary who talked about the memoirs of George Taylor who was born in Yetholm in 1803 and died in Michigan in 1891.   George was the son of a shepherd and grew up in a literate household.  He first went to school when he was seven and was taught by a pupil teacher aged 18.  He was an avid reader throughout his life and a self-educated man.  He became a fluent writer using clear evocative English.

George’s journal or memoirs came to light as part of a local history project by Eckford Woman’s Rural Institute.  With the help of an IT literate daughter they were first in published on the web.  In 2009 “From Kelso to Kalamazoo” appeared in book form as part of the Flashbacks series published by the National Museum of Scotland.  (From Kelso to Kalamazoo: The Life and Times of George Taylor, 1803–1891Margaret Jeary and Mark Mulhern Eds: NMS Enterprises, Edinburgh 2009. ISBN: 9781905267279).

The book is full of delightful little vignettes of 19^th century life in rural Scotland.  The author tells of getting drunk for the first time as a teenager after helping with sheep washing.  He so disliked the result that he eventually signed the pledge.  To save the coach fare he would walk to Edinburgh – 50 miles in around  36 hours.  On one trip to Edinburgh he saw an advert for a train trip to Burns Country and in Alloway he met an old lady who said that she was Tam O’Shanter’s wife.  Another train trip to the Great Exhibition in 1851 was on a Sunday.  George, a devout church man, squared his conscience by handing out religious tracts on the train.

George Taylor became a market gardener eventually becoming foreman of a Kelso market garden.  He thought about his work carefully and found that protecting potato plants with straw reduced the instance of blight at a time that it was ravaging the potato crop in both Ireland and Scotland,  He also observed that there was a connection between water and the spread of cholera.

In 1855 George Taylor emigrated to the United States and started a truck farm in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  The soil there was ideally suited to celery which he introduced into the USA.  Clearly this was a successful enterprise as George was able to return to Scotland twice.   On the first occasion he returned with his third wife.  In all he had 4 wives and 9 children but all four wives and 5 of the children died before him.

Thank you to Margaret Jeary for a clear and interesting talk.

Our next meeting is on 26th February 2012 in Melrose when Peter Munro will talk about Saving, Spending and Family History.

Trade and Street Directories

About a year ago, I blogged about street directories produced both by the Post Office and their availability online at the National Library of Scotland and as maps at AddressingHistory. 

Trade and street directories are useful in confirming information found in the census or as an alternative to valuation rolls.

My recommendation in our Kith and Kin columns in the Border Telegraph and Peeblesshire News newspapers was a collection of freely downloadable Scottish directories , however there’s an easier source on the National Library’s page of Post Office directories, (for Borders localities, choose Scotland).

I’ve now discovered another useful website that contains local and trade directories for England and Wales between 1750 to 1919. You can search by decade (1850s to 1910s), by location or by keywords (a combination of location, decade, and other details) and the directories are free to read and print, however you can print only one page at a time.

Letters to and about George and Elizabeth Broomfield, who Emigrated from Darnick, Scotland to Australia in 1839

The Darnick Village site has an interesting article about George and Elizabeth Broomfield who emigrated from Darnick (in the parish of Melrose, Roxburghshire),
Scotland on the 'Formosa' which left Liverpool on 18th January 1839 and arrived in Sydney, Australia in May 1839 (see ship arrivals ) with their children, Margaret, Thomas and Robert. Another son, Alexander, due to an epidemic of whooping cough did not survive the voyage and there were two daughters, Mary and Alice who died in Scotland.

Their passage on the 'Formosa' (535 tons) under the command of Captain Alexander Adam was assisted under the Bounty Scheme, there were 250 passengers (see shipping intelligence) and the ship's cargo. Thanks to Trove Australia for these newspaper images.

The Broomfields were the first settlers of 'Bow Hill', Dingo Creek, Manning River, Australia, but they evidently lived in other locations, too, including Green Hills by Maitland; Upper Patterson; Paterson, Hunters River; Mudgee, Bungy Bungy.
It would be nice if these locations were pinpointed - perhaps a reader in Australia can do this ?

Also on board the 'Formosa', were Robert and Hellen Wallace, of Melrose, accompanied by their three children, William, Ferguson and Nancy.
The article is accompanied by more than 25 letters written to or about the Broomfields. The spelling in some of these letters leaves a lot to be desired but is understandable, and contains interesting details, for example,

Earlstown 12th November 1838
I the undersigned hearby sertify that George Brumfield (Broomfield) was engaged by me as shipard (shepherd) on the farm of West Morristown Parish of Legerwood Shier (Shire) of Berwick Scottland for the last two years that I passed at that farm from Whitsunday 1823 to Whitsunday 1825 and managed my stock of sheap (sheep) which extended to upwards of seven hundred young and old at sertan (certain) seasons of the year – which he managed with great cair (care)and atenchion (attention) with the assistance of a boy for a few days in the throng of the lambing season he contended (continued) on the farm when I left with my sucksesor (successor) as shipard (shepherd) for years and left that Parish with a good moral carater (character) and in full comanion (communion) with the established Church he has bean (been) resident in the Parish of Melros(e) Roxburgh Shier (Shire) since and hes caried (carried) on the business of dealing a little in cattle and sheap (sheep) and ocationly (occasionally) trying the *flecher business and was sumtimes employed by Gentelmen in the neighbourhood for sorting ther (their) stock and from the practice hes hed (had) from his youth of manigin (managing) and sorting stock – I consider him a first reat (rate) hand to send to a new colenay. (colony) for aney (any) Gentelmen with a large stock who engage a man unexperienced to tak(e) charge of it may run a great risk of losing mor(e) in wan (one) year then culd (could) pay duble (double) and treple (treble) his wages
I have no hesitation in saying that the main motive of his leving (leaving) his native hom(e) is by the great encurigment (encouragement) now held forth and the reasonable charge now mead (made) for transporting emigrat (emigrants) to such a distant colony and by persyvering (persevering) in honesty and diligent in business that he will be enabled by the greace (grace) of God assisting him that he will acquier (acquire) a mor(e) ample livelihood than he hes (has) hitherto dun (done) for himself and yung (young) family and that he may do justly love mercy and walk humbly with his God is the arnest (earnest) wish of his old master
George Scott

*Probably flesher, a Scottish word for butcher.

Read more of the Broomfield letters.

Interestingly, the Formosa doesn't appear on Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild, and, of course, the Broomfield's departure date is too early for the Scottish Emigration Database because that deals with ships that left from 1890 to 1960.

(My thanks to Charlie Denoon, a Society member, who I saw at the Maxton kirk coffee morning and told me about these letters and gave me permission to use content from the article).

Looking at Local Families

Our next talk is on Sunday 30th October at 2.30pm at Foulden Village Hall, in Foulden, Berwickshire, TD15 1UH. Map.

The speaker is Gregory Lauder-Frost, one of our trustees and a very experienced genealogist. He will examine two families in particular, Renton of Billie and Lamberton and the Jaffrey/Jeffrey family in Foulden and Mordington.

The former are lairds, whilst the latter ordinary folk, blacksmiths and smallholders. He will show how the details on these families were and can be publicly sourced, the sort of information revealed in those sources, and, importantly, links with other families.

The doors will be open at 2pm, with the talk starting at 2.30pm.

We warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not.
There is no admission charge.
We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy.
If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it (no charge) with one of our volunteers.

Gregory is also the author of the Genealogies of Scottish Families CD. This contains details of over 36,000 people in the genealogical standard GEDCOM format. It includes ancestors and descendants who immigrated to Scotland, and emigrants from Scotland. However remotely, everyone on the CD is related to at least one other person on the CD.

The main families included have the surnames Hay, Forbes, Lauder, Scott, Hamilton, Rutherford, Pringle, Douglas, Hepburn, Home but there are many others.

The CD costs £45 (plus postage). To buy a copy, please contact Mary Thomson on the Contacts page using the contact type 'Order for Publications'.

Scottish World War 1 Pension Application and Appeal Records

The National Records of Scotland holds pension application and appeal records covering the period from November 1919 to December 1932 relating to Scottish soldiers and their next of kin who suffered from injuries sustained in the war, or died after the war due to injuries.

Apparently, most World War 1 service records were burnt during World War 2 and it can be difficult tracing your ancestor's service during World War 1. If your ancestor suffered from a war wound, or died soon afterwards, then these records may be useful. Many of the applications were rejected, so even if your ancestor didn't receive a disability pension, it's still possible there's a record of him applying for one.

Typical information comprises the name of the soldier, and the applicant's name, relationship to soldier, address, age, occupation, employers, rank, unit, date discharged, reason for discharge, pre-war service, service history from 1914 to 1921, date of the pension hearing, disability, appeal outcome, and pension amount, soldier's medical history. More information.

(with thanks to Tunji Lees and Chris Paton).

Roxburghshire Parish Pages Join the Fold

As you may have seen we’ve now added pages on our website for Roxburghshire, to complement the pages for Berwickshire, Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire.

These pages were created by Ronald Morrison and David Rudram - a lot of work.

Some of these pages include more detail than others so if you can contribute to one of the pages get in touch with us either via this blog or through the contact form on the web-site (you’ll need to scroll down the page to find it). Please let us know about any mistakes or if you find a broken link.

Roxburghshire Monumental Inscriptions - No 20: Kelso Rosebank Cemetery

Contains a militia list, as well as the monumental inscriptions/gravestone inscriptions from the 2454 gravestones in the cemetery. There is an index to the surnames. Covers stones installed between 1870 and 2002.
Available as a CD or an A4 format book, each has the same content. 2454 gravestones. Book 202 pp including index and illustrations. ISBN 1 874232 07 0.
CD price £10.00 plus postage. Weight 70g.
Book price £21.00 plus postage. Weight 620g.

See our Publications Sales List to buy.

Roxburghshire Monumental Inscriptions - No 19: Cavers & Kirkton (including Denholm)

Contains a hearth tax list, a list of kirk ministers, as well as the monumental inscriptions/gravestone inscriptions from the 820 gravestones in Cavers Old churchyard and new cemetery, Kirkton churchyard and Denholm cemetery. Includes War Memorials.
There is an index to the surnames.
138 pp including index and illustrations. ISBN 1 874232 06 2. 820 gravestones. Price £8.50 plus postage. Weight 205g.

See our Publications Sales List to buy. 

Hall's History of Galashiels

Available as a CD only. This is an electronic reprint of the famous book, The History of Galashiels by Robert Hall, first published in October 1898 in a limited edition of 425 copies for subscribers only. It's in PDF format which allows an extensive index and search facility to be used and by the use of hyperlinks it can be easily navigated. The original book had 601 pages including index of subscribers and illustrations. Copies of the original book are advertised from time to time, the last copy I saw, was advertised at £195 and was sold within a week.
CD price £12.00 plus postage. Weight 70g. See our Publications Sales List to buy.

Granny's Bawbees and Other Coins

This is the title of a talk I'm giving this Sunday, 29th May at the Corn Exchange, Market Square, Melrose, TD6 9PN. Map.

It's a brief introduction to Scottish coinage, and other coins, and tokens that circulated in and around the Scottish Borders, the exchange rate between England and Scotland, monetary terms encountered in old documents. Accompanied by slides with pictures of coins, tokens, a banknote and other items.

If you want help in identifying a coin, please bring it along, and talk to me after I've finished speaking.

Doors open at 2pm. The talk will be preceded by our Annual General Meeting, which starts at 2.30pm. The talk starts after the annual general meeting has finished, probably around 3pm.

We warmly invite you to attend the annual general meeting and the talk whether you are a member or not. There is no admission charge.

We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy.
There will also be a raffle.

As usual, there will be light refreshments available after the talk.

If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it (no charge) with one of our volunteers.

Welsh Ancestry

Surprisingly to some, there was a lot of movement between Wales and Scotland in past three centuries, so you may well have family members who lived in Wales.

People moved from Scotland especially to work in coal mines and slate quarries, to work as labourers and farm servants on estates, as well as in more traditional industries.

Similarly, people moved to Scotland to work in coal mines, to work as labourers and farm servants on estates, on the hydro-electric scheme construction, as well as in factories.

Of course, there was a lot of migration to and from England and Ireland, and to North America, too.

So you might be interested in television channel S4C's new family history programme, Perthyn, Welsh for 'belonging'.

The first programme is to be broadcast on Wednesday, 4th May at 9pm. This programme is about Geraint Morgan from Penllergaer near Swansea and his search for the reason why his great uncle, Llewelyn Davies, left the village of Myddfai in 1908 aged 17 for a new life in America.

Look at the the S4C Perthyn website for tips and useful links.


(Thanks to Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter).

Revised and Improved Edition of Kelso Abbey, Old Churchyard, St Andrews Monumental Inscriptions

The late Audrey Mitchell wrote that Kelso was described by Sir Walter Scott, who attended school there from 1783, as 'the most beautiful, if not the most romantic, village in Scotland'. Early Kelso grew in two distinct halves. Easter Kelso formed in the vicinity of the Abbey, which was founded in 1128 by King David I, and retained its importance as an ecclesiastical burgh until the late 16th Century, by which time the fabric of Kelso Abbey had been largely destroyed and the monks dispersed.  Wester Kelso, also known as Faircross, was obliterated in the late 18th Century when the Duke of Roxburgh formed entrance gates to Floors Castle and a fruit garden on the ground occupied by the village. Legend states that plague victims of the 17th century were buried in a mass grave at the Knowes, near the Abbey and bones were found in this area during archaeological excavations. Kelso was primarily a market town and had no large-scale industry until the 20th century.

We've extensively revised and improved this volume (previously known just as Kelso) and it's available on CD.

Old Kelso volume (superseded)

 It comprises the details and photographs of 460 monumental (gravestone) inscriptions for the Old Churchyard, Purvis Aisle, Kelso Abbey, and St Andrew's Episcopal Church and the inscriptions on 199 stones lost in 1979 when the surrounding wall was removed from the churchyard and new paths were laid allowing direct access from the Knowes car park to the town centre.

We've also included the inscriptions on the Kelso War Memorial, the war memorials in St Andrew's Church, St Mary’s Church, and Kelso High School. It includes a list of ministers, the landowners and tenants on the Hearth Tax assessment in the parish of Kelso in 1690, the men on the Militia list from 1797 to 1801, a plan of Kelso dated 1854.

There is a plan of the churchyard and additionally, there's a list of funerals and dates in Kelso 1798 to 1813. This is particularly useful because many of Kelso's inhabitants were buried without a marker, visitors to the parish were sometimes buried without their name being known.  Several regiments were stationed in the town, together with French Prisoners of War and their burials are recorded here, as well as an index to the surnames included in the inscriptions.

There are more than 500 different surnames included in the inscriptions on the gravestones, and they are: Adams, Affleck, Aimer, Aimers, Ainslie, Aitchison, Aitken, Aitkinson, Aldcorn, Alexander, Allan, Amey, Anderson, Andrew, Archbald, Armstrong, Arniel, Arnold, Auchterlonie, Awburn, Bailey, Baird, Balfour, Ballantyne, Balmer, Baptie, Barclay, Barker, Barstow, Bell, Bennet, Best, Bettie, Biggar, Bishop, Biss, Black, Blackhall, Blackie, Blair, Blaw, Blenkinsop, Blyth, Blythe, Boazman, Bolton, Bonar, Bonthorn, Boole, Borthwick, Boston, Boswell, Bothwick, Bowie, Bowman, Boyd, Broad, Bromfield, Brooks, Broomfield, Brotherston, Brown, Brownlee, Brownlees, Bruce, Brunlees, Buchan, Buchell, Buckham, Buddo, Bulman, Burn, Burnet, Burnett, Burns, Burrows, Cairns, Carfrae, Carss, Cassy, Chalmers, Charlewood, Chisholm, Clark, Cochrane, Cockburn, Cook, Cooper, Cossar, Craig, Cranston, Cranstone, Craw, Crawford, Crease, Crichton, Crosbie, Culbertson, Cunningham, Cunninghame, Curle, Curle, Curle, Curll, Curry, Dakin, Dalgleish, Dames, Darling, Davidson, Dawson, De Borgh, Deans, Dennistoun, Dewar, Dickie, Dickinson, Dickman, Dickson, Died, Dippie, Dixon, Dobson, Dodds, Dods, Douglas, Dryden, Drysdal, Drysdale, Dudgeon, Duke, Duncan, Dunlop, Dunn, Dunnings, Dunsmure, Easton, Edmonston, Elliot, Emen, Ewen, Fair, Fairbairn, Falconar, Falconer, Falkner, Fawcit, Fender, Ferguson, Fergusson, Ferne, Fettes, Finch, Fishburn, Fleming, Fletcher, Flighty, Flintoff, Foord, Forbes, Ford, Forrest, Forrett, Forsyth, Frank, Fraser, Frazer, Frier, Fullerton, Fyfe, Gallon, Gaston, Gibb, Gibson, Giles, Gillespie, Gillies, Glaister, Glass, Glendining, Glindinning, Gordon, Gosset, Gow, Graham, Gray, Greenlaw, Grey, Grieve, Grossert, Guthrie, Haig, Haldane, Hall, Halliburton, Hambley, Hambly, Hammond, Happer, Hardie, Hay, Hedley, Henderside, Henderson, Henry, Herbert, Hermiston, Hervey, Hewat, Heweit, Hewitson, Hill, Hillson, Hilson, Hindle, Hindmarsh, Hislop, Hislope, Hogarth, Hogg, Holman, Holme, Holmes, Home, Honeyman, Hood, Hookes, Hooper, Hough, Howlistone, Huggan, Huie, Humble, Hume, Hunter, Hush, Hutchinson, Hymers, Imieison, Innes, Innes Ker, Irvine, Jack, Jackson, Jaffrey, Jameson, Jamieson, Janitson, Jarvie, Jeffrey, Johnson, Johnston, Karr, Kay, Keenan, Keith, Kell, Kennedy, Ker, Kerr, Kerss, Kinghorn, Knox, Kydd, Kyle, Ladlin, Laidlaw, Lamb, Lamont, Lauder, Law, Lawlee, Lawson, Lawton, Leadbetter, Learmont, Learmonth, Learmouth, Leck, Lee, Leech, Leitch, Leyden, Liddell, Lidgate, Lillie, Limmon, Lindores, Lindsay, Linton, Litster, Loasby, Lockie, Logan, Lorimer, Lundie, Lunn., Lyell, Lyle, Lynn, Mcallister, M’cheyne, Mccoln, Mccorquodale, Mccutcheon, Macdonald, Mcdougal, Mackdougall, Mcdougall, Macintosh, Mackintosh, Mcintosh, Mckay, Mackenzie, Mckenzie, Mckinlaw, Mckraket, Maclean, Mcleod, Mabon, Main, Manl, Marjoribanks, Marr, Marsh, Marshall, Marten, Mason, Mathew, Mauchlen, Maule, Maxwell, Meather, Mein, Melrose, Menin, Merrylees, Michie, Mickle, Middlemas, Middlemiss, Middlemist, Millan, Millar, Miller, Mills, Milne, Mitchell, Mitchelson, Moffat, Moir, Mollifof, Moore, Morison, Morrison, Morton, Moscrip, Moubray, Muir, Munro, Murdy, Murray, Needham, Neil, Nelson, Nesbit, Newton, Nicholson, Nicol, Ogden, Oliphant, Oliver, Ord, Ormiston, Ormston, Oswald, Ovens, Paton, Patterson, Pattison, Paul, Pearson, Peat, Penman, Perfect, Pettigrew, Pillans, Pirie, Pitcairn, Pittillo, Plummer, Porteous, Potts, Primrose, Pringle, Proctor, Purves, Purvis, Pyle, Rae, Ramsay, Ranton, Rathie, Rea, Redden, Redpath, Reid, Renton, Renwick, Richardson, Richmond, Rickets, Riddel, Riddell, Ridley, Ridpath, Rintoul, Ritchie, Robertson, Robinson, Robison, Robson, Rogerson, Rolph, Romanes, Romanis, Ronald, Ross, Routledge, Roxburgh, Rule, Russell, Rutherford, Rutherfurd, Ryrie, Sadler, Sanderson, Scott, Sear, Selkirk, Sharp, Shaw, Sheil, Shiel, Shiell, Shirreff, Short, Simpson, Sitwell, Slight, Small, Smith, Somerville, Spark, Spiden, Spottiswoode, Stalker, Steel, Stenhouse, Stephenson, Stevens, Stevenson, Stewart, Stimpson, Stobo, Stodart, Stoddart, Stormonth, Story, Strachan-Audas, Stuart, Sudden, Swan, Swanston, Swinton, Sword, Tait, Tasker, Taylor, Telfer, Telfor, Thompson, Thomson, Thorburn, Tinlin, Tod, Torrie, Train, Tranent, Trotter, Tully, Turnbull, Turner, Tyrode, Valance, Waddle, Waldie, Waleid, Walker, Wallace, Wardlaw, Watson, Watt, Watters, Waugh, Weatherston, Weddell, Weir, Welsh, Wemyss, White, Whitecross, Whitehead, Whitelaw, Whitelock, Whitlock, Whyte, Wight, Wightman, Wild, William, Williamson, Willink, Wilmot, Wilson, Winter, Wood, Woodrow, Wright, Wylie, Young, Yule.

Search the Gravestones Index in the usual way, to see how many stones there are for a surname.

The CD costs £10 plus postage.

To get a copy, please contact Mary Thomson on our Contacts page using the contact type Order for Publications.

Scotland's Earliest Census (before the English Domesday Book)

We're all accustomed to regarding the census for Scotland starting in 1841, and whilst it's true that this is the first detailed census useful for most people's family history, there were censuses before that, for example, various parishes in 1835, for Jedburgh in 1821, for Hutton in 1811 and Stow in 1801, and Portpatrick in 1763.

I was astonished to see a BBC article about Scotland's first census  occurring in the 7th century. It's called Senchus fer nAlban (History of the men of Scotland) and it's Scotland's earliest census. It is a list of the population of Dál Riata, the kingdom of the Gaels on the west coast of Scotland, in Lorn and the islands of Islay and Jura.

I assume that it's written in classical Irish, the forerunner of modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic. There's much more in the BBC article including a picture, and a video in Scottish Gaelic which has some English subtitles, for example "Eogan Garbh has 30 houses, his wife is Crodu, daughter of Dallan, son of Eogan, son of Niall".

Free Access to the Census on 27th March

If you're in the United Kingdom, no doubt you'll have received your census form ready to be completed on Census Day, 27th March.

To celebrate Census Day 2011, Ancestry is providing free access to all of its UK (England, Wales and Scotland) census collections from 1841-1901 for 24 hours.

More details on the ancestry.co.uk blog.

Battlefields of National Importance

n 2009, Historic Scotland decided that they would prepare an inventory of nationally important battlefields in Scotland to identify and provide information on the sites to raise awareness of their significance and assist in their protection and management for the future.  It is a major resource for promoting education, stimulating further research, and for enhancing their potential as attractions for the public. As part of the inventory, they'll maintain reports to combine all the research undertaken and show why the  battlefield is so important, and they'll include a map showing the key elements of the battlefield.  Clearly, that may take into account eyewitness accounts, archaeological evidence, and the maps may include areas of fighting, key movements of troops and other important locations, such as the position of camps or vantage points.

They've produced two lists, those that are deemed of national importance, and those that may be added.
On the list of national importance are the ones we all know like Bannockburn 1314, Ancrum Moor 1545, Pinkie Cleuch 1547, Philiphaugh 1645, Sheriffmuir 1715, Prestonpans 1745, and Culloden  1746.
Ancrum Moor and Philiphaugh are the only two on the list from the Borders, and I admit, that I didn't realise they were so important.

Usefully, their reports on each battlefield can be downloaded.

On the list of those that may be added are Aberdeen 1644, Athelstaneford 832,
Barra 1308 (Aberdeenshire), Carberry Hill 1567, Carbisdale 1650, Cromdale 1690, Dunbar 1296, Fyvie 1644, Glen Livet 1594, Inverkeithing 1651, Inverlochy 1431
Inverlochy 1645, Linlithgow Bridge 1526, Louden Hill 1307, Mulroy 1688, Solway Moss 1542. I'm a bit surprised at this list as I would have thought Athelstaneford and Louden Hill would have made it onto the first list.
Historic Scotland are seeking our (and your) views. Are there battlefields missed out (like Skirmish Hill, Darnick) that should be considered, are there any on the list that aren't significant ?

Historic Scotland's consultation runs until 11 February 2011.

More information including the downloadable reports on the consultation page.

Abandoned Visit to Edinburgh Castle

On Saturday, 27th November, I went with a friend to Edinburgh Castle to take advantage of the weekend of free access to many Historic Scotland properties to celebrate St Andrews Day on 30th November.

It was a bitterly cold day, and as you can see in these videos, there was a lot of ice and snow on the ground.





I was really surprised that Historic Scotland hadn't gritted the public access areas of the grounds, and the sloping path up to the main bit of the castle was so slippery that we abandoned our intention and went home. I really hope that Historic Scotland will do better next time.

Still I hope you like the skyline views of snowy Edinburgh.