Monumental Inscriptions of Britons in Kefalonia

I've just returned from a holiday in Kefalonia, a Greek island.

The scenery is remarkably like the hillier parts of the Borders, although the vegetation is different, and the hills much higher.

As the largest Ionian island, it was liberated from the French during the Napoleonic Wars in 1809 by British forces, remaining as a British protectorate until 1863.

There's a British cemetery there, on the Lixouri peninsula, at the other end of a stone bridge from the capital, Argostoli. The bridge was originally wooden, built in 1813 by a Swiss engineer, Colonel Charles Philip de Bosset, employed by the British army. The stone bridge was built in 1839.

The army also constructed most of the island's main roads, and a number of buildings (the latter now lost due to a major earthquake in 1953).

Inscriptions of people buried in the cemetery are available online, and two of my favourite ones are
http://www.northeastmedals.co.uk/mm/kefalonia_argostoli_british/cemetery.htm

and
http://www.c5d.co.uk/100.htm

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A Busy Weekend

For possibly the first time the Borders Family History Society had a presence at two events on the same day. Both events were associated with the celebrations for Homecoming 2009. In the west, we had a stand at the Muster at Bowhill House near Selkirk
whilst at Coldingham on the east coast, we were present at Coldingham History Weekend. The team will be back at Coldingham today.

The Bowhill Muster started as the Scott Clan Gathering but grew to encompass a slew of other clans. It was held in a field below Bowhill House on a really beautiful September day. The clan associations, the Heritage Hub and we were in a marquee devoted to genealogy and family history - the Family History Tent.
There was a whole range of events going on in the arena outside and at one point during the afternoon two vapour trails from passing jets left a perfect saltire in the blue sky. Does the Duke of Buccleuch have that kind of pull or was it merely good fortune ?

Coldingham History Weekend was held in the village hall next to the priory, and over 150 people came. There was a lot of interest in our publications, and we talked to several people about their family history research; one of whom returned to show us his family tree and he allowed us to copy it. On other stands there were archaeological finds, local photographs, old maps, and historical accounts. We were blessed with a beautiful day, with lots of sunshine, though it was cold in the wind. A highlight of the day was access to the inside of the priory, and Julia Carter, Friends of Coldingham Priory, gave me a guided tour of the priory.

Many people enquired about the gravestone inscriptions for Coldingham, and unfortunately these haven’t yet been recorded and transcribed, but that’s intended for next year. If you would like to help, please let us know.

As is normal for this type of events we spoke to a number of people with an interest in family history and hopefully were able to point some of them in the right direction. We sold a few of our publications and may recruit one or two members as a result. Overall it was an interesting and satisfying day.

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Business Archives for Family History

The Business Archives Council of Scotland, along with the Ballast Trust
are running a free training course on using business archives for family
and local history. Archivists will take you through some of the common
records that can be of use in finding out more about family members,
their lives and the communities in which they lived.

This free event will take place in the Stirling Room at the Mitchell
Library, Glasgow from 5.45pm-745pm on 29th September 2009.

As well as offering you the chance to learn more about records that may
help your research, we will also be taking this opportunity to find out
what archivists can do for researchers in helping them access and use
these records more effectively and to find out about your own
experiences of using business archives.

To book a place at this event, please email David Powell at
bacs@archives.gla.ac.uk or telephone 0141 330 4159.

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