Time-Travel in Peebles, Tomorrow (3 September)

This Saturday, Tweeddale University of the Third Age are organising a history event ‘Travel in Time in Tweeddale’ which will be held at the Leckie Memorial Bakehouse (behind the Leckie Memorial Church - see map at foot of page), Eastgate, Peebles from 10.30 am to 4 pm.

Their day starts off with a walk round Peebles with Gerard Bakker, looking at some of the interesting houses built as a result of the coming of the railway. At the event there will be displays on travel themes, three talks about the railway, drovers and the impact of transport changes in Victorian Peebles, two film shows, and a walk along the drove road out of Peebles. They’ll have a colouring corner for children, too.

The event is free and I’m looking forward eagerly to the day.

Borders Family History Society will be there with a range of mainly Peeblesshire publications including Innerleithen Shops, Innerleithen Monumental (Gravestone) Inscriptions, Snippets & Photos About Old Innerleithen. Come and meet Davina, John and Peter and ask us for help with your family history.

Programme:
9.30am-11am    Walk:     A stroll round Peebles with Gerard Bakker, looking at some of the interesting houses built as a result of the coming of the railway  

10.30am    Exhibition opens with displays and objects on the theme of:

• Horse and carriage
• Highways and byways
• Impact of the Railway
• Borders Family History Society
• Children’s colouring corner and “memory lane”    

11am – noon  Talk    Ron Glendinning shares his memories – and great photographs of being bought up on Peebles railway, in conversation with Ronald Ireland.

Noon – 1pm   Walk    Discover with Stuart Akers where visitors to Peebles by rail and road recovered from their journeys.

Noon – 1pm   Films    A series of short films about transport in Tweeddale, by Brian Whitnell, featuring local people, and exploring working horses and the people who look after them - then and now.

1.15pm – 2pm   Talk    Mud, mayhem and merriment: Three Victorian Peebles’ residents talk about the changes brought about by  the momentous developments in transport  in 1864– not all of them desirable!
   
2.15pm – 3.15pm   Talk    Who were Scotland’s own “cowboys”?  Drovers passed through Peebles on the long journey south across the hills. Was it the ‘wild west’ out there? Where can you find their paths? Ronnie Watt tells their amazing story.

3.15pm – 5pm   Walk    Take to the hills with Francis Mordaunt and Ronnie Watt - in the footsteps of the Drovers.

3.15pm – 4pm    Films   A series of short films about transport in Tweeddale, by Brian Whitnell, featuring local people, and exploring working horses and the people who look after them - then and now.        

4pm    Exhibition closes

Outside the hall

• See horseshoes made and Ross Philips, a farrier, at work
• Get up close to a Vintage Tractor
• Go back in time with the Tweeddale Travel Timeline

Was there a Red Cross Volunteer in Your Family ?

The Red Cross have now made their World War I collection of records partly available with an index of World War I volunteers.

At the outbreak of war in 1914, the Red Cross formed a Joint War Committee with the Order of St John, raised funds, organised volunteers and paid staff to provide equipment and services in the UK and the theatres of war. Everyone was trained in first aid, some trained in nursing, cookery, hygiene and sanitation.

Most of the women became nurses, initially in hospitals in Britain, but as the casualties mounted, more were sent overseas to casualty stations on or near the battlefield or to hospitals. Many people offered their houses as convalescent homes for the wounded or as auxiliary hospitals; some town halls and primary schools were used too.

There were over 3,000 auxiliary hospitals across the UK. They were staffed by a commandant, a quartermaster, a matron, a cook and nurses. Local GPs often volunteered for work in the hospitals in addition to their ordinary work. The nurses were all volunteers, often they were too young or old or had family commitments to serve full-time. Male volunteers usually drove or accompanied the ill or wounded to and from hospitals, many acted as stretcher-bearers, a lot were sent to France as ambulance drivers, some being wounded in enemy action.

Volunteers also collected clothing and books for soldiers in hospitals, raised funds, made bandages and splints, acted as cooks, store-keepers, worked in the offices and just as importantly, provided food and cigarettes to soldiers arriving by ambulance train. One of my great-aunts married a soldier she met on such duty.

A lot of people were displaced by the war, in 1915, volunteers started visiting hospitals looking for people who had been recorded as missing; work that the Red Cross is still involved in. By the end of the war in 1918, 90,000 volunteers had worked in the UK or abroad. There were lots of famous volunteers including Agatha Christie and Vera Brittain, perhaps some of your family were volunteers.

To find out, use the index of World War I Red Cross volunteers..

You can search by forename, surname, location or hospital or role. The initial search takes you to a search results page that shows name, county, date of engagement, age when engaged. Clicking on the name takes you to a detailed page about that person.

The information provided comes from record cards and may include name, address, age, character, service dates, hospital, rank, pay, duties, commission, honours awarded. Pictures of the cards are also included. Annoyingly, first names weren’t always recorded, some just gave initials.

Free DNA Tests for Men Named Riddell

A lady in New Zealand named Gail Riddell and an apparently unrelated Jim Riddell in America are joint administrators for the Riddell/Riddle/Ridley/Ruddell DNA project with an American based firm called FamilyTree DNA. .

Gail's family were mostly from the Roxburghshire area but were also in Berwickshire and Lanarkshire (not to mention all through the Lothian area), depending on the lands they purchased/versus where their money was "made". Jim's forebears were from Lanarkshire in the late 16th Century and are thought to have left at the time of the Covenanters.

Gail wrote "I have many men from New Zealand, Australia, USA, one from South Africa and a few from UK who have been excited by what they have learned as a result of testing their Y-Chromosome.  They have worked hard in order to raise sufficient funds for me to be able to offer totally free, a number of  Y-37 tests for any man living in Northumberland, the Scottish Borders, Yorkshire or lowland Scotland who has this surname and who has a family tree of his paternal ancestry back to around 1800 or earlier.

The bottom line is to extend and "prove" our genealogy in a way that paper trails have been unable.  By that, I mean if we go back into history, especially the 1600s (as an example) and look at the deaths, followed by pestilence, followed by famines and we soon begin to realise that not everyone who bears a particular surname is actually of that stock.  I say this because many young women with wee ones to feed were made widows and frequently joined up with a "protector" who thus gave his name to those
wee ones.

For those who are anxious about DNA testing - the medical genes are not considered in the test that I am offering as a "freebie".  The test itself needs just two separate cheek swabs.  "

If you're a Riddle (whatever the spelling), and you've got a family tree on the paternal side back to 1800, and you would be willing to take the test, please contact Gail at the email address below.

If you would like to know more about DNA, see www.familytreedna.com. 

If you want help building your family tree come to our archive at 52 Overhaugh St, Galashiels, TD1 1DP. We're open every Monday from 6pm to 8pm, and every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10am to 4pm.