Thursday, October 27, 2011

Minto Monumental Inscriptions


Minto Monumental Inscriptions is the 24th volume of Roxburghshire Monumental Inscriptions to be published by us.

The parish of Minto lies to the north of the River Teviot and to the east of Hawick, surrounded by the parishes of Lilliesleaf to the north, Ancrum to the east, Cavers to the south and Wilton to the west. Part of the old parish of Hassendean was transferred to Minto in the 17th century.

Monumental (gravestone) inscriptions are listed for the 249 of the 257 gravestones at the Parish Church, together with those in the old churchyard which were recorded by the Hawick Archaeological Society.

There are 257 gravestones listed in the volume with colour photographs of all.
Names of householders listed in the Hearth Tax of 1694 are included, together with the Militia Lists of 1813 and 1831, which show an interesting mix of occupations within the parish, reflecting the demands of a rural community and an estate.
There are lists of ministers of Hassendean and Minto, and photographs of Minto War Memorial together with the inscriptions.
Surnames, place names and occupations have been indexed and there are plans of both churchyards showing the location of the stones.

The surnames included are:
Ainslie, Aitchison, Aitken, Aitkin, Anderson, Armstrong, Bain, Ballantine, Barbour, Baring, Bayne, Beattie, Bell, Berry, Biggar, Black, Blackie, Blaikie, Blair, Blake, Blythe, Boa, Borthwick, Brack, Briggs, Brokie, Brown, Brunton, Brydon, Buchan, Budgen, Buglass, Bunyan, Burn, Burnet, Burton, Cairns, Campbell, Caskie, Clark, Cockburn, Cook, Cowe, Craig, Cranston, Crawford, Crichton, Dalgleish, Davidson, Davies, Dawson, Deans, Derham, Dickinson, Dickson, Dilnot, Dobson, Dods, Doherty, Donald, Donaldson, Douglas, Drawhill, Dryden, Duguid, Earle, Easton, Eliot, Elliot, Ewart, Fairbairn, Fergusson, Forsyth, Frame, Gage, Galbraith, Galloway, Gardner, Garnet, Gault, Gibson, Glen, Gotterson, Graham, Gray, Greive, Grey, Grieve, Hall, Halliday, Hanbury, Harvey, Heatlie, Helm, Henderson, Hendry, Herkes, Hill, Hislop, Hobbs, Hogg, Hope, Houd, Hughes, Hume, Hymers, Inglis, Irvine, Jackson, Jardine, Jeffrey, Jewell, Kennedy, Ker, Kerr, Kirkland, Korkis, Lambert, Lambie, Landell, Lang, Lariston, Larner, Lascalles, Lawrie, Lawson, Lillico, Livingstone, Logan, Lowrie, Luke, Macdonald, Mack, Mackie, Mackintosh, Mader, Magson, Matthe, Mauchlen, Maxwell, Mcculloch, Mckenzie, Mckerrow, Mclean, Mcvittie, Melrose, Merchant, Middlemiss, Miller, Minto, Montagu-Douglas-Scott, Montgomery, Murray, Naismith, Newington, Nichol, Norman, Notman, Oliver, Olszowka, Pages, Paterson, Patterson, Peden, Plenderleith, Pollock, Purdie, Ramage, Rennie, Renwick, Rich, Ritchie, Ritson, Robertson, Robson, Romanes, Ross, Routledge, Rutherford, Sanderson, Scott, Selby, Shakespeare, Shanks, Sharp, Shiel, Simson, Skeugh, Smail, Smaill, Smith, Somerville, Spiers, Spindie, Sprott, Steel, Steele, Stenhouse, Stewart, Stirling, Stopford, Strachan, Tait, Taylor, Telfer, Temple, Thomson, Troops, Trotter, Turnbul, Turnbull, Tweedie, Waddell, Wale, Wallis, Ward, Watson, Whitaker, White, Whitelaw, Williamson, Wilson, Witherington, Wood, Wyllie, Young.

Search for surnames in which you're interested in our Gravestones Index Search.

The CD is priced at £7 (plus postage). To buy a copy, please contact Mary Thomson on the Contacts page using the contact type 'Order for Publications'.

Our thanks to all Society members, and friends who assisted in the recording and transcribing.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

October 2011 Issue of Borders Family History Society Magazine


The latest issue of our 44 page magazine was despatched to members on 21st October.
I understand that due to the labour dispute at Canada Post, there is a backlog of mail, so Canadian members may experience additional delays before receiving their October 2011 magazine.

This issue contains articles about
  • the successful tracing of the family of a relative of an American lady's late husband, a John Robert Grant who had been born in Galashiels in 1885, and transferring personal papers and photographs to the family
  • the Stewarts of Kelso
  • a family bible reunited with the family of the original owner, who wrote in it in 1812
  • the cholera epidemic of 1849
  • rules of intestate succession
  • the first part of the talk 'Granny’s Bawbees' about Scottish coinage that I gave on 29th May (including 4 colour illustrations of Scottish and British coins)
  • reviews of 4 books
  • this summer's work on transcribing gravestones
The cover shows part of the old ruined church and graveyard at Stow.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

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'.