THOUGHTS ON…
Ilove winter. It means I’m in cosy full throttle family history, I’m back with my husband’s Scottish ancestors, exploring Scotland’s Places*. It probably shouldn’t be, but it’s new to me, a website on which I shall now spend many hours, deciphering original documents and exercising that almost forgotten skill – searching without an index! I love explorations like these because apart from insights into your area of research, you often you find someone or something for which you never thought of looking.
I’m disappointed three generations of John Donaldsons in Bathgate, West Lothian, didn’t own a dog, or not one they paid tax on. I bet at least one of them had a pup they didn’t declare, somewhere about the premises. It’s a relief to find James Donaldson had two hearths though. He would have needed them in those dour Scottish winters. I like to imagine a scruff of a collie lying on its back with its feet in the air in front of one of those cheery blazes whilst the family sewed and cut by candlelight, which, all tailors, they assuredly did.
DNA-wise, I don’t have a drop of Celtic blood in me, though my surname by marriage is 100% Scottish and my husband’s lineage means I can legitimately wear 29 different tartans should I be so inclined (not all at once.) Plus he could play rugby for Scotland – if only he were young and fit and talented. I know there are no laws about tartan, but having decided to marry a Scot, when I was aged 12 and in love with Rob Roy McGregor, I think I can be forgiven for being proud of that bit of trivia.