William Robertson c.1870, from Malcolm Robertson’s family collection, below: William’s writing desk/box
For years I have been trying to find out what life must have been like for my great-great-great-grandfather, William Robertson, and his siblings in the Scottish highlands in the region around Loch Alvie before they emigrated to Tasmania in 1822. I can find plenty of information about the Roberson clan dating back centuries, but finding out about these particular Robertsons, where they lived, what their circumstances were in the difficult post-Culloden era, who owned their land and where (indeed if) they went to school was proving much harder to find.
That was until your two-part story written by Dr David Taylor, ‘The Robertsons of Alvie’, landed in my lap (History Scotland Jan/Feb and Mar/Apr 2019). Suddenly all was revealed. But more than revealed. The articles were riveting, personal and compelling. I could feel their hardship, relate to their difficult decision about leaving Scotland forever, the possibility of never returning, and the uncertainty of what awaited them on the far side of the world.