The Year Was -1828

Sturrock Arthur - I love that name and it shows up in various forms amongst his descendants. He was born in 1828 near Tealing in Forfarshire. He was known as "Stroke" and as far as we can tell only two of his children lived into adulthood. His daughter Mary married William Lindsay and her brother Thomas married Wilhelmina Gunn. Thomas descendants live on this side of the "big puddle" just a few states away from me and are actively researching "their" side of the Arthur family :)
There were 5 other siblings, 4 of whom definitely died as babies (Charlotte, Arthur, James and Robert). William is still unaccounted for and I'm thinking I'll put him on my list of family to research on my trip to Scotland.
"Stroke" was my great-great-grandfather. He and his family moved around the Dundee area and show up in a different home on each census record. He was a Calenderer by profession, which means he operated machinery (calender) that used two large rollers or plates, to press and finish fabric. Later in life he was a Cloth Packer.
He died in 1907 just a few months short of his 80th birthday from "Senile Degeneration" i.e. old age. He outlived his slightly younger wife by 16 years.

So what was going on in the world in 1828?
1828 was a Leap Year
Bubonic Plague
Duke of Wellington becomes Prime Minister of Britain
New Corn Law in Britain
"Websters Dictionary" published
"Birds In America" vol 1 by J.J. Audoban published
Lord William Cavendish Bentinck becomes Governor-General of India
Casparus van Wooden patents chocolate milk powder
Rene Caillie is first non-Muslim to enter Tombouctou (Timbukto)
Russia declares war on Turkey
Zoological Gardens open at Regent's Park, London
Circuit Courts (Scotland) Act
Kaspar Hauser found wandering in Nuremberg
St. Catherine's dock opens in London
Andrew Jackson elected 7th president of USA
6.8 earthquake strikes Japan
"The Fair Maid of Perth" and "Tales of a Grandfather" by Sir Walter Scott published
J.B. Neilson invents the hot-blast furnace
Maitland Club founded
Burke & Hare murders in Edinburgh
"Dedham Vale" by John Constable
Glasgow Asylum for the Blind built

Some famous births
Jules Verne
William Randal Cremer - politician & pacifist
Margaret Oliphant - writer
Jean Henri Dunant - founder of Red Cross
Dante Gabriel Rossetti - painter
Nikolai Chernyshevsky - Russian philosopher
Giovanni Rossi - composer
Leo Tolstoy - writer
Henrik Ibsen -
Josephine Butler
Joseph Wilson Swan - physicist and inventor of incandescent light bulb
John Rhind - sculptor

Some famous deaths
Francisco Goya - artist
Shaka - founder of Zulu Kingdom
Dugald Stewart - Scottish philosopher
Rachel Jackson - wife of 7th US PresidentAndrew Jackson
Sophie Maria of Russia (wife of Tsar Paul I)
Carl Peter Thunberg- Swedish naturalist
Hongi Hika - New Zealand Maori chief
Gilbert Charles Stuart - portraitist
Franz Schubert - composer
William Thornton - designer of US State Capitol

I mentioned earlier in this post that the "other" Arthur's have been working on their genealogy. Thomas and his family originally settled in Omaha, Nebraska and there is a nice index site available for marriages
http://omahamarriages.wordpress.com/
There's also an index site for obituaries http://omahaobits.wordpress.com/
I found some information at both sites :)