The Year Was - 1745

Scotland was in a wee bit of an upheaval in 1745. Bonnie Prince Charlie had arrived to lay claim to the throne and the Jacobite Rising started. My ancestor Frances Pierre (or Pirie) arrived into the world during all of this tumult through Scotland and much of England.  I wonder if the Pirie family were pro or anti Charles?
The family lived in Newtyle Parish, a few miles north of Dundee, and had done so for many a year. Dundee itself, was heavily garrisoned by the Jacobites in late October of 1745.
Eventually the Pirie family moved to Dundee by way of Lundie, Auchterhouse, Backmuir and Liff .
This is one of my families that spelled their surname in a variety of ways, even amongst the siblings e.g. Pourie, Pierry, Pierre, Pyrie, Piery, Perry, and Pirie. The surname, seemingly, is of early medieval English origin and means "someone who owned or lived near a pear tree." Somewhere I also have information that the name originated in France.

I wish I could say I know lots about Frances, but I don't and I only know little bits about the straight line family I am descended from until it gets to my great great grandparents generation :)

Some other events
"God Save The King" sung for the first time in public.
Jacobite Rising which led to the Disarming Act of 1746 that prohibited the wearing of the kilt and the playing of bagpipes (till 1782).
Court of Session Act, Scotland
Highland Peasant Uprising
Jacques Duval performs first cataract surgery, France
Cattle plague - Gloucestershire
Battle of Prestonpans
First recorded ladies cricket match takes place near Guilford, Surrey
Skirmish of Clifton Moor (last land battle on English soil)
Treaty of Dresden
1st Carillon Bells in America shipped to Boston from England
Yoshimune Tokugausa - shogun of Japan resigns
Battle of Fontenoy
Schonbrunn Palace chapel is concecrated


Some famous births
Henry James Pye - poet
Johan Peter Frank - Entomologist and physician

Some famous deaths
Robert Walpole - first PM of Britain
Tomass Antonio Vitali - violinist and composer
Jonathan Swift - writer

We are about half way through our trip to Scotland. Even with the funky weather we have managed to get about a bit and enjoyed seeing lots of historical sites. Tomorrow we are planning on going back to Glasgow to visit Kelvinside. Hopefully this time round we won't get caught in any type of weather that cancelled all trains last week (we got 'home' on a bus).
So it appears that Scottish regional libraries are none too happy that they are not being given copies of the new 1911 census records. It has the potential to make it somewhat inconvenient for those people visiting, or living in, very specific areas if they do not have access on-line to ScotlandsPeople or physically to Edinburgh. I for one, did a huge amount of research at Stirling Cental Library the last few times I visited.

The Year Was - 1687

I have one uncle and occasionaly I do research on his family. One of his lines is the Gatherum family from Fife, which has a goodly number of people researching them. Janet Morgan married John Gatherum. Her grandfather was John Auchterlonie who was born 29 January 1687 in Ceres, Fife.

Auchterlonie is an unusual surname, and Othirlonay in Forfar is credited with being the geographical origin of the name. A variation of the name was first recorded in the early 13th century - 1226 John de Othirlony - "Land Charters of Forfar." Lonie is the more common modern version of the surname.

Census records
1841 - 22
1851 - 86
1861 - 104
1871 - 135
1881 - 189
1891 - 272
1901 - 304
1911 - 261

Births 1855-2009 = 907
marriages 1855-2009 = 317
deaths 1855-2009 = 823
OPR's births & christening 1538-1854 = 207
OPR's banns & marriages 1538-1854 = 139
OPR's death & burials 1538-1854 = 83
Catholic births & baptisms 1703-1992 = 2
wills & testaments 1513-1901 = 30

The village of Ceres is not far from where I was born and is currently home to The Fife Folk Museum. The men of the village were involved in the Battle of Bannockburn (1314). The village itself was built some time in the 12th century and was built round a village green (which was a rarity in Scotland).

Some world events
The Sedan Chair is introduced as public "for hire"in Edinburgh.
Scottish Declaration of Toleration (The Declaration of Liberty of Conscience)  - Moderate Presbyterians allowed to worship in private homes, Quakers allowed to worship anywhere and Catholics allowed to hold public office.
The St. Andrew Jewel made for James VII and II. It was completed in 1688.
Isaac Newton publishes "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica"
First South African vineyards established
The Parthenon in Athens is severely damaged by mortar attack. Gunpowder was being stored in the building.

Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is founded "wha daur meddle wi me'"
Guillame Amontons invents a hygrometer
Tulleys Almanac first publication

Famous births
Robert Simson - Scottish mathematician
William Stukeley - one of the founders of modern archaeology

Famous deaths
Jean-Baptiste Lully - composer
George Villiers - 2nd Duke of Buckingham
Henry More - English philosopher
Geminiano Montanari - astronomer
Nell Gwynn - mistress to Charles II
William Petty - scientist
Constantijn Huygens

The Year Was -1770

Way back when ............ David Lyon was born. Not exactly a direct ancestor. He was grandfather to my g-g- aunt's husband. Like many people of his time he was a weaver (often an "at home" occupation.)
David was born at Kirkton of Panbride, a parish near Dundee. The village of Panbride was not formed until about 1800. The parish, historically, has a connection with St. Bridget of Ireland. At the north end of the parish stood Panmure House (now demolished) nicknamed "the big hoose" by the locals.

Geographically the area is situated near the the mouth of the Firth, and way back in time was completely submerged.
At some point David and his family moved to Dundee. Any census records show him at Todsburn Entry, Wellgate with his wife, Ann (who hailed from Aberdeenshire). All of their children were born in Dundee.
It appears that a number of the inhabitants in the area of Todsburn were a mighty feisty bunch, probably because of their business usage of the burn - the miller and the brewer, in particular, had issue with each other.
During the time that David and his family lived in Dundee there was a number of Cholera and Typhus outbreaks due to sanitation, or lack thereof, issues.

1770 some world events
Marie Antoinette marries Louise-Auguste (Louis XVI)
James Cook discovers New Holland (Australia)
Boston Massacre
Townsend Acts repealed
Battle of Cesme
The toothbrush was invented in the 1770's :)
first Orange Lodges created
St. Andrew Square Garden (Edinburgh) created
Scottish explorer James Bruce finds the Tissisat Falls and the source of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia
Bubonic Plague starts in Russia
Falkland Crisis
Lexell's Comet passes by
British Linen Company switches to banking
The first eraser, made from rubber, is created
Famine in Bengal - about 10 million died

Some famous births
William Wordsworth - poet
Frederick William III of Prussia
Ludwig von Beethoven - composer
George Canning - British PM
Johann Friedrich Schubert

Some famous deaths
James Stirling - Scottish mathematician
George Grenville - PM of Britain

Something to think about - cemetery/burial records

A lot of people get aggravated trying to locate cemetery/burial records for their ancestors. If you fall into that category - that would be me - take a wider look at what epidemics, plagues, severe illnesses were going on at the time your "missing" ancestor was buried.
Many plague victims were deposited, sometimes in large groups, in special areas away from the main burial sites.
If you are lucky there might be some kind of record in existence even though there might not be a tomb stone.

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 :)