Scottish Miners

There's a long tradition of mining in Scotland. Dangerous and labor intensive work. A number of my ancestors were miners so when I found http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/ I was happy to see a decent site related to the subject.
Early miners, and their families, were "bound" to the colliery and owner by an Act of Parliament set in 1606. This basically meant a miner could not move from one colliery to another without written consent from his "master". If he did try he could be reclaimed within a year and a day.
Owners of mines could also apprehend those they considered to be beggars and vagabonds and put them to work in the mines.

Mining was not initially an underground profession. In it's formative years coal was quarried above ground and often near salt-pans. Often the whole family was involved in the mining process with the older members hewing the coal and the younger carrying it away in baskets.
Young children did not receive much in the way of formal education, usually being removed from school between the ages of 7-9.
There's an interactive museum, The Scottish Mining Museum, at Newtongrange near Edinburgh http://www.scottishminingmuseum.com/ which I've been told is an interesting place to visit. Look in the links section of the web site for lots of information and places to contact.
The largest collection of coal mining records can be found at http://www.nas.gov.uk/guides/coalmining.asp
The photograph is from "The Industries of Scotland Their Rise, Progress, and Present Conditions" by David Bremner (1869).

National Trust Names

So here's a fun activity.
Most people associate The National Trust with historical buildings and gardens but did you know you can name search?
http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/
Click on the link, search for a surname, pick the year and surname. What happens next? Try it and see. I loved it. Might be a fun page to add to my family history project.

One World One Heart Event - Magic Carpet Ride

There is a super worldwide event going on over at A Whimsical Bohemian and I have decided to join in. Starts today and runs through 15th February.
One World One Heart is the brainchild of Lisa Swifka who, in 2007, had the idea to host an event linking bloggers together. It has grown with each year and attracts a diverse group of people willing to share their talents and get to know each other.

Have you ever wanted to find out more about your ancestors but don't know how, or where, to start?
Let me help you with a gift of 10 HOURS OF ASSISTANCE.
I'll help you get started and show you some ways to organize your information.
You need a computer available to do this.

All you have to do is leave a comment for a drawing AT THIS POST ONLY with your e-mail address so I can contact you. The winner will be announced on 15th February.

Genealogy has taken me on my own "Magic Carpet Ride" over the years. I've found, and been found by, relatives in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, South Africa, England, Ireland, and other places round our wonderful planet. It's been a joy to interact with them and learn more of my heritage along the way. I recently met one of my New Zealand cousins when we were both in Scotland at the same time !!!!!! Fabulous experience.

So journey on over to http://awhimsicalbohemian.typepad.com/ and join in the fun. Then hop on your magic carpet and explore some wonderful sites.

Update - Hi all thanks for visiting. My entry is now closed. The winner will be announced on Monday afternoon.

Census 2010

Happy New Year and welcome to a new decade.
To kick things off it's time for another US census to happen. Short form.
13 "Portrait of America" buses started touring today (4th January) with information and will show up at events until April.
http://2010census.gov/2010census/index.php

Oh happy day.

I have been writing a history of "my" McEwans and mislaid my one and only paper copy (long story behind that statement involving two computer crashes). It travelled to and from Britain with me earlier this year then disappeared once we got home. It showed up on Christmas Eve while I was looking for something else. Today I will make another copy and take a few days to type it into my laptop. Mmmm, given the number of pages, weeks might be a better goal :)

Winter Wonderland courtesy of Planet Earth

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas filled with joy and celebration.

Remembering family members

Here's a good example of writing about a family member. http://thatchwick.blogspot.com/2009/11/friday-13-november-aunty-helen.html

Writing about family traditions

Don't know what it is about November/December timeframe but it gets me thinking about family traditions.  For many people writing about Christmas traditions is a relatively safe way to get started on family history. There was a long period of time where I was not entirely sure if I actually had any "traditions" but after a bit of thinking and jotting down ideas some common threads started to appear.
My childhood and adult Christmas traditions are very different to each other mainly because of living on two separate continents in two separate cultures. Commonalities are spending time with family, decorating Christmas trees and singing Christmas Carols.
Childhood - the tiny tree was decorated on Christmas Eve by mum. One or other or both of my parents would wrap the presents, put them in pillow cases and lay them out on the sofa. The door to the living room was locked. Sometimes we would go to a Christmas Eve Carol Service. Christmas morning we were expected to get up, have breakfast then line up outside the door whereupon dad would unlock the door with great ceremony and we would troop in. (I think my grandma thought this was a bit silly but she played along.) After opening gifts and playing for a while dad would disappear into the kitchen and make dinner. Dinner was served at two and we would listen to the Queen's Christmas Broadcast then Top of The Pops (quite a contrast). Next day (Boxing Day) we would sometimes visit relatives or they would come to us.
So as you head into this festive season take a moment to write a story down. It does not have to be complicated or long. Just something to get you started.

A Clan Map

Scotland is famous for it's clans and often non-natives have a romanticized view of what they are. Learning about clan history in school was not one of my favorite moments because I was not fond of the "blood and guts" aspect of it all. Having said that here's an interesting article http://www.scotclans.com/scottish_history/articles/clan_system.html

Images of Scotland

I went blog hopping yesterday and have decided to add a new section to my sidebar. The links will take me/you to blogs that highlight Scotland in images and some of them also give information that would be useful for writing family histories. Some will be there just because I like them :)

Using YouTube for family research

I bet YouTube is not a source many people automatically think about but there's a lot of interesting information there. When you write a family history it is always good to set your ancestors in context. This means researching the area they came from. Here's a very interesting example about the history of Edinburgh that would be a great start off for further research.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkjEzYaP9Sk "Birth of a City."
Some of my direct ancestors lived in Edinburgh and even though I grew up in Scotland, loved history in school and lived in Edinburgh myself I still learned a lot from this video.

Armistice Day

Today we remember and reflect, give thanks for the freedoms we have gained through the sacrifices of others and pray we never have to endure what they endured.

We should also show appreciation to and for those who are currently fighting and are away from their loved ones.
The photographs show some of my relatives who fought during WWI and lived through a number of experiences.
Horseback - Patrick Lindsay (my grandfather)
Pyramids - (my great uncle) David McEwan (back row)ANZACS
Standing portrait - John Hall (my grandfather)
Two of my McEwan great uncles died at Gaba Tepe, Gallipoli (1915) and Albert, France (1916).