FAN stands for Friends, Associates and Neighbours, and the principle of this technique is that researching the people who surrounded an ancestor may yield clues to their identity when direct documentary evidence is lacking. I recently had a go at applying it to my elusive great great grandfather, William Clark [see Brick Wall] to see if… Continue reading FAN Club
Tag: Scotland
Reunion
My paternal grandmother’s sister, Mary Hay Clark, was born in Peterhead on 25 July 1878 and was just 12 years old when their mother, Barbara McDonald, died in 1891. In an earlier post [see Migration] I hinted that a cousin, Christina Hardy, had an important role to play in the life of one of my… Continue reading Reunion
Language
There is not a single person amongst my direct ancestors who was born outside of the UK, so the short answer to “what language did they speak ?” is pretty simple: English ! The exception to this may be those who were born in Aberdeenshire in the 18th and 19th centuries, although even here it is hard… Continue reading Language
Brick Wall
The dreaded brick wall occurs when, despite much research effort over several years, the origins of an ancestor remain a mystery. In my own case, I’ve been pretty lucky as I’ve been able to trace most lines in my tree back as far as records allow, but there is one notable exception: my great great… Continue reading Brick Wall
Siblings
I have mentioned my paternal grandmother’s eleven siblings several times now, so I think it is time to introduce them. To recap: they are the children of John Clark and Barbara Ann McDonald, and all of them were born in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire apart from my grandmother, Flora, who was born in Maryhill. Although John and… Continue reading Siblings
Migration
Given the long history of Scottish migration, it is not surprising that the Aberdeenshire branch of my tree includes several of the estimated two million Scots who sought a new life elsewhere in the 19th century. The harrowing narrative of forced moves following the Highland Clearances in the 18th and 19th centuries is well known, but my ancestors… Continue reading Migration
Nickname
My great grandfather’s name was recorded as John Cox Clark when his son, Thomas, registered his death in 1912, which puzzled me as Cox is not a family name and it doesn’t appear in any other records. I think it was probably a tee-name, or nickname, traditionally used by the coastal communities of Aberdeenshire to… Continue reading Nickname
In the Beginning
In 2001, my father read a newspaper article that announced the publication of the 1901 Scotland census online, and he asked me to see if I could find the family of his mother, Flora Clark. She had died when he was a small child and he knew almost nothing about her beyond the information recorded in… Continue reading In the Beginning
Sleuthing Notes 