Janealogy - Scottish family history research

22/07/2025

This is something I’ve been involved in over the last months. My father was a Crockness boy. The collaboration with Orkney Museum has been very worthwhile.

05/06/2025

Haven't written a blog for a long time, until today. It's a bit long but it needed to be written. Hope you can follow.
https://janealogy.co.uk/blog/father-and-three-sons-lost-at-sea/

Family information said Walter Ross and his three sons, from North Walls, Orkney, were all lost at sea but was this really the case?

15/04/2025

Thinking about “doing” the NC500? Forget it. You don’t “do” a living community, it’s not a Disneyland-like theme park or a tickbox exercise.
But do come and explore the north of Scotland courteously. So much to see, history, nature and living places to enjoy. The train is a great starting point - I really recommend a trip on the line north from Inverness. This page has lots of ideas for a start : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573792583684&mibextid=wwXIfr

The Far North Line Community Rail Partnership works with local communities to promote our rail service and other integrated transport modes, encouraging sustainable tourism, developing community cohesion and advancing economic development.

31/12/2024

Happy New Year for 2025.
Though I'm not really doing client work any longer, family history is still a passion. After about two weeks with little or no research I've had a very enjoyable afternoon sorting photos donated to St John's Kirk - Walls Heritage (Orkney) where I'm a trustee. Really exciting, I think I've found my great-grandmother Helen Wilson (1853-1938) in one of them as a guest at a wedding! She's the elderly woman with the hat in the photo below, with her daughter Johannah, grand-daughters Nelly and Edith, and two great-grandchildren Albert and Delphine.

08/11/2024

Looking for an online genealogy community? Desperate to leave/have left the former Twitter? I'd try Bluesky. Signed up at the end of last week, it's very like Twitter used to be in format. Over the last days a LOT of genealogy and related people have joined so the content is starting to have a real buzz and community feel. It would be great to see more societies, organisations etc there too eg Orkney Library & Archive Orkney Family History Society Association of Professional Genealogists ScotWays Scottish Indexes But I appreciate that it can take a while to get agreement to move platforms. Here's hoping...

Social media as it should be. Find your community among millions of users, unleash your creativity, and have some fun again.

17/09/2024

Booked for this. Looks really interesting even if you have no Shetland ancestry (I have a x3 great grandmother, Clement(ina) Johnston). Book now!

The conference will start at 4 pm British Summer Time. After we have watched all the presentations, a Q&A with the speakers will be held.

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5317242274361/WN_c52oP3GOQ-StVsPNwlg7ZA

Here are the UK times:

4:00 pm - Introduction and welcome by Susan Cooper and Alan Beattie

4:08 pm - ‘How To Get The Most From Your Local Newspapers Online’ by Rose Staveley-Wadham, Findmypast

4:45 pm - 'The Shetland dialect through Poetry' by Mary Blance and Laureen Johnson

5:40 pm - 'Honouring ‘Shetland Heroes’ WWI memorials' by Linda Riddell

6:20 pm - 'Spinsters, Widows and Wives: Telling the Stories of Shetland’s Women' by Karen Inkster Vance

7:10 pm - 'Introduction to the Shetland Archives' by Mark Smith

7:50 pm - Q&A

06/08/2024

Very good news!

We have an announcement

We are very pleased to say that our Archive Catalogue is now online. For the first time you can now explore all our collection descriptions at home.

https://www.orkney.gov.uk/latest-news/access-to-orkney-s-rich-heritage-easier-than-ever-as-museum-and-archive-services-launch-online-catalogue/?fbclid=IwY2xjawEe529leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYIpF2IcKHNPxGq3ur1N0Cwzq12w7M5ddVYS16usfggJeMTDTmQ48TymlQ_aem_YQTo64s2nt4xnvzhIPHmIA

13/06/2024

28/03/2024

It's "I can't believe anyone called a child that!" time again as the National Records of Scotland publishes the list of babies' first names in 2023. Isla and Luca are the top two. Jane was 1512=, with only one girl given that first name! Three Anne , 749=, so my sister will be happy! Eight Paisley, hope none has the surname Pattern. On the boys' side, one Pippin but no Tog (you need to be a certain age to get that), John down at 101= (52 instances) and there is one Demigod.
Full list and all the gory details here

Last update: 28 March 2024 Next update: TBC Frequency: Annual The most popular first names given to babies whose births were registered in Scotland in 2023 (publication formerly known as Popular Forenames). Main Points Isla was the most popular first forename for girls whose births were registered i...

08/03/2024

Here’s a strong peedie wife fur

Violet Sclater (1898-1991), one of my beloved "aunties o Kebro". At under five feet, she packed a lot of power. My 52 ancestors challenge Strong Woman.

06/03/2024

A history of the Dingwall to Poolewe road, from east Ross-shire to the west. Huge effort.

From the written evidence of secondary sources and maps on the maps.nls and Scotlandspeople websites by Meryl Marshall Background In the years before the 18th Century the Highlands were regarded as…

14/02/2024

Do read the whole story of Màiri Mhòr.

HCA/D1734/1/1/37 Invitation to the 7:84 Theatre Company production of “Màiri Mhòr – the Woman from Skye”, c.1987-1989

7:84 was a Scottish left-wing agitprop theatre group. The name comes from a statistic on distribution of wealth in the United Kingdom, published in The Economist in 1966; that 7% of the population of the UK owned 84% of the country's wealth. With a socialist perspective and theme throughout most of their productions, it’s no surprise that they performed a play on the life of Màiri Mhòr.

Mary MacPherson (née MacDonald), known as Màiri Mhòr nan Òran/ Big Mary of the Songs (10 March 1821 – 7 November 1898), was a Scottish Gaelic poet from the Isle of Skye, whose contribution to Scottish Gaelic literature focused heavily upon the Highland Clearances and the Crofters’ War. She led a remarkable life and is still today regarded within the Gaelic community as one of the most influential and significant poets and song makers.

After raising 5 children and on the death of her husband she worked as a domestic servant for the family of a British army officer who accused her of stealing his recently deceased wife’s clothes. Backed by some prominent legal and political figures in Inverness, she protested her innocence for the rest of her life and was almost universally believed by the Gaelic speaking community. She was nevertheless sentenced to 40 days in prison, an experience which she claimed saw her endure humiliation but which also brought her muse to life. On release, and aged 50, she went on to learn to read and write in English and qualified with a nursing certificate and diploma in obstetrics from Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Her continued passion for land rights and social justice provided the themes of some of her best known songs and she is known to have been present at Highland Land League meetings and to have been actively involved with campaigners such as Alexander Mackenzie and her friend Fraser-Mackintosh in the run up to the Napier Commission of 1883-4 and the Crofters Act of 1886.

Màiri died in Skye in 1898 and is buried next to her husband in Chapel Yard Cemetery, Inverness.