William Douglas's Blog (36)

I have just added a little widget to My Page. Getting things to work on the Ning platform, which this website is built on, can be problematic, so I was pleased to discover that Sprout's presentation building site works here. Continue

Writing in his blog, Genealogy's Star, James Tanner argues the point that hitting the 'Backup' button on Personal Ancestral File (PAF) does not really solve the problem of providing a secure second copy of the PAF file, as, if the hard drive goes, both the main and the backup files are lost.



I suppose he is not wrong, but is he… Continue

A man has left about £220,000 in his will to towns across the world which share his Douglas surname.



Solicitors acting on behalf of Eric Gordon Douglas, from Edinburgh, have sent a cheque for £10,887.73 to Douglas Borough Council on the Isle of Man as part of the bequest.



But the council for the island's capital has appealed for more information on Mr Douglas in order to recognise his donation.



Council leader David Christian said: "There was around £220,000 left… Continue

Nikki Mackay, who lives in the next village, author of The Science of Family: Working with Ancestral Patterns

says you can blame your ancestors if you end up in doomed relationships, drink too much or generally just behave badly! Apparently, the events of previous generations can have far-reaching implications… Continue

I have just read the Genwise newsletter, and find one of my frustrations is built into the Genwise system.

If I were to record an ancestor as being born, living or dieing in DG, would you know where i meant? It is an abbreviation for Dumfries and Galloway. But I would not expect Americans to know that.

Yet, we non-Americans are expected to know your state abbreviations!

Come on, guys, stop being lazy!

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.



A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and… Continue

I was prompted by a post in the Legacy Users group to check my database for duplicate and inconsistent entries.



I have collected and collated individual contributions, downloaded GEDCOMs and pulled in family trees from a variety of sources. And they are all different! Or so it seems.



How many different ways are there to enter Arlington Cemetery? Or to spell Massachusetts? (I had to spell check it, so I hope it is right?)



However, the thing that surprised me most… Continue

I have been working on the Douglases of Brigton, and their connection with Dudhope Castle. As I was writing up the ancestry and history, I did not know that there is an opportunity to buy the Barony of Dudhope!



But checking on some amendments on peerage.com, I went back to my research and found that The Lordship and Barony of Dudhope are being offered for sale at a cool £75,000.



Any takers?



Further details can… Continue

A wealth of information about Scotland's past is now freely available through an online resource developed for the use of pupils, teachers and those seeking to put their Scottish ancestors into an historical context.



Scotland's History Online covers a range of subjects, from prehistoric through to 21st Century Scotland. With more than 200 topics that include links to over 1,000 other online sources and a… Continue

The following article is reprinted from "Facts & Genes"



The ancestral country for your surname is England. Looking at a surname distribution map, based on the 1881 census, shows your surname present in every county except 2, and a concentration in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and London. The fact that the surname found in almost every county, plus the fact that there are over 17,000 persons with the surname in the 1881 census for England and Wales, indicates that this is a multiple… Continue

Does anyone know how to remove the Gifts thing from 'My Page'?

I have moved it to the bottom, where it is less intrusive, but I am concerned that any number of unwanted gizmos could be added without any say from the individuals on whose pages they are being placed.

It is not a nice development.

William

Just published on the Panalba website, is the speech made at the time of the Clan Gathering in Edinburgh on the role of the clan chief in modern times.



Donald MacLaren of MacLaren tells this story:



In his bid to unite Dalriada and Pictland, Kenneth MacAlpine invited all the Pictish princes and nobles with rival claims to the throne to a great meeting and banquet. Disarmed at the door, rather like us, they entered all… Continue

I have been working with others in an attempt to unravel some of the missing bits in the links between the Douglas and Willan families.



There are two major links:

Colonel Frank Willan married Louisa Marguerita Douglas, daughter of Captain Charles Robert George Douglas, late 32nd Bengal Light Infantry (Killed Dehli, 1847) and Louisa nee Robinson, both grandchildren of Major General Robert Douglas.

Thomas Willan, a stagecoach proprietor, left Twyford Abbey and estate to his… Continue

Source: Nebraska City News-Press, Nebraska City, Otoe Co., Nebraska, Tuesday, July 29, 2003



Joshua Goebel assembled volunteers from Boys Scouts Troop 246 Thursday to clear Otoe County’s pauper cemetery.



"Located on high ground at the edge of what once was the Otoe County Poor Farm, Goebel said a 1927 report indicated there were 30 graves there."



Amongst them were the graves of James and Mary (Molly) Douglas.



"After removing enough dead-wood to fill… Continue

Judy Wallman, a professional genealogy researcher in southern California , was doing some personal work on her own family tree. She discovered that Congressman Harry Reid's great-great uncle, Remus Reid, was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889. Both Judy and Harry Reid share this common ancestor.



The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows in Montana territory:

On the back… Continue

William Murray Gunn is making his claim to be recognised as Chief of Clan Gunn, one of Scotland's northernmost clans, with a bloodthirsty reputation that dates back centuries.

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Descended from the Vikings, and with lands that once encompassed Orkney, Caithness and Sutherland, Clan Gunn has survived into the 21st century despite having no chief for more than 200 years.



But now a 41-year-old former lorry driver has stepped forward to claim his right to be the new chieftain… Continue