Family Tree Relationship Chart

One of most common issues in genealogy is to understand the relationship between two people in a family. We’re all familiar with the relationship between our direct line ancestor and ourselves, but the other branches can get a little tangled. For example, most people are familiar with the concept of a sibling (brother or sister) […]

Getting comfortable with Gaelic’s indigenous side – a few things to consider

Some of the advantages that accompany engagement with one’s Gaelic heritage are the wonderful and useful bits of relevance that a Gaelic past brings to modern life. That’s right. Lessons learned from a Gaelic perspective can be productively relevant to difficult problems we face today. Consider the following: Gaelic tradition introduces community oriented and inclusive perspective in an increasingly exclusive and inward looking […]

Francis Alexander Mackinnon, 35th Chief — A Hat-Trick Victim in his Only Test

Francis Alexander Mackinnon, born April 9, 1848, was the 35th chieftain of the Mackinnon Clan and a Test cricketer for England. Arunabha Sengupta remembers the life and career of the man who was the second batsman to be dismissed during Test cricket’s first hat-trick. This article was originally written for The Cricket Country, and has […]

Tartan Day Celebrated Around the World

Celebrated annually around the world, April 6 is recognised as an international celebration of Scottish heritage and ancestry. Known as Tartan Day, the celebration marks the anniversary of the 1320 signing of the Declaration of Arbroath, sought to assert Scotland’s right to self-govern, and to lift the Catholic church’s excommunication of Robert the Bruce. As […]

Not another famous ancestor!

For some unknown reason, in the genealogical world, it seems that some famous person is always doing the rounds. When I see someone claiming some famous ancestor, my first thought and question normally is, prove it, show me your sources and records. Last month it seemed everyone was claiming Robert the Bruce and William Wallace […]

Thousands of Scottish Records Released

Family history website ScotlandsPeople has uploaded a tranche of birth, marriage and death records from across the country, dating from 1913, 1938 and 1963 respectively. The records are available to view on the web for the very first time. The documents – which consist of over 220,000 separate scans – were released on New Year’s […]