Had a few contacts of Mackays in new Zealand and Australia looking in to the Acheilidh Mackays of Rogart.
Earlier this month My wife was in Golspie with cousins commemorating the war memorial put up 100 years ago. One of the names on the stone is her greart great uncle Donald Munro.
For his story see Rogart heritage on facebook link below.
My Father had this inclination but could not prove it! that Allan Pinkerton was a relative through Fathers mother a Pinkerton.
Allan Pinkerton is known for setting up the detective agency and being a spy for one of the sides in the Civil war. The dectectve agency still continues in a form of a company working in risk management, an area I have been involved in over the years.
When I began to look into family history, firstly for my wife, that niggle of could we find the link was
there so back in 1994 I started the search ...not everyday. Dad wanted to have the link confirmed and I remember him saying to me, while we worked over a car engine, in a way that he wanted me to find out but did not ask specifically. The confirmation maybe would give a sense of belonging. That need we all have.
So about 4 years ago we had contact with Pinkertons who had been born in USA and on the face of it seemed to be related through grandparents and to my dads Mother. They are now friends and the group has grown to near 30 and we communicate off and on. DNA tests have also confirmed the links. Unfortunately like me these new Pinkerton cousins had not got the link to the Detective.
I suppose if its easy then it would be in front of you. My search in family history is through parrallel ways or outside the obvious. I have found that this method comes good particularly if research detail is limited.
So very recently I was working off the Allan Pinkerton tree at relations in ancestors and found a James Pinkerton and Margaret Farie.
I recognised the names and checked my tree and side connections- and there they were. Most details matched and then the grand parets so ... I got excited at the descovery.
I sat on for 24 hours and then revisited to check and sure enough Allan Pinkerton was connecting albeit fairly distant. He is my fifth cousin 5 times removed for the technical. So I was able to tell the "Pinkerton" group which means they are all connected as well in a similar way.
My brother, sister, and I, have laughed in the past about the questioning nature and operation talent we have and I see it in other Pinkertons in the USA and around the world that we have got to know over the last 4 plus years.
It is worth sticking at a project not so you can score it off the list, which is nice but to complete the search and affirm the theory or hypothesis, proposition or premise.
So Dad you are 5 th Cousin 4 times removed to Allan Pinkerton (1819 1884) Born Glasgow died Chicago Illinois USA. Job done.
Now back on Captain Robert Pinkerton ( 1646 or 1654-)
and John Pinkerton( Writer) who are hiding somewhere!
John Pinkerton Wikitree
Recently Amazon have issued the published book by Anne Beer called a tale of two crofts, tracking two branches of Mackay in Sutherland around the Lairg and Rogart area and then also abroad.
This is a good collection of thoughts and family history with an insight into crofting in Sutherland after the clearances.
Over the last year or so I have been working on three writing projects.
One is by Anne Beer and her book "Tale of two crofts". I have a small contribution and this book will be in electronic form and paper back. It traces two families in Sutherland with similar roots.
Available today Is my latest book "It was almost a glorious day". It is available on Amazon Kindle.
It is a collection of short stories in the Highlands of Scotland. Best to read the blurb at Amazon for the details and premise.
I keep coming across people who are back or starting family history. Its a good Subject!
You can work away for weeks and find nothing interesting then some of the leads come up with new things.
Granted most of this is through the recent DNA test I took which said I was Scottish - I knew that. The possible new connections have similar DNA "Threads" but were not connected in my tree.
WikiTree was also used to pin point connections.
Happy searching during lockdown!!
“When Scotland was Jewish”
Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman and Donald Yates
MacFarland and Company Inc Publishers 2012
When you read the title there is a wonder, in as much as “have we missed something”. The years and years of living in a country and not knowing that it was Jewish does come as a bolt in the dark. Certainly, Scottish history from school was always seen from an over the border viewpoint but this is something different!
Yet with DNA progress and lots of “evidence” the authors are determined to explain that we in Scotland are from Jewish roots of the 12th century.
The evidence is produced early on, but it weakens at the end with a chapter on Scots’s Ivanhoe. Archaeology and migration reviews help to show the result they wish to highlight. This evidence is good and links well with our understanding of the Scottish people.
I am reminded of the way we go down the motorway and we look for a certain car, let us say a Landrover. Before the quest we did not see any then we are shouting, “there is one” and again and again.
But the following is also true.
· Images and designs are copied as popular and might not have such a strong religious view.
· So, to, with gravestones and Jewish images.
· I was aware of a Jewish presence in Stirling many years ago.
· While John Knox was pushing for a Bible based revision to life, this does not make him Jewish.
In their favour some of the Scots roots were known came from Ireland and perhaps they came from “Jewish roots” further back to Spain and the Middle East. So names we associate with Ireland like Mowat,(merchant) are originally Jewish?
I do note in the sub text the authors are not really saying Scotland was Jewish, as the title says but, that there is a large influence from Jewish quarters that has permeated the Scottish Culture. The evidence for this is strong.
To discover that many of the Scottish clan and family names are rooted in Jewish heritage is astounding. Royal Stewarts, Douglas, Campbell, Bruce, Forbes, Sinclair to name a few.
I am left primarily with a new look at the Scottish culture seeing that it has been influenced greatly by merchants and businesspeople, from Europe and the Middle east some being Jewish.
While the writers are not saying that there are Jewish DNA ( there might be) in many Scots who now live in Scotland, there is recognition that the Jewish way of life did accommodate those who wished to join them in their approach to life.
The Scottish people have always, it would seem been the sub chapter of “British history”, yet they were very much a part of British culture and support in war. ( The enlightenment, Army support)
So too I am discovering that the Jews have been an influence in Scotland as far back as the 12 Century. The political situation today encourages multi culture in Scotland more than the rest of the UK. Perhaps the Jewish influence was a start in this approach to life and others. Scotland was accommodating all those years ago.
We tend to have a memory of history which is more recent, and this book does help balance against the “bickering” between rival religious groups in the past few centuries, and Scotland’s ability to encompass many from afar.
Whether you love or hate the book the evidence is generally clear and accurate but the title itself is a “Sellers” title. But a title like “The Jewish culture has permeated the Scots culture since the 12 centuries because Scotland has tended to be an inviting country, and tolerated difference when England was less so” would not work!
I must get the DNA test done.
Hi if you are new to this blog about Family History where I indicate some of the outcomes from my research. One needs to have an aim in the research, or it just becomes names and eventually we all go back to Adam!
I recently joined Wiki tree a free online tree. One tree with many contributors.
I can see that this will help me with pre 1500 people if I can go back far enough to link into others ‘research. I have great possibilities to look forward to.
I seem to have a link to the Roses of Kilvrock -Alex Roses (1480- )
This note was about something else.
I recently took some photos of the church at Tibbermore, near Perth.
This church was used a few years ago as the court room in the “Outlanders” TV programme.
The grave stone of Alexander Robertson is not the Chief
number 13 of the clan. As far as I Know.
