Are There Ancestors from Scotland in Your Tree?

Today I was wandering around online, looking to see if I could find information on a very distant grandfather of mine from Lesbury in the northern part of England. Since Scotland sits on top of England, I decided to look in that area. I found a great site to do some researching in and I wanted to share it with you.

The site is Old Scottish Genealogy and Family History. There, you will find transcripts of primary sources. Unfortunately I haven't found my ancestor. I am actually looking for his father. Several family trees pertaining to this family on Ancestry, have chosen the "wrong" father for him as I determined by searching primary sources that are available online.

I hope that this link is useful to those of you researching ancestry in Scotland. This is a great time to do some armchair genealogy research as we wait out the pandemic. 

Stay safe--

Sharon

Quick Genealogy Hint

I have decided to post hints on doing genealogical research.  Every now and then, I run across examples of what-not-to-do when documenting your tree.I am not an expert by any means although, I do have a degree in history and was taught a bit about researching. I plan to every now and then post a hint, one at a time so not to overwhelm.

Today's hint--

Women are always entered on a tree by their maiden name NOT married name. 

Happy Hunting,

Sharon

decorative family tree posters

Everytime It's Groundhog Day...

Every year on Groundhog Day, I don't think about the weather, ok maybe a little bit, but rather I remember  my paternal grandfather--Gilford Ackley French. This would have been his birthday today. He was born on 02 February 1888--you know you are getting old when you can say that your grandfather was born the century before last! Even though he's been gone since the 1960s, can you imagine the changes he saw during his lifetime such as automobiles, indoor plumbing, television--heck, radios were a big to-do back in the day. So, what I want to say is "Happy Birthday Grandpa."

Here's a couple of pics of him:

A Few Little Things About Genealogy...

I used to be hot and heavy in to genealogy. This was prior to public access to the Internet. I had written to distant relatives on my sons' family and mine. Many folks were considerate enough to write down family lines for me. I was so excited to receive this information! Unfortunately, not all people are as accurate in their information as we may wish. I was able to see a "family tree" that someone in my sons' family had written up for their big family reunion. WOW, that was great; great until I started reading it and realized that my sons were given my former husband's 2nd wife as their mother. That's not right,  I was there when they were born (ha ha)! Often, as I looked at old census records I noticed that many of the first names I was given for relatives were NICKNAMES and not "legal" first names. So, what I am trying to say, if one does research or documenting of historic topics, it is best to be accurate. If you are responsible for giving information for an obituary, it is nice to mention special people that aren't blood relatives, but for researchers using the obituary years down the road it is not reasonable to know that the "daughter" or "son" mentioned is actually a very special friend with no familial relationship. I have pulled out my research because one of my sons has an interest. I only have his paternal line back 4 or 5 generations and we're set to try and go back farther. I have learned the hard way to document my sources and if something doesn't sound right to me then I will also make notes on that. Who knows, maybe one of my descendants 100 years from now may pick up my notes and expand on what I've done.