Here are all my previous blogs, mostly covering our caravanning around New Zealand and Australia and some post-caravanning adventures. The first 3 have been transferred to a new Blog heading. So have some family history stories. If I can work out how to delete these I will do so!
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%2 Ancestors – Week 5, 2026.
Topic: A Breakthrough Moment. I wasn’t getting very far with my wider Glasgow-based Johnston famiiy. Census entries were useful but not always to be trusted, with multiple common names like Charles, George, Peter and Mary. I had established that my GGGF Charles Johnston was born in 1797 and died in 1848, and that he married… Read more
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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, 2026. Week 4.
Theme: A Theory in Progress. As another participant in 52 Ancestors has written, “There are times when you aren’t quite sure what is right in your research. This is a good week to explore a theory that you have about someone in your family tree”. My Paternal Grandmother Bertha Wade was born in Invercargill, New… Read more
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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, 2026. Week 3.
Topic: What this story means to me. My GGGM Ann (Nancy) Welding was born in the little village of Upton St. Leonard in rural Gloucestershire and baptised on 10 January 1790. Her parents Thomas Wilday/Weldin/Wilding and his wife Elizabeth Fowler later had two more children. She was baptised Nancy but referred to as Ann in… Read more
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52 Ancestors – Week 2, 2026.
Theme: A Record That Adds Color. I’ve chosen to interpret this theme a little differently. My Scottish Great Great Grandfather Dr. Thomas Lyle had a brother, John Lyle (1789-1822). For a long time I knew little about John, then discovered he had been a soldier in the 51st Regiment of Foot and had fought at… Read more
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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2026
Week 1, 2026. Theme: An Ancestor I Admire. My Scottish GGMother Margaret Lyle (1827-1925), born in Glasgow, spent much of her chidlhood in Airth, Stirlngshire – a small village where her father Dr. Thomas Lyle (1791-1859) practiced – although it would seem he was more inclined to write poetry and to follow his hobby of… Read more
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52 Ancestors …. Week 14.
Topic: Language. My Scottish ancestors came from the Scottish Borders where in the 1700s to at least early 1800s the Lowland Scots language used was Lalans – both Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson used it. From https://nativetribe.info/lallans-indigenous-heritage-scottish-lowland-traditional-language-cultural-practices/: Lallans, also known as Scots Lowland, is a vibrant language with a long and complex history. It’s… Read more
