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Spinning a Scottish Yarn: The Reverend David Dickson Part Three The Covenant & Glasgow
Posted on June 28, 2026 Leave a Comment
The following excerpts provide a timeline of DICKSON’s activities from 1638 to about 1650. They are pieced together from various sources. Roughly covering his last years at Irvine through his tenure at Glasgow University. There are many excerpts from correspondence between David DICKSON and Robert BAILLIE. Just looking at the places he traveled to gives […]
Spinning a Scottish Yarn: The Reverend David Dickson Part Two Irvine
Posted on June 22, 2026 Leave a Comment
In part one we visited David DICKSON’s early life in Glasgow. The next part of the story Begins in Irvine where David DICKSON was a minister for 23 years. Be forewarned it took an unexpected twist. I am grateful to Ian DICKSON (no relation) and Billy KERR for allowing me to quote from their work […]
Spinning a Scottish Yarn: The Reverend David Dickson Part One Beginnings in Glasgow and Busby
Posted on June 20, 2026 2 Comments
Storaidhnean farsaig: in Scots Gaelic storaidhnean is a story or tale and farsaig : wide, extensive or broad. Roughly translated an expansive tale. This may turn out to be Storaidhnean farsaig. INTRODUCTION As I often do when getting ready for a trip I try my hand at researching my own families that may intersect with […]
Changes in Genealogical DNA Testing
Posted on November 5, 2025 Leave a Comment
Back in 2005, Francis Collins in his book The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine predicted that DNA testing for health was on the horizon within 10 years and that your doctor would routinely order DNA tests for you. That hasn’t happened as quickly as he thought, but companies like 23andme […]
Writing Challenge: Choose Your Own Adventure Genealogy Style
Posted on September 19, 2025 Leave a Comment
First crossroads. Heaven, hell or purgatory. Your choice. Second crossroad. Which ancestor will you choose? Third quest. You will have 20 minutes to come up with a list of questions to ask your chosen ancestor. This may be a brick wall ancestor and your first question is where were you born? Or who were your […]
Celtic Origins
Posted on September 1, 2025 Leave a Comment
Apologies to my faithful readers. I took a break after the death of my best genealogy friend, Jean to process what her life and loss means to me. I have found that I cannot be creative on demand, and must wait for inspiration and the imperative juices to flow. Sometimes all that it takes is […]
What you are Missing if you Aren’t Using Family Search for your Genealogy
Posted on June 18, 2025 2 Comments
This is written for my Genealogy class and most of it is a repetition of resources found on FamilySearch.org however it is a curated list and aimed at beginners that do not know where to start at Family Search or those more advanced who have not mined all the great resources that are available there. […]
Fleshing out the Story: Context Matters
Posted on January 26, 2025 1 Comment
How do we go from avid genealogist to storyteller? How do we bring a single ancestor back to life? How do we take a set of facts, essential the bones of our ancestors life, and tell their story as a three dimensional ancestor that you want others to know more about? Research of course! There’s […]
Patterns & Intersections in Genealogy
Posted on December 24, 2023 5 Comments
We all have patterns and intersections in our ancestry—but we don’t always know about them. Sometimes we just stumble upon them. One of the greatest joys of genealogy is finding those connections. Below you will read a collection of such things in my research. I encourage you to be on the look-out for your own. […]
Comfort Laps: Writing Challenge
Posted on August 8, 2022 3 Comments
Our reminiscences are important parts of who we are. As we stitch them into narratives they connect us to our ancestors, sometimes in unexpected ways. I urge my readers to not shy away from writing about uncomfortable and challenging topics. My mother, for reasons that remain somewhat of a mystery, did not like to be […]
Wheaton Wood 