Genealogy Series: Bigamy, Adultery and Murder - Talk to Scottish Genealogy Society

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Saturday delights

The coming week will present me with a busy program and in particular the need to travel to be present in Parliament for the first time since I was there for the budget Stage 3 on 12th March. A full three months absence, the longest since being elected in June 2001. I have to be back for the Stage 3 debate on the Animal Welfare Bill. Having been part of all the previous deliberations on the Bill, I should be present at the end. It is a proper part of an opposition MSP's duties to press policy initiatives whenever they can. Legislation is the key opportunity for so doing. It's something I did when sat facing the then Labour/LibDem administrations before 2007. But there are huge risks associated with bringing forward new policy initiatives right at the end of the process. Without the taking of evidence in Committee and the opportunity to build a consensus on such proposals, we seriously risk making bad law. The area that is worrying me most relates to moves to extend vica...

Genealogy Series: Betsy (or Elizabeth) Esplin Bell (1858-1930).

Betsy (or Elizabeth) Esplin Bell (1858-1930). She had a long criminal record driven by her addiction to drink, but was she her husband’s victim? by Stewart Stevenson. Betsy was born on 26 th January 1858 in Dundee to David Bell, a carpenter, and his wife, Agnes Sandeman. i Father registered the birth, but is recorded as “Not Present”. George T Bisset-Smith, the Registration Examiner, published his book “Vital Registration”, the manual for Scottish Registrars in 1907. ii In it he states that a “liberal interpretation” should be given to the word “Present” in this context but also states that “Not Present” must not be used. I suspect that leaves most genealogists, me included, little the wiser as to what “Present” was actually supposed to mean. So let’s pass on to the story. Betsy’s parents married in 1856, iii with her mother Agnes making her mark, an ”X”, rather than signing the registration record, indicating that she was illiterate. Her husband David signed. ...

Nature's gems

It can get a wee bit confusing as to what day it is when my schedule for each day is essentially similar. And for other people who can work at home and choose their own timetable, I guess it will be similar. I do know today is Sunday, because the newspapers whose web sites I am reading are, mostly, Sunday papers. But just as the variety and number of newspapers has significantly changed over the years, so too has the degree to which the "Sundays" are differentiated from papers published on other days. They are thinner for one thing. That goes for almost all our news media. It's not simply the focus on COVID-19, quite properly and necessarily, but the paucity of stories on other subjects. I guess in part that is because there is less going on. But it is likely that the inability of journalists to go out and hunt down new stories is shrinking the news agenda as well. A reminder of how much we need their profession. When I was a student in the 1960s, I stayed in...

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