Tweet
Electric Scotland News
We had a serious problem this week which affected our site income quite dramatically. I checked our Google Adsense account only to find our income had taken a nose dive. Normally I visit my account no more than twice a month so when I saw the dive downwards in earnings I contacted Google for an explanation and the reply wasn't that helpful.
After some digging I discovered that someone had hacked into our server and managed to change the Google Adsense code on our sites which serves up the adverts you see on the site. They had stripped out the Publisher ID on the script which means that while the adverts still worked we were not being credited for the clicks.
It is only in code view that this is obvious but as I rarely use the code view option it simply wasn't noticed until I started to investigate. I have never heard of this type of attack before and so I have informed Google Adsense, the FBI and RCMP as well as the local police.
Steve has been told to audit our sites as we obviously have a loophole that is being exploited. It also affected the Flag in the Wind site as well. I'm not really too sure about why this happened but as the Flag was affected as well I can't but be a bit suspicious that it might have something to do with the Scottish Referendum.
Due to the seriousness of this issue it took a couple of days out of my working week.
Global Gaelic multimedia project launched
Diaspora invited to become part of the story.
Gaels around the world are encouraged to link up through an exciting multimedia project that celebrates and explores identity, language and culture - and you don’t have to speak Gaelic to get involved.
The ‘Struileag Stories’ Transmedia Project is being launched today (Thursday) in Toronto, Canada, by Cabinet Secretary for Commonwealth Games and Sport, Shona Robison.
Gaels, their descendants and those who strongly identify with Scots Gaelic culture are invited to put themselves and their ancestors on the global map - electronically - via everything from photos, family stories, video and audio clips, to poetry and even recipes.
Struileag, run by Edinburgh-based charity La Banda, aims to capture where people and their ancestors are from, if the latter spoke Gaelic too, and what life has been like for different generations.
The transmedia project received £60,000 funding from the Scottish Government. Other funding partners included VisitScotland, Creative Scotland and Ambition Scotland.
Due to speak at a diaspora breakfast organised by the St Andrew’s Society in Toronto, Ms Robison will say: "In this special year when Scotland welcomes the world, for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Homecoming 2014 and the Ryder Cup, it is entirely fitting that we beat the drum for the Gaelic community scattered across the globe.
"By weaving their stories into Struileag's virtual map, Gaels can connect with each other from continent to continent, as well as helping to form a vital resource bank for future generations.
"The Scottish Government is proud to support La Banda's innovative approach to sharing and celebrating tales from the Gaelic diaspora."
These invaluable resources contributed from members of the diaspora will complement material professionally produced by La Banda.
It is visiting several Gaelic communities worldwide, including in Canada, Australia, South Africa and Russia, researching and documenting stories, as well as developing connections.
In addition, Struileag will premier an epic show called ‘Children of the Smoke’ as part of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games 'Festival 2014' programme, on July 28 at Glasgow Green.
The 75 minute show is also a pivotal Homecoming 2014 event. Gritty and glamorous, it sweeps from Hollywood to Stornoway via Detroit and Woolloomooloo into Glasgow’s big beating heart! Blisteringly contemporary and featuring show-stopping songs, spectacular imagery and exhilarating dance, it will explore and celebrate the importance of indigenous language and its links to culture and identity.
Jim Sutherland, La Banda artistic director, said: “History isn’t a thing of the past, we’re making it now!
“Struileag is reaching around the world to tell the story of the Gael, a people scattered to the wind! La Banda is very grateful for all of the support we have received in the creation of this.”
Mike Cantlay, Chairman of VisitScotland, said: “Ancestry is a valuable part to our tourism offering, contributing millions of pounds to our economy every year.
“Retracing the steps of your family is a fascinating and moving experience and one of the many reasons that visitors come to Scotland.
“There is an estimated 50 million people worldwide with Scottish ancestry so it is exciting to hear we now have a project that will connect and unite the Gaelic community right across the globe.”
Visit http://stories.struileag.com to get involved.
FamilyTreeDNA
myOrigins, our new version of Population Finder, is launching very soon! It will be available for FREE to everyone that has purchased a Family Finder test. Get ready to dive into your ethnic origins like never before!
With myOrigins, you'll be able compare your ethnicity with your Family Finder matches. If you want to share your ethnic origins with your matches, you don't need to take any action. You'll automatically be able to compare your ethnicity with your matches when myOrigins becomes available. This is the recommended option.
https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/...lation-finder/
Electric Canadian
Nova Scotia Historical Society, Reports and Collections
I have found a number of volumes from this Society and have added the first four to get you started. I'll be adding more as I find them.
I added Volume XI 1899/1900 which includes, The War of 1812.
You can read this volume at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ions/index.htm
Bert Lloyd's Boyhood.
A Story from Nova Scotia by J. MacDonald Oxley, LL.D. (1892).
Have now completed this and the final chapters can be read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...hood/index.htm
Nova Scotia: The Province that has been Passed By
By Beckles Willson (1911).
Also completed this book along with an interesting Appendix which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ssed/index.htm
Muskoka Memories
Sketches from Real Life by Ann Hathaway (1904). A new book we're starting.
You can read this book at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...koka/index.htm
Cape Breton
I spent some time this week publishing several smaller accounts of Cape Breton...
History of Religion in Cape Breton
I found a couple of books about the history of religion in Cape Breton but not yet the Catholic religion. You can read what I found at
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...b_religion.htm
Cape Breton Tales
Found two wee books which I found interesting...
Some Micmac Tales from Cape Breton Island By F. G. Speck
Cape Breton Tales By Harry James Smith
You can read these at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...n/cb_tales.htm
Cape Breton Folk
By C. H. Farnham (1885)
This is a story of a trip over the Trail enjoyed by two American Tourists in 1885. There are a number of illustrations in this book. You can get to this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...on/cb_folk.htm
Cape Breton as a Field for Enterprise
By J. L. McDougall
This is a short book so ocr'd it in for you to read and you can to this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...enterprise.htm
The Coal Fields and Coal Trade of the Island of Cape Breton
By Richard Brown F.G.S. &c. 1871
Here is the Preface...
The existence of valuable deposits of Coal in the Island of Cape Breton has been long known, but I am not aware that any account of them has hitherto been published, except in certain scientific works, which are read only by persons interested in the subjects they treat of. The want of a reliable description of the Coal Fields, the capabilities of the mines now in operation, and a history of the rise and progress of the Coal Trade, in a popular form, must often have been experienced by those who have invested their money in the Cape Breton mines, especially by the shareholders of the General Mining Association, few of whom can possibly possess more than an imperfect knowledge of the great extent and value of their mining property. Having had the advantage of consulting the works above referred to, and having also been employed many years in the management of the largest collieries in the Island, I hope the information derived from those sources and my own personal knowledge, submitted in the following pages, will be received with confidence by all who are interested in the Cape Breton mines.
I trust also that shipowners and commercial men generally will be glad to learn from these pages that Cape Breton, which, from its geographical position has been aptly styled ‘The Long Wharf of America/ possesses abundant supplies oT excellent steam fuel, commodious harbours, and, in fact, every necessary qualification for becoming the great coaling station of the innumerable steamers which are rapidly superseding sailing vessels in the navigation of the Atlantic.
Being the last practical point of departure for steamers from America to Europe, Cape Breton is, in every respect, the most suitable place for the eastern terminus of the projected line of railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, through British territory, an undertaking which is now deservedly receiving much attention in the Canadian Dominion. It is a remarkable fact, as has been pointed out in a recent able work,1 that Cape Breton and Vancouver’s Islands—the proposed termini of the line—are the only places on the seaboard which can furnish cheap and excellent coal to the steamers that will be employed on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in maintaining the communication, in connexion with the railway, between Europe and China.
It now only remains for me to say that, in compiling the account of the Coal Fields, I have availed myself of Dr. Dawson’s admirable work on ‘ Acadian Geology,’ and a valuable article in the ‘ Transactions of the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers,’ by John Rutherford, Esq., the Government Inspector of Mines in Nova Scotia. My acknowledgments are also specially due to J. Bj Foord, Esq., the Secretary of the General Mining Association, for the use of several important documents in his office ; to Henry S. Poole, Esq., of the Caledonia Colliery, Glace Bay, for ample accounts of the new mines in the eastern portion of the Sydney Coal Field; and to Richard H. Brown, Esq., the manager of the Sydney and Lingan mines, for much statistical information, and the views of the northern shores of Sydney and Lingan Harbours.
Conscious of many defects, I nevertheless hope this little work will prove acceptable to the shareholders of the General Mining Association, and of the other companies, both English and foreign, engaged in coal mining in Cape Breton, and will convince them that they possess, in their present establishments, ample means for carrying on a large and prosperous business when the restrictions now imposed upon their trade with the United States have been removed—a consummation, there is every reason to believe, not far distant.
R. B.
London: October, 1871
You can read this at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...on/cb_coal.htm
The Gaelic Bards from 1825 - 1875
By Rev. A. Maclean Sinclair (1904)
This is a pdf of the book as it's mostly in the Gaelic language and can be downloaded at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...n/cb_bards.pdf
The Flag in the Wind
This weeks issue was compiled by Margaret Hamilton where we get a bit of a bumper edition from her with lots to read and also a Synopsis!
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Electric Scotland
Alexander Murdoch (1841-1891)
A Scottish Engineer, Poet, Author, Journalist
Added a third book called "Scotch Readings: Humorous and Amusing" and we're breaking this down into individual chapters for you to read. We've added two more chapters, "Johnny Safty's Second Wife" and "The Gas Account Man" which you can find at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...doch/index.htm
Thomas Dick Lauder
This is an author that wrote many historical books and we are going to be bringing you a selection of his books over the next few months.. We are starting on his 3 volume book "Lochandu".
Hope you are enjoying this book. Added another two chapters to this book which brings us up to chapter 14 and you can find these at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...er_thomas1.htm
Enigma Machine
Added puzzle 60 which you can get to at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life.../enigma060.htm
Scottish Historical Review
Addedthe April 1922 issue. It includes a couple of interesting articles, "Eighteenth Century Highland Landlords and the Poverty Problem" and "Rent-Rolls of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem in Scotland"
You can read this issue at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...w/volume19.htm
The Book of Scottish Anecdote
Humorous, Social, Legendary and Historical edited by Alexander Hislop, eighth edition.
I note there are quite a few wee articles on Robert Burns and I was thinking it would be a useful project to save all these and add them to a special page about him. Hint Hint! Any volunteers?
Added pages 302 to 351.You can read these at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/anecdote
Alan Cunningham
This distinguished poet entered the world under those lowly circumstances, and was educated under those disadvantages, which have so signally characterized the history of the best of our Scottish bards.
We've added chapter XIII to the Life of Alan Cunningham.
You can read it at the foot of his page at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...gham_allan.htm
Life Sketches from Scottish History of Brief Biographies of the Scottish Presbyterian Worthies
We now have the first 9 worthies up for you to read.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...hies/index.htm
The Northern Highlands in the Nineteenth Century
Some years ago I published the 2 volumes in this set. Well I have now found a third volume is now available and so have started to work on this and have the Introduction up for you to read.
The Introduction to Volume 3 starts...
The period of fifteen years, from the beginning of 1842 to the close of 1856, is of great interest alike in the political and social history of the United Kingdom, and in the history of Europe. In domestic legislation and in foreign relations it bears all the marks of agitation and transition. The period extends from the opening of Sir Robert Peel’s epoch-making administration till the end of the Crimean war. During this time the country passed through the controversies which resulted in the abolition of the Corn Laws, and experienced the potato famine with its effects on Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. The Chartist movement was a reflection at home of the revolutionary wave which swept over the Continent, and which was the source of vital changes that are still running their course. The outstanding political names in British annals are those of Sir Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, and Lord Palmerston. The same period however, witnessed the rise of Mr Disraeli and Mr Gladstone to a prominent place in the Parliamentary world. In Scotland the Disruption broke up the National Church, and powerfully affected the system of education and the religious and social condition of the people. There was also the extension of railways, partly promoted and partly arrested by what is known as the railway mania. In our own district large railway schemes were proposed, but the only practical outcome for the moment was the short line from Inverness to Naim, constructed in 1854. This was, however, the beginning of the present Highland system.
You can to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ands/index.htm
Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston, Lineage, Life, and Times
With a History of the Invention of Logarithms by Mark Napier (1834). I have added this book to the foot of his page.
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ohn_napier.htm
The Lauderdale Papers
For researchers these three volumes will be a gold mine of information especially through the Restoration period of our history. I am making these volumes available at the foot of the page but have ocr'd in the Preface for you to read.
You can to these at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ale_papers.htm
Scottish Seals
Have updated our page to include further books about our ancient Scottish Seals. You can get to them at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/seals.htm
A Century of Scottish History
From the Days before the '45 to those within Living Memory By Sir Henry Craik (1901)
As it's very focused in a specific time period it provides a very good history and here is what it is all about...
IT is the object of these volumes to follow the course of Scottish history from the time when Scotland was divided from its southern neighbour by well-defined lines of demarcation, alike in religion, in politics, in tradition, and in social habit when, indeed, the points of contact were but few and unimportant down to the period when the Scottish nation, while preserving some valuable and durable national characteristics, became, as regards all its main interests and in the main current of its history, absorbed in one stream with that southern neighbour, with whom it has now formed a partnership so close as to share a common life, and, in the eyes of Europe, to be almost identical. The history of Scotland down to the Jacobite rising of 1745 has been treated very fully in previous works. But in those works the first half of the eighteenth century has been dealt with chiefly as the concluding chapter of her national history not as it affected the period which was to follow. It has therefore been found necessary in these volumes to recapitulate shortly the leading events of that half century, as opening the new chapter in Scottish history which began with the Revolution and the Act of Union episodes, indeed, complementary to one another. From that point Scotland began to shape a new phase in her national life.
As the plan of the present work is to give a chronological narrative of the leading historical events down to the middle of the nineteenth century, it has been necessary to include in it an account of the rising of 1745. But as that dramatic and romantic episode has formed the subject of many detailed narratives, and as the personal history of many of the chief actors has been fully told, the present account of it has been confined to the main events, which alone may be held to come within the history of the nation as a whole.
From 1745 onwards the history of Scotland has hitherto been treated for the most part only as subsidiary to the history of the Empire, and as forming a subordinate chapter in the history of England. Besides this we have, as illustrating Scottish life, a large and most interesting series of memoirs, of accounts of social traits, of pictures of manners, and of contemporary reminiscences. The history of the great ecclesiastical struggle, which culminated in 1843, has been treated as an episode apart, and not as a phase of national history, with its origin in the past and with its permanent influence on national character. The object of these volumes is to give a chronological narrative of all the principal incidents political, ecclesiastical, and legislative, as well as literary, social, and commercial which form the history of Scotland throughout a very momentous century, in the course of which the character of her permanent contribution to the common life of the Empire was chiefly shaped.
H. C.
January 1901.
It finishes with..
We have thus followed the history of Scotland from the period when she was first joined by legislative union with England, and when there still lay before her the last struggle of a decayed system against the forces of modern constitutionalism, down to a period within the memory of those now living. We have seen how, if much of the stress and strain which she had to endure was the inheritance of her own stormy history, it was also, in no small degree, the result of the heedless injustice, the careless apathy, and the purblind neglect of successive English governments. We have seen how, out of varied and often antagonistic elements, she managed to form and to preserve a very strong and vivid sense of nationality, which was not lessened, but distinctly increased and fostered, by the Jacobite movement—a movement which became stronger in Scotland just as it faded away in England. We have seen how she provoked the jealousy of, and met with indifference and contempt an almost insane outburst of abuse from, her southern neighbour. We have seen how, preserving much that was most picturesque and romantic in her national traditions, she shook herself free from the trammels and bondage of mediaevalism, and achieved notable results in thought and literature, which gave her a proud place not only in the Empire, but abroad. We have seen how she helped to consolidate and strengthen the Empire, and how she bore her part in the most critical struggle which that Empire has yet seen. We have seen how her enterprise developed and how she became absorbed in the eager competition for wealth. We have watched how the older and more exclusive forces gradually grew more weak, and how Scotland took her part in the great Reform movements which changed the face of society.
We have seen a new class gaining political supremacy, and holding with a tenacity distinctive of the nation to the new opinions which they had come to form, and clinging to them as sternly as to a religion or an ethical code. We have seen how these convictions were clinched by the fierceness of a great ecclesiastical struggle, the bitter memories of which very slowly passed away. During that struggle a close alliance was struck between religious opinions which were opposed to the dominant latitudinarianism of the previous century, and the middle class which had thriven on commercial prosperity, and had no sympathy with the older social traditions. Only as the century closes has the stubbornness of these convictions relaxed, and a great change of political principle taken place. Its weight and its meaning will be differently explained by different men. To trace its causes, and to estimate its results, must be the business of another generation.
You can download both volumes at: http://www.electricscotland.com/book...y_scothist.htm
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Got in the May edition section 2 which you can read at: http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
Immortal Memory by Mike Duiguid.
Now comes Wing Commander Mike Duguid, a retired Royal Air Force officer who lives in the heart of Burns Country, to share the Immortal Memory he gave at the 2013 Burns Festival Weekend in Camperdown, Victoria in Australia.
Mike grew up in Kincardineshire in northeast Scotland, the home county of Burns’ father William Burness. After school in Aberdeen he joined the Royal Air Force in 1964 and during a 37-year career as an aeronautical engineer served throughout the United Kingdom. He enjoyed a tour in the United States at Strategic Air Command Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska and also at Air Combat Command Headquarters in Virginia. He has served in the Falkland Islands and had extended detachments to over twenty countries including Australia and Canada.
Although Mike had a life-long interest in Robert Burns, it was during a posting in Omaha in 1989 that launched his involvement with organizing and speaking at Burns Suppers. He coordinated and chaired several Burns Suppers and St. Andrew’s nights on behalf of the Scottish Society of Nebraska. On returning from America to a post in the Ministry of Defense, he became an active member of the Burns Club of London. He was heavily involved in the club’s Robert Burns bi-centenary celebrations in 1996 and organized a gala dinner in the Café Royal as well as an open-air concert adjacent to the Burns statue in the Embankment Gardens, the very same gardens in which the idea of a worldwide Burns Federation was first floated in 1885.
After retiring from the RAF, Mike became a full-time student and in 2006 he gained an Honours degree in Scottish Studies at Glasgow University. Mike has been President of the Gatehouse of Fleet Burns Club for the last ten years and still enjoys membership in the Burns Club of London. He served as President of the Robert Burns World Federation during the special Year of Homecoming in 2009/10 and remains a Director on the Board of the Federation and also serves as the Convener of the Literature Committee. In addition, he serves as Editor of the Federation’s very popular newsletter.
Mike has been married to his wife Pat for 42 years and they have two sons and two daughters, all married, and six grandchildren. I have enjoyed Mike’s company and his friendship, and I am particularly proud of the work he is doing as Editor of the Federation newsletter which is even more important now that the Burns Chronicle has reverted to a single volume as in the olden and golden days of the Federation. We welcome Mike to the pages of Robert Burns Lives! with hopes he will contribute even more to our website in the future. (FRS: 5.1.14)
You can read the article at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives199.htm
And another one on Robert Burns...
Address by Andrew Carnegie at the unveiling of a Statue to Burns
Erected by the Citizens of Montrose. 1912.
Our thanks to John Henderson for finding this address and sending it into us.
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/carnegie.htm
Songs of John Henderson
John sent in three songs which you can find at the foot of his page. Mae an' Seth, The Scotland We Cherish and Burn Watter.
You can to these at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
And Finally...
Here are a few wee stories from "The Book of Scottish Anecdote"...
A GOOD REASON
Tam Neil was questioned one day by a lady, at whose house he was employed in making some repairs, as to the reason why people of his profession were so extravagant in their charges for coffins. Tam looked very mysterious, and agreed to inform her of the secret for the matter of a good glass of "Athole brose;" which moderate stipulation being immediately implemented, he told her, "Weel ma'am," he said, "ye see the way we charge sae muckle for coffins, is because they're ne'er brought back to be mended!"
A REBUKE FROM BURNS
Burns called once on a certain lord in Edinburgh, and was shown into the library_ To amuse himself till his lordship was at leisure, the poet took down a volume of Shakspenre, splendidly bound; but on opening it he discovered from the gilding, that it had never been read, and also that the worms were eating it through and through. He therefore took out his pencil and wrote the following lines in it. They, however, were only discovered by accident about twelve years afterwards!
"Through and through the inspired leaves,
Ye maggots, make your windings;
But, oh! respect his lordship's laste,
And spare his golden bindings."
A NATURAL REASON
When Sir Walter Scott was a boy, one of his female friends was conversing with a gentleman respecting the almost perpetual drizzle which prevails in the west of Scotland-a fact for which both parties declared themselves at a loss to account, when Walter, who was in the room unperceived, popped his head up from below the table, and said: "It is only Nature weeping for the barrenness of her soil."
AIDS TO MEMORY
In the Western Islands of Scotland there formerly prevailed a very curious method of fixing the boundaries of land, field's, district's, etc. A crowd of people were collected together, and two or more sagacious and wise men defined the marches, and explained them to those who attended. Two or more young lads were then scourged with thongs of leather that they might the better remember the transaction in after life, and be able to give evidence upon it, should any question or difficulty arise. - Martin
A CURE FOR A COLD
John Campbell, forester of Harris, makes use of this singular remedy for a cold; he walks into the sea up to the middle, with his clothes on, and immediately after goes to bed in his wet clothes, and then laying the bed-clothes over him, procures a sweat, which removes the distemper; and this, he told me, is the only remedy for all manner of colds. - Martin
WHAT IS A HAGGIS?
"Pray, sir," said a man of the south, "why do you boil a haggis in a sheep's bag; and, above all, what is it made of?"
"Sir," answered a man of the north, "we boil it in a sheep's bag. because such was the primitive way; it was invented, sir, before linen was thought of: and as for what it is made of I dare not trust myself with telling. I can never name all the savoury items without tears; and surely you would not wish me to expose myself in public company?"
And that's it for this week and I hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
We had a serious problem this week which affected our site income quite dramatically. I checked our Google Adsense account only to find our income had taken a nose dive. Normally I visit my account no more than twice a month so when I saw the dive downwards in earnings I contacted Google for an explanation and the reply wasn't that helpful.
After some digging I discovered that someone had hacked into our server and managed to change the Google Adsense code on our sites which serves up the adverts you see on the site. They had stripped out the Publisher ID on the script which means that while the adverts still worked we were not being credited for the clicks.
It is only in code view that this is obvious but as I rarely use the code view option it simply wasn't noticed until I started to investigate. I have never heard of this type of attack before and so I have informed Google Adsense, the FBI and RCMP as well as the local police.
Steve has been told to audit our sites as we obviously have a loophole that is being exploited. It also affected the Flag in the Wind site as well. I'm not really too sure about why this happened but as the Flag was affected as well I can't but be a bit suspicious that it might have something to do with the Scottish Referendum.
Due to the seriousness of this issue it took a couple of days out of my working week.
Global Gaelic multimedia project launched
Diaspora invited to become part of the story.
Gaels around the world are encouraged to link up through an exciting multimedia project that celebrates and explores identity, language and culture - and you don’t have to speak Gaelic to get involved.
The ‘Struileag Stories’ Transmedia Project is being launched today (Thursday) in Toronto, Canada, by Cabinet Secretary for Commonwealth Games and Sport, Shona Robison.
Gaels, their descendants and those who strongly identify with Scots Gaelic culture are invited to put themselves and their ancestors on the global map - electronically - via everything from photos, family stories, video and audio clips, to poetry and even recipes.
Struileag, run by Edinburgh-based charity La Banda, aims to capture where people and their ancestors are from, if the latter spoke Gaelic too, and what life has been like for different generations.
The transmedia project received £60,000 funding from the Scottish Government. Other funding partners included VisitScotland, Creative Scotland and Ambition Scotland.
Due to speak at a diaspora breakfast organised by the St Andrew’s Society in Toronto, Ms Robison will say: "In this special year when Scotland welcomes the world, for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Homecoming 2014 and the Ryder Cup, it is entirely fitting that we beat the drum for the Gaelic community scattered across the globe.
"By weaving their stories into Struileag's virtual map, Gaels can connect with each other from continent to continent, as well as helping to form a vital resource bank for future generations.
"The Scottish Government is proud to support La Banda's innovative approach to sharing and celebrating tales from the Gaelic diaspora."
These invaluable resources contributed from members of the diaspora will complement material professionally produced by La Banda.
It is visiting several Gaelic communities worldwide, including in Canada, Australia, South Africa and Russia, researching and documenting stories, as well as developing connections.
In addition, Struileag will premier an epic show called ‘Children of the Smoke’ as part of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games 'Festival 2014' programme, on July 28 at Glasgow Green.
The 75 minute show is also a pivotal Homecoming 2014 event. Gritty and glamorous, it sweeps from Hollywood to Stornoway via Detroit and Woolloomooloo into Glasgow’s big beating heart! Blisteringly contemporary and featuring show-stopping songs, spectacular imagery and exhilarating dance, it will explore and celebrate the importance of indigenous language and its links to culture and identity.
Jim Sutherland, La Banda artistic director, said: “History isn’t a thing of the past, we’re making it now!
“Struileag is reaching around the world to tell the story of the Gael, a people scattered to the wind! La Banda is very grateful for all of the support we have received in the creation of this.”
Mike Cantlay, Chairman of VisitScotland, said: “Ancestry is a valuable part to our tourism offering, contributing millions of pounds to our economy every year.
“Retracing the steps of your family is a fascinating and moving experience and one of the many reasons that visitors come to Scotland.
“There is an estimated 50 million people worldwide with Scottish ancestry so it is exciting to hear we now have a project that will connect and unite the Gaelic community right across the globe.”
Visit http://stories.struileag.com to get involved.
FamilyTreeDNA
myOrigins, our new version of Population Finder, is launching very soon! It will be available for FREE to everyone that has purchased a Family Finder test. Get ready to dive into your ethnic origins like never before!
With myOrigins, you'll be able compare your ethnicity with your Family Finder matches. If you want to share your ethnic origins with your matches, you don't need to take any action. You'll automatically be able to compare your ethnicity with your matches when myOrigins becomes available. This is the recommended option.
https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/...lation-finder/
Electric Canadian
Nova Scotia Historical Society, Reports and Collections
I have found a number of volumes from this Society and have added the first four to get you started. I'll be adding more as I find them.
I added Volume XI 1899/1900 which includes, The War of 1812.
You can read this volume at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ions/index.htm
Bert Lloyd's Boyhood.
A Story from Nova Scotia by J. MacDonald Oxley, LL.D. (1892).
Have now completed this and the final chapters can be read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...hood/index.htm
Nova Scotia: The Province that has been Passed By
By Beckles Willson (1911).
Also completed this book along with an interesting Appendix which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ssed/index.htm
Muskoka Memories
Sketches from Real Life by Ann Hathaway (1904). A new book we're starting.
PREFACE
One word, dear reader, before you commence this book. You will be disappointed if you expect to find in it stories of thrilling adventures, wonderful exploits, or hair-breadth escapes; it contains merely the record of the every-day life of a hard-working family. But, as the human race is largely made up of workers, I hope these pages may interest some of them. If any of you, like myself, know and love Muskoka, I hope my little book will afford you pleasure. If it does this, and also interests some who have never visited our lakes, it will have served the end for which it was written.You can read this book at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...koka/index.htm
Cape Breton
I spent some time this week publishing several smaller accounts of Cape Breton...
History of Religion in Cape Breton
I found a couple of books about the history of religion in Cape Breton but not yet the Catholic religion. You can read what I found at
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...b_religion.htm
Cape Breton Tales
Found two wee books which I found interesting...
Some Micmac Tales from Cape Breton Island By F. G. Speck
Cape Breton Tales By Harry James Smith
You can read these at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...n/cb_tales.htm
Cape Breton Folk
By C. H. Farnham (1885)
This is a story of a trip over the Trail enjoyed by two American Tourists in 1885. There are a number of illustrations in this book. You can get to this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...on/cb_folk.htm
Cape Breton as a Field for Enterprise
By J. L. McDougall
This is a short book so ocr'd it in for you to read and you can to this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...enterprise.htm
The Coal Fields and Coal Trade of the Island of Cape Breton
By Richard Brown F.G.S. &c. 1871
Here is the Preface...
The existence of valuable deposits of Coal in the Island of Cape Breton has been long known, but I am not aware that any account of them has hitherto been published, except in certain scientific works, which are read only by persons interested in the subjects they treat of. The want of a reliable description of the Coal Fields, the capabilities of the mines now in operation, and a history of the rise and progress of the Coal Trade, in a popular form, must often have been experienced by those who have invested their money in the Cape Breton mines, especially by the shareholders of the General Mining Association, few of whom can possibly possess more than an imperfect knowledge of the great extent and value of their mining property. Having had the advantage of consulting the works above referred to, and having also been employed many years in the management of the largest collieries in the Island, I hope the information derived from those sources and my own personal knowledge, submitted in the following pages, will be received with confidence by all who are interested in the Cape Breton mines.
I trust also that shipowners and commercial men generally will be glad to learn from these pages that Cape Breton, which, from its geographical position has been aptly styled ‘The Long Wharf of America/ possesses abundant supplies oT excellent steam fuel, commodious harbours, and, in fact, every necessary qualification for becoming the great coaling station of the innumerable steamers which are rapidly superseding sailing vessels in the navigation of the Atlantic.
Being the last practical point of departure for steamers from America to Europe, Cape Breton is, in every respect, the most suitable place for the eastern terminus of the projected line of railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, through British territory, an undertaking which is now deservedly receiving much attention in the Canadian Dominion. It is a remarkable fact, as has been pointed out in a recent able work,1 that Cape Breton and Vancouver’s Islands—the proposed termini of the line—are the only places on the seaboard which can furnish cheap and excellent coal to the steamers that will be employed on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in maintaining the communication, in connexion with the railway, between Europe and China.
It now only remains for me to say that, in compiling the account of the Coal Fields, I have availed myself of Dr. Dawson’s admirable work on ‘ Acadian Geology,’ and a valuable article in the ‘ Transactions of the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers,’ by John Rutherford, Esq., the Government Inspector of Mines in Nova Scotia. My acknowledgments are also specially due to J. Bj Foord, Esq., the Secretary of the General Mining Association, for the use of several important documents in his office ; to Henry S. Poole, Esq., of the Caledonia Colliery, Glace Bay, for ample accounts of the new mines in the eastern portion of the Sydney Coal Field; and to Richard H. Brown, Esq., the manager of the Sydney and Lingan mines, for much statistical information, and the views of the northern shores of Sydney and Lingan Harbours.
Conscious of many defects, I nevertheless hope this little work will prove acceptable to the shareholders of the General Mining Association, and of the other companies, both English and foreign, engaged in coal mining in Cape Breton, and will convince them that they possess, in their present establishments, ample means for carrying on a large and prosperous business when the restrictions now imposed upon their trade with the United States have been removed—a consummation, there is every reason to believe, not far distant.
R. B.
London: October, 1871
You can read this at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...on/cb_coal.htm
The Gaelic Bards from 1825 - 1875
By Rev. A. Maclean Sinclair (1904)
This is a pdf of the book as it's mostly in the Gaelic language and can be downloaded at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...n/cb_bards.pdf
The Flag in the Wind
This weeks issue was compiled by Margaret Hamilton where we get a bit of a bumper edition from her with lots to read and also a Synopsis!
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Electric Scotland
Alexander Murdoch (1841-1891)
A Scottish Engineer, Poet, Author, Journalist
Added a third book called "Scotch Readings: Humorous and Amusing" and we're breaking this down into individual chapters for you to read. We've added two more chapters, "Johnny Safty's Second Wife" and "The Gas Account Man" which you can find at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...doch/index.htm
Thomas Dick Lauder
This is an author that wrote many historical books and we are going to be bringing you a selection of his books over the next few months.. We are starting on his 3 volume book "Lochandu".
Hope you are enjoying this book. Added another two chapters to this book which brings us up to chapter 14 and you can find these at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...er_thomas1.htm
Enigma Machine
Added puzzle 60 which you can get to at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life.../enigma060.htm
Scottish Historical Review
Addedthe April 1922 issue. It includes a couple of interesting articles, "Eighteenth Century Highland Landlords and the Poverty Problem" and "Rent-Rolls of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem in Scotland"
You can read this issue at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...w/volume19.htm
The Book of Scottish Anecdote
Humorous, Social, Legendary and Historical edited by Alexander Hislop, eighth edition.
I note there are quite a few wee articles on Robert Burns and I was thinking it would be a useful project to save all these and add them to a special page about him. Hint Hint! Any volunteers?
Added pages 302 to 351.You can read these at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/anecdote
Alan Cunningham
This distinguished poet entered the world under those lowly circumstances, and was educated under those disadvantages, which have so signally characterized the history of the best of our Scottish bards.
We've added chapter XIII to the Life of Alan Cunningham.
You can read it at the foot of his page at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...gham_allan.htm
Life Sketches from Scottish History of Brief Biographies of the Scottish Presbyterian Worthies
We now have the first 9 worthies up for you to read.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...hies/index.htm
The Northern Highlands in the Nineteenth Century
Some years ago I published the 2 volumes in this set. Well I have now found a third volume is now available and so have started to work on this and have the Introduction up for you to read.
The Introduction to Volume 3 starts...
The period of fifteen years, from the beginning of 1842 to the close of 1856, is of great interest alike in the political and social history of the United Kingdom, and in the history of Europe. In domestic legislation and in foreign relations it bears all the marks of agitation and transition. The period extends from the opening of Sir Robert Peel’s epoch-making administration till the end of the Crimean war. During this time the country passed through the controversies which resulted in the abolition of the Corn Laws, and experienced the potato famine with its effects on Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. The Chartist movement was a reflection at home of the revolutionary wave which swept over the Continent, and which was the source of vital changes that are still running their course. The outstanding political names in British annals are those of Sir Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, and Lord Palmerston. The same period however, witnessed the rise of Mr Disraeli and Mr Gladstone to a prominent place in the Parliamentary world. In Scotland the Disruption broke up the National Church, and powerfully affected the system of education and the religious and social condition of the people. There was also the extension of railways, partly promoted and partly arrested by what is known as the railway mania. In our own district large railway schemes were proposed, but the only practical outcome for the moment was the short line from Inverness to Naim, constructed in 1854. This was, however, the beginning of the present Highland system.
You can to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ands/index.htm
Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston, Lineage, Life, and Times
With a History of the Invention of Logarithms by Mark Napier (1834). I have added this book to the foot of his page.
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ohn_napier.htm
The Lauderdale Papers
For researchers these three volumes will be a gold mine of information especially through the Restoration period of our history. I am making these volumes available at the foot of the page but have ocr'd in the Preface for you to read.
You can to these at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ale_papers.htm
Scottish Seals
Have updated our page to include further books about our ancient Scottish Seals. You can get to them at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/seals.htm
A Century of Scottish History
From the Days before the '45 to those within Living Memory By Sir Henry Craik (1901)
As it's very focused in a specific time period it provides a very good history and here is what it is all about...
IT is the object of these volumes to follow the course of Scottish history from the time when Scotland was divided from its southern neighbour by well-defined lines of demarcation, alike in religion, in politics, in tradition, and in social habit when, indeed, the points of contact were but few and unimportant down to the period when the Scottish nation, while preserving some valuable and durable national characteristics, became, as regards all its main interests and in the main current of its history, absorbed in one stream with that southern neighbour, with whom it has now formed a partnership so close as to share a common life, and, in the eyes of Europe, to be almost identical. The history of Scotland down to the Jacobite rising of 1745 has been treated very fully in previous works. But in those works the first half of the eighteenth century has been dealt with chiefly as the concluding chapter of her national history not as it affected the period which was to follow. It has therefore been found necessary in these volumes to recapitulate shortly the leading events of that half century, as opening the new chapter in Scottish history which began with the Revolution and the Act of Union episodes, indeed, complementary to one another. From that point Scotland began to shape a new phase in her national life.
As the plan of the present work is to give a chronological narrative of the leading historical events down to the middle of the nineteenth century, it has been necessary to include in it an account of the rising of 1745. But as that dramatic and romantic episode has formed the subject of many detailed narratives, and as the personal history of many of the chief actors has been fully told, the present account of it has been confined to the main events, which alone may be held to come within the history of the nation as a whole.
From 1745 onwards the history of Scotland has hitherto been treated for the most part only as subsidiary to the history of the Empire, and as forming a subordinate chapter in the history of England. Besides this we have, as illustrating Scottish life, a large and most interesting series of memoirs, of accounts of social traits, of pictures of manners, and of contemporary reminiscences. The history of the great ecclesiastical struggle, which culminated in 1843, has been treated as an episode apart, and not as a phase of national history, with its origin in the past and with its permanent influence on national character. The object of these volumes is to give a chronological narrative of all the principal incidents political, ecclesiastical, and legislative, as well as literary, social, and commercial which form the history of Scotland throughout a very momentous century, in the course of which the character of her permanent contribution to the common life of the Empire was chiefly shaped.
H. C.
January 1901.
It finishes with..
We have thus followed the history of Scotland from the period when she was first joined by legislative union with England, and when there still lay before her the last struggle of a decayed system against the forces of modern constitutionalism, down to a period within the memory of those now living. We have seen how, if much of the stress and strain which she had to endure was the inheritance of her own stormy history, it was also, in no small degree, the result of the heedless injustice, the careless apathy, and the purblind neglect of successive English governments. We have seen how, out of varied and often antagonistic elements, she managed to form and to preserve a very strong and vivid sense of nationality, which was not lessened, but distinctly increased and fostered, by the Jacobite movement—a movement which became stronger in Scotland just as it faded away in England. We have seen how she provoked the jealousy of, and met with indifference and contempt an almost insane outburst of abuse from, her southern neighbour. We have seen how, preserving much that was most picturesque and romantic in her national traditions, she shook herself free from the trammels and bondage of mediaevalism, and achieved notable results in thought and literature, which gave her a proud place not only in the Empire, but abroad. We have seen how she helped to consolidate and strengthen the Empire, and how she bore her part in the most critical struggle which that Empire has yet seen. We have seen how her enterprise developed and how she became absorbed in the eager competition for wealth. We have watched how the older and more exclusive forces gradually grew more weak, and how Scotland took her part in the great Reform movements which changed the face of society.
We have seen a new class gaining political supremacy, and holding with a tenacity distinctive of the nation to the new opinions which they had come to form, and clinging to them as sternly as to a religion or an ethical code. We have seen how these convictions were clinched by the fierceness of a great ecclesiastical struggle, the bitter memories of which very slowly passed away. During that struggle a close alliance was struck between religious opinions which were opposed to the dominant latitudinarianism of the previous century, and the middle class which had thriven on commercial prosperity, and had no sympathy with the older social traditions. Only as the century closes has the stubbornness of these convictions relaxed, and a great change of political principle taken place. Its weight and its meaning will be differently explained by different men. To trace its causes, and to estimate its results, must be the business of another generation.
You can download both volumes at: http://www.electricscotland.com/book...y_scothist.htm
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Got in the May edition section 2 which you can read at: http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
Immortal Memory by Mike Duiguid.
Now comes Wing Commander Mike Duguid, a retired Royal Air Force officer who lives in the heart of Burns Country, to share the Immortal Memory he gave at the 2013 Burns Festival Weekend in Camperdown, Victoria in Australia.
Mike grew up in Kincardineshire in northeast Scotland, the home county of Burns’ father William Burness. After school in Aberdeen he joined the Royal Air Force in 1964 and during a 37-year career as an aeronautical engineer served throughout the United Kingdom. He enjoyed a tour in the United States at Strategic Air Command Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska and also at Air Combat Command Headquarters in Virginia. He has served in the Falkland Islands and had extended detachments to over twenty countries including Australia and Canada.
Although Mike had a life-long interest in Robert Burns, it was during a posting in Omaha in 1989 that launched his involvement with organizing and speaking at Burns Suppers. He coordinated and chaired several Burns Suppers and St. Andrew’s nights on behalf of the Scottish Society of Nebraska. On returning from America to a post in the Ministry of Defense, he became an active member of the Burns Club of London. He was heavily involved in the club’s Robert Burns bi-centenary celebrations in 1996 and organized a gala dinner in the Café Royal as well as an open-air concert adjacent to the Burns statue in the Embankment Gardens, the very same gardens in which the idea of a worldwide Burns Federation was first floated in 1885.
After retiring from the RAF, Mike became a full-time student and in 2006 he gained an Honours degree in Scottish Studies at Glasgow University. Mike has been President of the Gatehouse of Fleet Burns Club for the last ten years and still enjoys membership in the Burns Club of London. He served as President of the Robert Burns World Federation during the special Year of Homecoming in 2009/10 and remains a Director on the Board of the Federation and also serves as the Convener of the Literature Committee. In addition, he serves as Editor of the Federation’s very popular newsletter.
Mike has been married to his wife Pat for 42 years and they have two sons and two daughters, all married, and six grandchildren. I have enjoyed Mike’s company and his friendship, and I am particularly proud of the work he is doing as Editor of the Federation newsletter which is even more important now that the Burns Chronicle has reverted to a single volume as in the olden and golden days of the Federation. We welcome Mike to the pages of Robert Burns Lives! with hopes he will contribute even more to our website in the future. (FRS: 5.1.14)
You can read the article at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives199.htm
And another one on Robert Burns...
Address by Andrew Carnegie at the unveiling of a Statue to Burns
Erected by the Citizens of Montrose. 1912.
Our thanks to John Henderson for finding this address and sending it into us.
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/carnegie.htm
Songs of John Henderson
John sent in three songs which you can find at the foot of his page. Mae an' Seth, The Scotland We Cherish and Burn Watter.
You can to these at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
And Finally...
Here are a few wee stories from "The Book of Scottish Anecdote"...
A GOOD REASON
Tam Neil was questioned one day by a lady, at whose house he was employed in making some repairs, as to the reason why people of his profession were so extravagant in their charges for coffins. Tam looked very mysterious, and agreed to inform her of the secret for the matter of a good glass of "Athole brose;" which moderate stipulation being immediately implemented, he told her, "Weel ma'am," he said, "ye see the way we charge sae muckle for coffins, is because they're ne'er brought back to be mended!"
A REBUKE FROM BURNS
Burns called once on a certain lord in Edinburgh, and was shown into the library_ To amuse himself till his lordship was at leisure, the poet took down a volume of Shakspenre, splendidly bound; but on opening it he discovered from the gilding, that it had never been read, and also that the worms were eating it through and through. He therefore took out his pencil and wrote the following lines in it. They, however, were only discovered by accident about twelve years afterwards!
"Through and through the inspired leaves,
Ye maggots, make your windings;
But, oh! respect his lordship's laste,
And spare his golden bindings."
A NATURAL REASON
When Sir Walter Scott was a boy, one of his female friends was conversing with a gentleman respecting the almost perpetual drizzle which prevails in the west of Scotland-a fact for which both parties declared themselves at a loss to account, when Walter, who was in the room unperceived, popped his head up from below the table, and said: "It is only Nature weeping for the barrenness of her soil."
AIDS TO MEMORY
In the Western Islands of Scotland there formerly prevailed a very curious method of fixing the boundaries of land, field's, district's, etc. A crowd of people were collected together, and two or more sagacious and wise men defined the marches, and explained them to those who attended. Two or more young lads were then scourged with thongs of leather that they might the better remember the transaction in after life, and be able to give evidence upon it, should any question or difficulty arise. - Martin
A CURE FOR A COLD
John Campbell, forester of Harris, makes use of this singular remedy for a cold; he walks into the sea up to the middle, with his clothes on, and immediately after goes to bed in his wet clothes, and then laying the bed-clothes over him, procures a sweat, which removes the distemper; and this, he told me, is the only remedy for all manner of colds. - Martin
WHAT IS A HAGGIS?
"Pray, sir," said a man of the south, "why do you boil a haggis in a sheep's bag; and, above all, what is it made of?"
"Sir," answered a man of the north, "we boil it in a sheep's bag. because such was the primitive way; it was invented, sir, before linen was thought of: and as for what it is made of I dare not trust myself with telling. I can never name all the savoury items without tears; and surely you would not wish me to expose myself in public company?"
And that's it for this week and I hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
Comment