Our Highland Bains

The clan name is removed to protect privacy, however family members know who I mean. Tonight I met the Clan Chief of MacL, or Rory. Happily he was very down to earth, dressed in brown shorts, employed by the Scottish Government to do with legal stuff around renewable energy projects (mostly). He has two older sisters, and two daughters. The eldest is the heir, and at nine, is only just cottoning onto the difference it might make to her life.  His father was the genealogist who tracked down the evidence to become Clan Chief. He was always working on it, writing letters, receiving letters, visiting cemeteries - putting powder on the flat ones and then brushing it away to reveal the lettering. After dropping kids somewhere he would go to nearby library. His archive of material is in a bothy near D. Rory has had his DNA done, Y confirms he is a MacL, thankfully. They did a whole lot of testing at a 700 year anniversary of Bannockburn about 2014, without really thinking about the potent...

Knowing the names of the parents of Alexander Bain, father  of the Margaret Bain who emigrated in the 1850s, has now thrown open the doors to finding out about his family. It is not always as easy as it might be back in the late 1700s and early 1800s. But now we have parents. Alexander Bain and Margaret Chisholm married on 10 Jun 1796 in Dingwall, Ross-shire. He was a tenant of Lechins of Blackwells, she was the daughter of deceased Don Chisholm [or Millan]. There is a Blackwell St heading west out of Dingwall. I will be checking into this when I go the Inverness Archives. Marriage certificate of Alexander and Margaret, image courtesy of Scotland'sPeople I have found a total of seven children born to them, based on one definite baptism and six death certificates that record both parents' names. They are: Margaret Bain born and baptised on 25 March 1797. There are a few other children baptised on the birthday on the page from the register, and in the latest a child was baptis...

K nowing I was going to be in the Highlands for five days on my bigger tour, I wrote to the local family history society in the hope that one of their members would be willing to drive me around a few nearby villages. With a grateful offer of petrol, lunch and a small monetary thank-you. Within a week, they duly sent me an email. Excitedly, I sent off a request and within days had a pleasant reply outlining exactly what I was hoping to do. Only then did I think to google the name - a professional tour guide! The price of 550GBP was eye-watering. Over the following days, what seemed initially extravagant coalesced into a marvellous opportunity. The background, education, skills and professionalism of the guide were outstanding. All I had to do was paypal to an email - a new but easy experience. What's more the guide had written several books. I was browsing the $2 bargain table at the triennial Family History Congress of Australasia, when I spied a hardback copy of one such book. Ea...

This account of the ancient town and royal burgh of Dingwall was written by Reverend Mr Daniel Rose about 1791. It is a much longer document at 20 pages, compared to Fodderty at 5 pages. "The parish of Dingwall, situated at the west end of the Firth of Cromarty, lies in the Presbytery of Dingwall, of which the town of that name is the seat, and in the Synod and county of Ross. It is bounded on the east by the parish of Kiltearn; on the north by a vast tract of high mountains; on the west and south by the parish of Fodderty. That part of the parish of Urquhart, called Ferintosh (where my Bains lived at one time) lies on the skirt to the south east; but from it Dingwall is divided by the river Conan, which, at high water is widened to about half a mile by the influx of the sea". The name was formally Dingnaval or Dingnavallis, and took it origin from the richness and fertility of the soil of the lower grounds, which form a considerable part of the parish. Excluding a small dist...

  W hat can I expect from Fodderty Cemetery? Fodderty Cemetery has been in use from medieval times to the 21st century. It is a rural, multi-period graveyard extended several times. There is no redundant or in-use church. However the mound is felt to have been the site of an earlier church, dedicated to St Moluag of Lismore. The mound is terraced on the north side, and has sheer drops in parts on the east. It is now covered in 19th century graves and monuments. The gate is the war memorial of the area. The site was visited in 2005 due to concerns about imminent danger of wall collapse. The oldest part of the graveyard is on raised ground and is surrounded by stone rubble walls. The gravestones face east in this part. The ground is uneven indicating layers of burials. The gravestones include slabs, table tops, and uprights. This cemetery is depicted on a military map c1746 labelled as burial ground. It lies at the end of a 'coffin road' from Knockfarrel, and is being investigate...

In 1791 when the Old Statistical Accounts were written,   Fodderty was a parish in the Counties of Ross and Cromarty, the Presbytery of Dingwall and the Synod of Ross. The Account was written by Reverend Mr Donald Mackenzie. The name comes from the Gaelic "Foigh-ritudb" meaning a meadow along the side of a hill. The parish is mostly in a valley, surrounded by hills to the north, west and south, with an extensive opening to the east. The name of the valley is Strathpeffer; it is nearly two miles long and half a mile broad. To the north-east is the town and parish of Dingwall. Most people live in the valley, but some live in "small glens, which extend to some distance along the opening of the hills". These may lie nearer the churches of Dingwall or Contin. Current Dingwall Church, built after 1800 The climate is "pure", and several men and woman then living were over 90 years old. Smallpox is mentioned: "[it] often rages here, and frequently proves mort...