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Date: 10 August 2009
With Scotland's Year of Homecoming providing a wonderful reminder of the significance so many of us place on the land of our birth, this year's Angus & Dundee Roots Festival will be aimed at helping people throughout the local area find out more about their family's history.
During the week of the Festival, which runs from September 26 until October 4, a variety of family history events will be taking place to assist family historians from near and far discover more about their Angus and Dundee ancestors. With events including genealogy workshops, guidance from local archivists, lectures from genealogy experts and a local history and genealogy fair, the Angus & Dundee Roots Festival will provide a wealth of opportunities for genealogists to find out more about their family in days gone by.
John Irvine of Tay Valley Family History Society (TVFHS) has been involved in family history research for over 25 years. Having researched his own family right back to the mid-1500s, as a volunteer with TVFHS, John now helps other people uncover the facts about their family's connections to Angus, Dundee, Perth and Fife. "If you're thinking about researching your family tree, my advice would be start now," suggests John. "The first step in any genealogical research is to talk to elderly relatives about their generation and previous generations of your family."
John explained that this should provide enough information to track down several generations of your ancestors at www.scotlandspeople.com. "This will enable you to create your family tree and then the next step is to find out more about the people on your family tree. What did they do for a living, where did they stay, did they get up to anything exciting, illegal or newsworthy?"
One of the most fascinating aspects of genealogy is that you never know what you might discover during your research or what family myths may be discounted or proved correct.
Forfar & Kirriemuir
"My paternal grandmother and her sister often proudly recounted that their grandmother, Janet Ogilvy, was a cousin of Margaret Ogilvy, the mother of JM Barrie," explains Jack Blair from Kirriemuir, whose family has been in Angus for over six hundred years. "They always continued their story by saying that Margaret Ogilvy's family had come from the laird, adding, in lowered tones: 'But the wrong side of the blanket'.
"Looking through the records, I discovered that Janet's father, John Ogilvy, was the eldest child to Andrew Ogilvy and Jean Edward - and Andrew was the 'natural son' of David Ogilvy, the Laird of Ascreavie, one of the estates near Kirriemuir. And Andrew and Jean had eight children, including Alexander Ogilvy, JM Barrie's grandfather on his mother's side, so both family stories were soundly based on fact."
Brechin
Scotland has a vast range of carefully-preserved records that are invaluable when tracing Scottish ancestors. However, those looking for information about the people of Angus have an additional bonus - Andrew Jervise, author, historian and record keeper, who was born Brechin in 1820."Historians and genealogists still use his work, including 'Sketches of the History and Traditions of Glenesk', 'The Land of the Lindsays' and 'Glamis Its History and Antiquities' as points of reference," said John Irvine.
"Although the internet is a great source of genealogical information, when I read Andrew Jervise's 19th century accounts of the history of Angus, it's almost as though I've stepped back in time to the days of my ancestors."
Arbroath
John Irvine recently assisted a fellow member of the Tay Valley Family History Society to investigate his family and discovered that he was a descendant of one of the founders of the Mormon Church.
"On his mother's side, I came across Hugh Sidley Gowans, a baker from Arbroath who immigrated to America with his wife and baby daughter in 1855," explains John. "Once in America, the Gowans family travelled to Utah, where Hugh became one or the leading members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
"At some point in every family tree, an ancestor pops up with a fascinating story, which is one of the many reasons people find researching their family's history such an enjoyable pastime."
The Tayroots Festival is on from 26 September to 4 October.