Roots, shoots and stories

 I like visiting cemeteries. Not everyone feels the same I'm sure. Most people only go to a cemetery for a funeral or to revisit a loved one's grave. But cemeteries aren't just peaceful places to host the dead,  they are also interesting places for the living. Sometimes I have a reason to visit a cemetery. I may be looking for a grave I expect to be there in the hope that it will shed some light on an aspect of my research. Information on immediate family - wife's maiden name, children, including those who died young are often carved on the gravestone. Family members may be buried nearby. Some older stones even carry the occupation or the 'address' of the deceased. Gravestone in Hamilton Parish Church cemetery The cemetery which I have visited most often is that of Kirk O' Shotts. It's the one belonging to the little church you can spot on the hillside when driving along the M8. My dad's parents are buried there, as are some of his siblings. My Uncle

I first started my genealogical journey in the 1980s. No sitting in the comfort of my home doing my research. Once I'd exhausted the very little family documentation available to me, along with any vague names people could remember, I'd to take the train through to Edinburgh and pay a daily fee to do research in New Register House in Edinburgh. There I'd sit, filling in forms for a 'librarian' to take away and bring me microfilms of records which you then had to scroll through, bleary eyed, to try and find the person you were looking for. And a lot of the time I didn't find them. They were either not where they were meant to be or their name wasn't as expected. Many is the time I'd spend a whole day in Edinburgh, with a break for lunch at the McDonalds on the corner, and come home with very little new information, perhaps even nothing.  In genealogy a 'brickwall' is a tough research problem, a deadend which after hours of research still yields no

So last week I mentioned the 'Bald' men in my family and I only had to go back one generation to find some shining examples! This week's topic involved a lot more work. I have no photos of bearded ancestors. My recent lot appear to have been very clean shaven, though I do have a couple of photos of my maternal grandfather with a moustache. So I had to go very, very far back. Of course, if I go pre photographs, I need to find portraits. Again, difficult. The miners, iron workers, agricultural labourers, shoemakers, tollkeepers may indeed have sported beards, but they didn't sit for portraits. I needed to find someone 'important'! I have about five ministers in my tree, but there are no pictures of them that I can find. I had to go further back.  It used to be common practice for a landowner's youngest son to be married to a minister's daughter or his daughters to be married off to the minister, as these children were unlikely to inherit from their father,

 As a woman, the onset of baldness is something I won't have to deal with. The men in my family haven't been as fortunate. Being a 'late' baby, (my dad was 43 when I was born) I never knew my dad when he had a full head of hair. In fact, as far as I was concerned, he always had grey hair. My dad and me (2 years old) He must have started going bald in his 20s as his wedding photo below in 1940 shows. Beside him is his brother, George, who, at four years older than him, is also starting to lose his hair. George is also showing the same balding pattern, receding from the sides, then the centre. This pattern was also shared by his older brothers, Jim and Will, so I'd surmise this is the family balding pattern. Jim and his wife Agnes, Will and his wife Inez The genetics of balding is very complex. However, research suggests that the X chromosome plays an important part. Given that a male only has one X chromosome and that he inherits it from his mother has led to the ide