2024 Week 17: War #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

Many people come from families with a long tradition of serving in the Armed Forces, others find their family only serving in times of war. Neither of my parents, nor any of my grandparents served in the forces. During WW1, both my grandfathers were 'too old' and both in "reserved occupations". These were jobs which exempted you from serving in the military as they were seen as being vital for the defence and smooth running of the country. John McAra as a miner and John Anderson as a metal and steelworker fell under this banner.

During WW2 my own dad was also in a reserved occupation , being a civil engineer. This job took him away from his native Lanarkshire and as such he spent some time during the war living down in Hayes, Middlesex and in Wrexham in Wales. While there however, he did serve in the Home Guard - I vaguely remember him mentioning some of his duties included ensuring people got safely into air raid shelters, but I am sure there was more to it than that. Yet another item on my list of things I should have asked him or my mum while they was still alive!

I only have a couple of photos of close family members in uniform. My dad's older brother Lamond, who may have served in WW1. I have tried to find out about the uniform he is wearing but have not found out anything.

Lamond McAra (1895-1934)

My mother's younger sister, Ann Anderson, was a driver in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during WW2. Women like her were doing many of the same jobs the men were doing, but for only 2/3 of the pay.

Ann Anderson 1919-2002)

I have to go really deep into my tree to find direct ancestors I definitely know were involved fighting in wars. My 12 x great grandfather, Alexander 1st Lord Elphinstone fought with James IV of Scotland against the English at the Battle of Flodden in Northumberland in 1513. Unfortunately he died in battle there. Wearing the royal insignia, it has been said that he may have been mistaken for the king when he was killed. The king himself and many other Scottish nobles died that day, September 9th 1513.

On the same ancestral line, but much further back we come to my 20 x great grandfather, Robert de Brus, whom I have written about before. King of Scotland from 1306-1329, Robert, a national hero in Scotland, led the Scots to victory in the First War of Scottish Independence against the English at Bannockburn, despite leading a smaller army. Go Grandpa Bob! - as I often describe him :)

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Week 50: You wouldn't believe it! #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

I have already written about my 3 x great uncle, James McAra, who was sentenced to deportation at the High Court in Edinburgh in 1811. His crime had been to attack his brother, my 3 x great grandfather, Alexander, with an iron bar during an argument, with Alexander being badly hurt and dying a few days later. James was an iron worker by trade in Scotland and continued this trade in the small town of Sorell in Tasmania. We cannot know much about the life he led in Sorell, but he is mentioned in a variety of documents. For example we know he was given a Free Pardon by the Governor of Tasmania and New South Wales in 1836. He also acquired some land in 1839, which, in his Will, he left to daughters of a friend. We know his affection for 'drink', which had led to the fatal fight back in Scotland, never left him as 'excessive drinking' was given as cause of death on his death certificate. However his tombstone bears witness to the fact he was well-liked and a 'good and h

2024 Week 14: Favourite recipe #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

So, despite the heading, I'm not going to write about a favourite recipe that an ancestor has passed down to me, simply because there isn't one. What or rather whom I'm going to write about is my mum, Helen Anderson, who absolutely loved baking. And it is this love of baking that has been passed on to me. My mum. My mum was always baking. Like most children, I got allowed to 'lick the spoon' and taste the raw cake mixture. I got to learn to how to make crispie cakes. I watched how to make pancakes and enjoyed getting the first ones off the pan. I took in helpful baking hints like 'half fat to flour' for pastry or ' 4 4 4 plus 2' for the measurements of flour, sugar, butter and eggs needed for a sponge cake or little butterfly cakes. She had learned how to bake from her mother, as many women in her generation had done. There was always something 'in the tin' should a friend or neighbour pop in for a cup of tea. But she didn't just bake f

2024 Week 43: Lost contact #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

When we research our ancestors and their families, it is all to easy to become a collector of names, dates and places. After all, we want to 'know' who they were and where they lived and when, in order to get a glimpse into what their life was like. We look for photographs of our most recent ancestors to see what they looked like. We trawl censuses, Poor Law Applications, Wills and Testaments to get some detail about their rank in society, their jobs, their financial circumstances. We discover their families, the children they had, the children they lost. We may read their obituaries and gravestones and scan their death certificates for cause of death. Through research, we can slowly start to build up a picture of them, a notion that we know 'who they were'. But something will usually elude us - we will never truly know their feelings/emotions, even if we know the key moments in their lives. Take my grandmother, Christina, who lost her first four children and then anot

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