Roots, shoots and stories

 The two great-great grandmothers that I know the least about are my two Irish great-grandmothers, one paternal and one maternal, Sarah Diamond and Jane Chambers. That is not surprising since Irish records can be difficult to research and to find. So what do I know of them and what information am I missing? Sarah first appears when she marries my 2 x great grandfather, William Boag in Glasgow in 1819. Both were working in the textile industry. Source: Scotlands People Their marriage in the Gorbals was conducted by an independent minister, the significance of which was lost on me at the time but became clearer once I started looking for the baptismal records of her children, whom I had found in the 1841 census for Eaglesham, where William was a cotton spinner. Although I could find her sons' baptisms in the Church of Scotland records, it was only when I checked the Catholic records that I found her daughters! That suggested that Sarah was an Irish Catholic and why her marriage to W...

In these times, when immigration is very much in the news and immigrants and descendants of immigrants often badly thought of by many of the general public, it is worth remembering that many British people today are themselves the descendants of immigrants. This is especially true in Scotland for those people who claim Irish ancestry. Although there has been immigration from Ireland to Scotland for thousands of years, it reached its peak in the 1800s and was at its highest following the Great Famine (1845-1852). In the years leading up to this disaster, there had been many other years of crop failure too and there is no doubt that this was a factor in the flood of Irish immigrants who came over to Scotland. Famished boy and girl turning up the ground to seek for a potato to appease their hunger in Ireland . James  The Illustrated London News, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons I have an Irish great great grandmother on my maternal side and an Irish 3 x great grandmother on my pat...

My 10 x great grandfather on my maternal side, Hans Hamilton, was a minister of the Presbyterian church in the small Ayrshire village of Dunlop in Scotland. One of his sons, James, my 9 x great grand uncle, born in 1559, was not only a witness to history, but played a major part in it, the consequences of which have lasted for centuries.  Portrait of Sir James Hamilton (1559-1643) courtesy of National Trust Castle Ward James seems to have been educated at the University of St Andrews, gaining both a B.A and an M.A in 1584 and 1585 respectively. His scholarliness and wit brought him to the attention of King James VI of Scotland, who, in 1587, sent him on secret mission to Ireland to get information on what Queen Elizabeth I of England was attempting to do there. In 1600 King James sent him to London to act as his agent, in connection with his negotiations for succession to the English throne. While there he bore witness to and wrote about the 'Essex Rebellion' brought about by R...