Hello everyone, I hope you are having a great start to the year! One of the really important parts of researching is keeping your facts neat and tidy, here are five tips to make your researching easier!   1. Save immediately: When I find a record, certificate or fact about an ancestor that I am […]

    It is no secret that Scotland has gone all out on New Year for centuries, but where did this come from, what made it such a popular event and how can you celebrate? A Brief History: Many of the classic Hogmanay traditions were bought to Scotland by invading Vikings in the early 8th […]

  It isn’t always easy to trace your family tree in Australia back to the “motherland”, but I’m here to help! Here are some tips: Google the surname: A quick google of your family surname instantly gives you an idea of where your family came from. Try to avoid websites like Wikipedia others similar that […]

  This week I will be explaining the components of children’s Highland dress. Babies: Highland babies wore a tiny tunic and bonnet, as shown below. In colder weather they would be wrapped in a wool blanket or their mother’s arisaids. When they began to walk, girls would wear a short dress and boys would wear […]

In this week’s blog post I will be explaining the components of men’s Highland Dress. The Plaid: Feileadh-mhor (Fee-lay vor) in Gaelic, the plaid was by far the most common article in men’s highland dress from the late 1500’s onwards, and before that, it was worn over the saffron tunic, a common form of Irish […]

    In this week’s blog post I will be explaining the different components of women’s ancient Highland Dress. The clothing shown here was worn by the general population of Scotland, but not necessarily by women of aristocracy.   The Arisaid: Most Scottish women wore the arisaid ( known as earrasaid or earasaid in Gaelic), a long, […]

Highland dress is a fascinating subject and one of my favourites. In these four blog posts I will be explaining the different kinds of Highland dress worn by women, men and children, but for now, let’s have a quick look at how tartan was made. Clan Tartan: Individual clan tartans were not officially in use […]

A trick that has really helped me with filling in the gaps is this: go by the nephews and nieces names.  You see, Scotland used to have a strict naming tradition, explained in this blog post here As you can see, children were often named after their aunts and uncles, so if you have one ancestor, […]

A question that came up for me recently was why did my 4th great grandfather John Campbell Colquhoun leave his relatives and hometown in Paisley, Renfrewshire to immigrate to Australia in 1857? Coincidentally a few days later I was listening to a podcast episode about the Highland Clearances, and the academic speaking on the podcast […]

  Free trials are a great way to see if a genealogy platform is right for you, since some websites and resources can have very expensive monthly or yearly fees. They can also be wonderful if you are searching for an elusive ancestor that turned up crickets and tumbleweeds on other websites.   But how […]