Comments for Sheena Tait - Scottish Genealogy Research

Comment on Summary of WWI records available online by Julie Parker

Julie Parker — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 17:42:05 +0000

Marcus, I have been looking for a contact email for you on your wonderful website which I have stumbled across whilst researching my great uncle who was taken prisoner of war in August 1914 and later taken to Ruhleben. I am so lucky as his surname was Atkinson and you have him in your list A-B – can’t tell you how great it was to see his name there.Thank you so much!!! It I am trying to find out the name of the ship he was on – I think it may have been s.s. Castro or s.s. Hull which I believe were captured early on in proceedings. My great uncle was called Sydney Herbert Atkinson and he lived at 25 Devon Street Hull. He was first officer at the time. What is really sad was that though he clearly survived WW1, he was torpedoed in WW2 when he was chief officer of the Zurichmor in 1942. I had no idea about any of this until I started researching my family tree. It seems to be very difficult to find details of ships in MN at this time. I am reading ‘In Ruhleben’: Letters from a Prisoner to his mother’ and in a plan in that I can see that my uncle’s barrack was up in the Loft of the stables- probably as he would be one of the first to be interned. I am also trying to discover when he was released as I have found him in your site, listed as as one of the men who were asking for hardship money for their families. i was hoping that this might give me details of any wife he may have had. I sent for a marriiage certificate which turned out to be his second marriage, as it lists him as widower. However, I can find no trace of an earlier marriage in this country. I am wondering if he maybe married abroad. anyway thank you so much for filling this gap in the dearth of knowledge about Ruhleben. I had never heard of it until last week when I was trawling through newspaper archives online and found a short report in The Daily Mail (Hull) of 1916 which was reporting the death of his older brother at Gallipoli. In WW! , sydney Herbert also lost a brother who was drowned whilst serving in the RN in 1914. This report mentioned that another brother which you have confirmed was Sydney Herbert, was POW in Ruhleben. Thanks again so much.

Comment on Summary of WWI records available online by Marcus Bateman (@MarcusBateman)

Marcus Bateman (@MarcusBateman) — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 16:42:43 +0000

My index of First World War Merchant Seamen POWs has changed it’s website details. It can now be found at http://www.spw-surrey.com/mt9/ with additional information from the Board of Trade records held at the National Archives.

Comment on Did your ancestor die in the Tay Bridge disaster? by “On The Last Sabbath Day of 1879” « Lochgarry's Blog

“On The Last Sabbath Day of 1879” « Lochgarry's Blog — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 00:05:27 +0000

[...] http://setait.co.uk/did-your-ancestor-die-in-the-tay-bridge-disaster/ [...]

Comment on It’s all his fault by Jack (John) Hunter

Jack (John) Hunter — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 11:03:28 +0000

Interesting to see a photo of Ann Hunter and other info. Her grandfather Andrew Hunter (b1801) was my ggg grandfather and I believe he is also your ggg grandfather.
Very interesting work you have done.

Comment on Early female aviators by sheena

sheena — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:49:02 +0000

Hi Jimmy
She got her licence on 3 June 1930 flying a De Havilland Gipsy at the Scottish Flying Club (which was based at the old Abbotsinsch Airport). Her address was given as “Skeldon”, Dalrymple, Ayrshire and she’s one of the few who has a photograph!

Sheena

Comment on Early female aviators by Stewart Ritchie

Stewart Ritchie — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:08:02 +0000

Hi Douglas, rather than add all our comments to Sheena’s blog, here is a link to my email…

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-WbYDQ3Y5IDMzAxNnJ3Um5DMnc

Comment on Early female aviators by Dr Hugh Douglas MacEwan

Dr Hugh Douglas MacEwan — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 21:13:49 +0000

Dear Stewart
Well,Well,Well. I thought I was the only person on the planet looking for these particular Paterson ancestors. So far I have about 56 names pre my mother Henrietta. I would be very happy to compare notes. I should have realised when you mentioned my grandfather James, who smoked a pipe and sang songs to me when I was a (very) little boy!
Regards from Douglas.

Comment on Early female aviators by Stewart Ritchie

Stewart Ritchie — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 10:54:32 +0000

I have been researching my family history (and the Paterson family in particular).

Henrietta would be my 1st cousin 3x removed. Her grandfather James Smith Paterson, was my 3x great granfather.

It would be nice to be put in touch with Douglas if possible, so I could confirm a few details about the family who ended up in Ipswich (I believe he had two aunts from the Paterson side who lived there as well).

Comment on How many generations back can you trace? by Kassondra Coxson

Kassondra Coxson — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:07:14 +0000

Clearly I pressed “Post Comment” before finishing my math but you get the gist. ;p

Comment on How many generations back can you trace? by Kassondra Coxson

Kassondra Coxson — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:04:47 +0000

I just finished my first road trip to visit three states here in the US where I had previously exhausted my internet research options. As I was sitting here, I wondered how far back people usually have as a goal for their genealogy research so I asked Google and found this blog post of yours. Glad I did. You inspired me to check my progress and here is what I’ve found.

My father is African American and I haven’t been able to get past the US Civil War. On his side I can trace:

Generations 1-4: 13 out of 15 possible names (86.67% of his gg)
and that’s it.

My mothers’ family is from Belgium, Poland, and Russia and I haven’t yet had the opportunity to visit those countries to locate documents that haven’t been digitized for the internet. On her side I can trace:

Generations 1-4: 13 out of 15 possible names (75% of her gg)
Generation 5: 3 out of 16 possible names (18.75% of her 2x gg)
Generation 6: 1 out of 32 possible names (3.13% of her 3x gg)
Generation 7: 1 out of 64 possible names (1.56% of her 4x gg)
and that’s it.

Now I begin the daunting process of trying to locate will and land records to piece together the history of my African American ancestors before the Civil War. Eventually I will make a trip to Belgium, Poland, and Russia to attempt to locate BMD records there.

I’ve done most of my research through Ancestry.com, familysearch.org, jewishgen.org, microfilm from the public library, a trip to the marriage bureau in NYC, and Social Security documents ordered online. Additionally, my husbands’ family has in their possession a family bible with some information. His family was a lot easier since his paternal grandmother was a Doan (part of the largest family association in North America).

On his fathers’ side (the Doan line) I can trace:

Generations 1-4: 15 out of 15 possible names (all of his gg)
Generation 5: 12 out of 16 possible names (
Generation 6: 5 out of 32 possible names (
Generation 7: 3 out of 64 possible names (
Generation 8: 4 out of 128 possible names (
Generation 9: 3 out of 256 possible names (
Generation 10: 4 out of 512 possible names (
Generation 11: 3 out of 1024 possible names (
and that’s it.

On his mothers’ side I can trace:

Generations 1-4: 15 out of 15 possible names (all of her gg)
Generation 5: 13 out of 16 possible names (81.25% of her 2x gg)
Generation 6: 17 out of 32 possible names (53.13% of her 3x gg)
Generation 7: 6 out of 64 possible names (9.38% of her 4x gg)
Generation 8: 2 out of 128 possible names
Generation 9 2 out of 256 possible names
Generation 10: 2 out of 512 possible names
Generation 11: 1 out of 1024 possible names
Generation 12: 2 out of 2048 possible names
and that’s it.