All Blog Posts (938)

Chasing my Y-DNA part 28…

On my visit to Piacenza I searched for this armorial unsuccessfuly.

I was told that I was in the centre of the Douglas Scotti area of the city and that there were lots of family palaces - but that did not help!

Kicked off Wiki, Wikitree, and FTDNA. Great to be on Douglas's blog. Chief Margaret Eliott of Redheugh, whose land was gifted to the clan by "Bell the Cat" Douglas, is great not to be kicked off Douglas's blog.

Own and operate elwald.com, clancrozier.com, and gorrenberry.com. I guess they'll have to contact me to kick me off the blog.…

Buried deep in the Archives, I came across a history of this particular family, which I share:

A member of the Methven family recently shared their family crest.

I was not aware of a familial linkage so have done some research, which may or may not be accurate as the heart in this image is not 'flaming'.

Here's what I found:

The Methven coat of arms does not traditionally include a heart. While some Smith families (who are…

Rev JOHN DRYSDALE AND HIS DESCENDANTS, 1681-1991 by D C L Drysdale, is

the story of Rev John Drysdale (1681-1726), Minister at Kirkcaldy from 1712-1726, and

his famous descendants, by his wife, Anne Ferguson, daughter of William Ferguson,

Provost of Kirkcaldy. His third son, Rev John Drysdale (1718-1788), minister in

Edinburgh, was twice elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of

Scotland. Another son, William Drysdale (1717-1757), was merchant and…

ADAM DRYSDALE (1806-1886) OF MONTREAL, His Ancestors, Descendants and

Related Families (1987) by Alpin Ogilvie Drysdale, can really be sub-titled The

Drysdales of Dunfermline, Montreal, and Newfoundland, for the families were all

connected. The families can be traced back to Dunfermline to the Thomas Drysdale

who married Janet Walker. They had 3 children: Adam (b 1738), who married Margaret

Thomson in Inverkeithing in 1762; William (b 1740), who married…

We began the month as we ended June, with silly numbers of site visitors - 10 million in 10 days.



The numbers have reduced, but fluctuate wildly.



However, we have a quarter of a million daily visitor aveage!  Why is the Douglas Archives website so busy?…

Trove Scotland is a digital gateway to Scotland’s historic environment, bringing together a rich tapestry of archives, images, and records from across the country. It’s part of Historic Environment Scotland’s initiative to make cultural heritage more accessible and engaging.

🔍 What You’ll Find on Trove.Scot

• Over 1.2 million images from national archives
• More than 335,000 records of places…

The use of Google, Facebook, Twitter etc has caused me to re-think my membership. I can't join the DNA group because it requires a "social media" login.

After 40 years in IT I refuse to use social media to continue my research.

This pencil drawing is one of at least two known versions of Michael Ayrton’s portrait of the sitter, Norman Douglas (1868–1952). Douglas, Ayrton's sitter was best known for his 1917 novel South Wind and various other travel books. The 1948 version of his portrait by Michael Ayrton titled 'Norman on Capri' is from the estate of…

I have today added several documents to the Douglas Archives.  In themselves, these are not significant enough to qualify as being listed in  'Whats new?' or 'Recently revised' but will be useful to those who stumble upon them as part of their family research.

I note that there is deep research being done on the Northamptonshire Douglases, probably in connection with our mystery man, William Douglas born 1610.  He popped up in research into my mother-in-law's family with a totally…

Knockdolian Castle is a ruined small 16th century pele-tower once occupied by the Grahams, the McCubbins and the MacConnels.

It has come to my attention through research by another (Maybe he will name himself here?) as we dig deeper into my mother-in-law's family history.

Elspet Brok married Adame Dowglase in 'Inveresk with Musselburgh,…

The Douglas Archives has thousands (yes, really!) of visits daily, but almost all of those visitors are unable to access some of the benefits available to registered users.

By registering, you can:

• view information for living individuals,

• download GEDCOMs,

• download PDFs,

• view LDS information when available, and

• edit user profile and change your password.

You'll also receive our e-newsletter with updates about the…

Regrettably, it has become necessary to apply rules of behaviour. This does not reflect on existing members (11 June 2025), but might help keep out the riff raff.

Those of you who have been spammed will understand.

https://douglashistory.ning.com/page/forum-rules

Does anyone know when the distinction happened and why between those who spelt our last name as Douglas versus those who spelt it Douglass??? 
Gene Douglass