The Douglas Archives

A collection of historical and genalogical records

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John Douglas, 7th Premier of Queensland

I have recently been revisiting the story of John Douglas, 7th Premier of Queensland, Australia. It has given me the opportunity of including more details of his family and descendants in the database. These will be added at the next GEDCOM upload.



Doing my research, I came across Jeremy Hodes thesis, The Uncompromising Liberal, which was written over a period… Continue

Added by William Douglas on September 14, 2010 at 11:08 — No Comments

Head of the clan - a debate

Wikipedia has it's fans and it's detractors. The on-line encyclopaedia will be 10 years old in 2011, and has in that time become a major reference for researchers in all fields of discovery.



Because Wkipedia can be edited by anyone, it is prone to pranksters and to the spread of mis-information. However, it is still a very useful resource.



Anyone doing serious research is advised to use alternative sources to verify the information. However, Wikipedia itself offers an…

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Added by William Douglas on September 6, 2010 at 15:00 — 2 Comments

Fraud warning

You are probably aware of the Nigerian scams informing you to you only have to send your bank details to receive squillions of pounds or dollars from suspended accounts.



However, I was disturbed to read of one from 'Mr Paul Douglas'.



If you receive a message from please him, do not respond; perhaps I should be adding him to my Rogues and Vagabonds section?


As a P.S.…
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Added by William Douglas on August 28, 2010 at 11:42 — No Comments

Gelston Castle, Jordonville, New York

Gelston Castle is a limestone mansion near Jordonville, New York. The mansion, possibly a replica of a castle called Gelston in Scotland, was built between 1834 and 1836 by Harriet Douglas Crugar.



When she died, she left the castle to her niece, Fanny Monroe (1824-1906), the grandniece of President James Monroe. Fanny Monroe left the castle to her son Douglas Robinson who married Corrine Roosevelt, the sister of president Theodore Roosevelt. Reputedly, three presidents,… Continue

Added by William Douglas on August 25, 2010 at 22:05 — 8 Comments

Earl of Arran title claimed by Swiss millionaire

One of the titles held by Alexander, 16th Duke of Hamilton, is being claimed by Willi Ernst Sturzenegger, a Swiss millionaire who already styles himself 'Sturzenegger of Arran, holder of the territorial Earldom of Arran'.



Mr Sturzenegger, who already freely styles himself online as Lord Arran, had a similar petition turned down by the Lord Lyon, the guardian of Scottish titles and heraldry.



He claimed his title in 1995 along with a few thousand acres of Arran and the… Continue

Added by William Douglas on August 25, 2010 at 9:55 — No Comments

DNA developments

As those who are members of the Douglas DNA project will be aware, this is a busy week with developments in sorting out the Douglas lines.



We have identified 48 R1b1b2 participants in the Douglas group which includes the men with paper lineages to the Earls of Morton.

There are a further 12 R1b1b2 who are indicated to be Niall of 9 hostages descendants. Some of these claim Angus descent, some Morton , and some do not know.… Continue

Added by William Douglas on August 19, 2010 at 9:28 — No Comments

Physicians and surgeons

Kenneth David Morton Douglas is seeking further details of David Morton Douglas (Physician and Surgeon) who was practising in the Bow area of London in 1882 when his wife Rosina Sarah gave birth to Kenneth's grandfather, James Herbert David Morton Douglas.



This led me to the thought that we have many distinguished doctors, physicians and surgeons in the Douglas family, some of whom are included in the… Continue

Added by William Douglas on August 17, 2010 at 9:56 — No Comments

Douglas sword sells at auction "has gone to a Douglas"

Douglas sword A silver hilted broadsword dating from 1705, with a much older Scottish blade from the 14th century, went up for sale yesterday (July 28) at Bonhams' sale of Antique Arms and Armour.


It had been passed down through the Douglas family to Sir Alec Douglas Home of the Hirsel, former British Prime Minister, and sold for £10,800, defeating its estimate of…
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Added by William Douglas on July 30, 2010 at 9:57 — No Comments

Milly, a cystic fibrosis sufferer, dies

We were saddened to learn of the death of Mily, wife of Manolo Garcia Falcon and mother of Lucia, and beloved daughter of Paddy and Sarah.

It may be remembered that we told her story here, in the Douglas Archives Community Network, back in April.

You can find it here>>>

Added by William Douglas on July 27, 2010 at 22:54 — No Comments

Perthshire records go online

57,000 historic records from the Perthshire area of Scotland were made available by the website Ancestry.co.uk this week.



The records date from 1566 to 1901 and cover records from school admissions and surveys of the local militia.



They include the Perthshire School Registers of Admissions and Withdrawals, which contains the names of around 75,000 pupils covering the period 1869 to 1901. Each… Continue

Added by William Douglas on July 27, 2010 at 10:51 — No Comments

Douglas ephemera for sale on eBay

An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the 'Fram,' 1910-1912, by Roald Amundsen, translated from the Norwegian by A. G. Chater, in Two Volumes (Volumes I and II, complete set) is for sale on Ebay.


What does this have to do with the Douglas family? You may well ask.


The volumes are signed by Amundsen in the upper part of a front endpage of Vol. I, "Very sincerely yours / Roald Amundsen," also both copies signed at top…
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Added by William Douglas on July 26, 2010 at 18:46 — No Comments

Did you get my response?

As the compiler of the Douglas Archives, I receive numerous messages through the website, and I try to respond to them all.



Some enquiries are about people only distantly connected with the Douglas family, others are key players in our history.



I find it particularly frustrating when I receive messages where the originator's email address is incorrectly completed. Then I have no way of acknowledging the message, and no way of providing a response which may, or may not, add… Continue

Added by William Douglas on July 24, 2010 at 12:33 — No Comments

Douglas septs - McGuffog

Can anyone help with this enquiry?



I was wonder if you could help me in relation to the McGuffock McGuffey Sept what research you have in relation to this family being associated with the douglas clan etc. My family name was McGuffog but I have found the name spelt numerous ways. I have also found reference that they belonged…
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Added by William Douglas on July 24, 2010 at 12:30 — No Comments

Ancestry launches the Australia Birth, Marriage and Death Index

The release of Ancestry's Australia BMD Index seems to have been met with mixed reviews. Interestingly, here in the UK, although it got press coverage, and links to the Ancestry.co.uk website, there are no obvious details there!



However, full details can be found on the Autralian site:…

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Added by William Douglas on July 16, 2010 at 10:49 — No Comments

Your profile

The key to networking is that you should be able to find people with similar interests - and that they should be able to find you.



I was looking at all those who were researching Irish ancestors today, and was struck at how many did not include the word 'Irish' in their profiles. Yes, of course I also searched under 'Ireland', but we must make it easy for others to find us. Places of birth or death, dates, names of spouses, maiden names - all these can help someone with like… Continue

Added by William Douglas on July 15, 2010 at 20:47 — No Comments

Perthshire Douglas families

Whilst researching something entirely different, and as I was about to shut down and head for bed, I stumbled upon a family history that reminded me why I am not a pure genealogist!



Whilst we need their skills to help us find our roots, it is the history behind the names that I find fascinating.



The story records details of events that took place on a hillside visible from my bedroom window when I was a boy, and there were lots of familiar place names mentioned, so I did… Continue

Added by William Douglas on July 8, 2010 at 15:03 — No Comments

Scots breakthrough in helping families go back to their roots

Scottish scientists have found a way to identify a person’s family roots to within a few miles, raising the possibility that city dwellers could soon trace their descendants back to their ancestral village.



The team analysed the genetics of unrelated people who had four grandparents from the same village on Scottish islands, three Italian alpine villages and two in Croatia. This resulting data was fed into a computer, which then decided which town each of the people came from based… Continue

Added by William Douglas on July 7, 2010 at 11:43 — No Comments

Updating our records

New material comes my way on a daily basis, and adding this to the Douglas Archives could be a full time business. Sadly, many other responsibilities make this impossible! probably that is just as well.



The genealogy database now has 151,362 Individuals:and 64,109 Families. However, getting these on-line is a major task, so I tend to restrict this to about once a month.



I do try to update the history section every day or two. This is a relatively easy process. Sometimes,… Continue

Added by William Douglas on June 28, 2010 at 20:52 — No Comments

Priorities and progress - hatches, matches and dispatches.

As many already know, my current priority for research is often dictated by the most recent request for assistance with a family tree. However, my current work is correcting a Douglas branch that I had thought had died out.


I received a message from the great great grand-daughter of Sir Robert Andrews Douglas 3rd bart.of Glenbervie, proving that he did indeed have a family, and so I…
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Added by William Douglas on June 28, 2010 at 10:38 — No Comments

Douglas Families of Tennessee

There are only 7 memebrs so far, but a Facebook group has formed in an attempt to beat some of those Tennessee brick walls.

If that's where your Douglas family has connections, maybe you should consider joining?

Or you could form a group here!

Added by William Douglas on June 22, 2010 at 21:30 — No Comments

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Making conections

The more information you can give about the people you mention, the more chance there is of someone else connecting with your family.

Dates and places of births, deaths and marriages all help to place families.

Professions also help.

'My great-grandmother mother was a Douglas from Montrose' does not give many clues to follow up! But a bit of flesh on the bones makes further research possible. But if we are told who she married, what his profession was and where the children were baptised, then we can get to work.

Maybe it is time to update the information in your profile?


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