William Douglas's Blog (600)

When Lord Milo Douglas, the bipolar son of the Marquess of Queensberry, killed himself, the health authorities were well aware of his suicidal feelings. His family want to know how he slipped through the net. For Lady Queensberry, no official explanation can answer the abiding question. 'My question is, what else could Milo have done to make himself heard? And that question wasn’t answered. How much more do you have to do to show that you…

Johnny Douglas has spent half his life wading through swamps, waging war with cold-blooded hissing reptiles that are famous for their death rolls. But the 46-year-old Wildwood outdoorsman recently traded his bang stick for a weed whacker, taking up a new career as a landscaper.

Catching gators for a living just got too expensive for the former state-licensed…

A series of posts on the Rootsweb Forum make interesting reading, and demonstrates the value of DNA testing. They started with is:

I may have missed previous discussions about William Domini Douglas? If anyone can help clear up the questions about his parentage, birth, etc., I would greatly appreciate it! I have traced him back through my great,great grandfather, WHH Douglass of…

Donna Douglas, the actress who played Elly May Clampett in the hit US comedy show "Beverly Hillbillies", has sued toy maker Mattel over Barbie dolls, which she claims are based on her.  

The lawsuit filed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, claimed packaging for the toy company's "Elly May" Barbie doll features a…

Sally Douglas's article on the Douglases of Bonjedward and Timpendean is now available as a flip book.

Portraits of Countess Luigia Douglas Scotti d'Adda are available on many sites across the internet.

But who is she?

For those of  you who may be interested in having your DNA done.

FamilyTreeDNA (http://www.familytreedna.com) will be running discounts tomorrow, April 15, National DNA Day.

This sword blade, depicting the Douglas heart, was allegedly given to Sir James Douglas by Robert the Bruce.

However, as Bruce would still have had his heart had he been alive when he gave it, then the heart would not have featured!

So, whose sword is it?

Can anyone make out the verse inscribed on the…

Do use Scotland's People for your research? One of my frustrations is the time limit on using 'credits'. 

The price for 30 credits will go up from £6 to £7 starting April 1. But also with this change, the credits will no longer expire after 90 days. They will now be good for one year.

Why is there any time limit?

There is a bit of a spat between Wikipedians over the introduction of Douglas into the Hamilton name.

Who was the first Douglas-Hamilton?  And which Duke was the first to use the double barrelled name?

To see what is going on behind the scenes, one must look at the 'View history' and talk pages.  You can see who is editing the article, and look at their talk pages.

The earliest date that I can find for a Douglas-Hamilton is 1874. Does anyone know better?

Contessa della Rena was the wife of a Florentine wine merchant, who became mistress of various members of the English aristocracy. By 1759 she was in England under the protection of William Douglas, Earl of March, a notorious rake whose main interests were horse-racing, dancing girls and opera. In the last of these, March and his mistress would have come into contact with Giardini, whose forays into production of the Italian opera [was noted previously].

La Rena sat to…

The kirkyards website is a resource containing a variety of information to assist people researching their family trees where their ancestors came from the Stewartry (or County) of Kirkcudbright, or the local history of the county, as it existed prior to 1975 when county boundaries were removed and it became part of Dumfries and Galloway.

All inscriptions on gravestones in the following parishes were transcribed and the…

I was asked recently if I knew the origins of the Inglis family right to wear the Douglas Hunting tartan.  of course, I don't!

The Inglis are a sept of the Douglases, and I presume different septs have the right to wear different Douglas tartans.…

Jean Douglas, styled Lady Glenbucket, as being the widow of the late Gordon of Glenbucket, had been endowed by her husband, in terms of her marriage contract with a thousand pounds Scots of free rent out of the best of his lands ‘nearest adjacent to the house.’ At his death in 1693, she entered on the possession of the mains and house of Glenbucket, and uplifted some of the rents, out of which she did aliment her eight children till May [1696],' when an…

AddressingHistory is asking history enthusiasts to explore their ancestors and local historical connections by finding and placing historical Scottish Post Office Directory listings on the map. 

 

Funded by JISC, the AddressingHistory website combines the listings from the Directories, historical forerunners of Yellow Pages, with maps…

Howard Mathieson has created a free Google Earth app entitled GeoGenealogy's Gazetteer of Scotland, in effect a Gazetteer of Gazetteers it has the following features:

Scalable boundary files of the counties(32) and the parishes(891) of Scotland

Each county has links to Genuki, The Family search WIKI ,  …