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Digitizing data from the 1696 Aberdeenshire Poll Book
Title page, List of Pollable Persons within the Shire of Aberdeen. 1696. Volume Second., printed in Aberdeen by William Bennett on behalf of the Spaulding Club in 1844 | Internet Archive The poll tax When we hear of a poll tax in the United States, thoughts turn to our sordid history of Jim Crow systemic…
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From Glencoe to Aboyne III: a virtual 17th century migration
NOTE: Please read Parts I and II if you haven’t yet done so, then return here to complete the series. When I first began this exploration as a Covid-driven hobby, I looked at maps of Scotland, tracing possible routes from Glencoe to Aboyne that generally avoided what I assumed to be a pure no-man’s land…
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From Glencoe to Aboyne II: surviving the 17th century Highlands
Drone footage of Glencoe in winter | TourScotland Part I of this mini-series explored the Massacre of Glencoe and its aftermath, including possible escape and migration scenarios that may have involved a very young Peter Cromar. Our goal was not to prove the migration, just to demonstrate it was not impossible. Here, we attempt to…
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From Glencoe to Aboyne I: reversing the riddle
YE loyal Macdonalds, awaken! awaken!Why sleep ye so soundly in face of the foe?The clouds pass away, and the morning is breaking;But when will awaken the Sons of Glencoe? Mary Maxwell Campbell | Lament for Glencoe So, after around 30 journal entries exploring the origins of the Cromars in Aberdeenshire, and with all of that…
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Migrations II: first forays out from Aboyne
A guilty pleasure I’ve made no secret of one of my deeply guilty pleasures: watching Outlander. You’ll find this show somewhere in a demonic Venn diagram intersecting Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, World on Fire, and H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine, with some generic beach-read romance novel love scenes bordering on female-gaze porn thrown…
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Bonars in the 1696 Poll Book: a deeper understanding of Janet’s origins?
I received an interesting message from Jessica McDonald in Canada a couple of weeks ago, detailing an analysis she and her mother Wendy Cromar Mathers had performed on the List of Pollable Persons Within the Shire of Aberdeen 1696, presented in Volume 1 and Volume 2. This important record is available free of charge at…
