ANOTHER UPDATE FROM ANCESTRY ON MY DNA TEST

I received an email from Ancestry earlier this month, which stated that my AncestryDNA results had been updated and were even more precise".

They added that "we're constantly evolving the technology and methods behind AncestryDNA. Using a combination of scientific expertise, the world's largest online consumer DNA database, and millions of family trees linked with DNA results, Ancestry are releasing their most precise DNA update yet".

It now looks like this - 

Basically, my Scottish ethnicity is now 67% (previously was 21% and then 43%).

My English side started off at 60%, then reduced to 54% and now stands at 15%.

And finally, mention of Scandinavia / Sweden ethnicity has disappeared and I now see an Irish side to my ancestry, which measures 18% of my DNA.

The Scottish / English results seem very reasonable, given my family tree research, but to date I haven't come across any Irish ancestors. Perhaps they come from further back in time.

Interesting how the science has developed over the past 2 years, and no doubt there will be more updates in the future.

MY HARDIE FAMILY FROM CASTLETON PARISH, ROXBURGHSHIRE

My HARDIE family stretches back into the early/mid 18th century. But my own personal connection starts with my great grandmother, Helen Hardie - the second eldest of 16 children born to Archibald Scott HARDIE and Margaret KETCHEN.

Archibald (1842-1934), a farm steward, married Margaret (1853-1929), a domestic servant, in Tweedenhead, Roxburghshire on 30th May 1873. Their eldest child, William was born in November that year and my great grandmother Helen was next born in October 1874 at Saughtree Farm in Roxburghshire.

As a brief aside, it is worth mentioning that Margaret Ketchen's father, Walter Ketchen had married a Helen Glendinning in 1852 and moved that same year to take up a shepherding job in North Knapdale, near Lochgilphead in Argyle. Margaret was born there in 1853 but in December 1855, Walter drowned when he fell though the ice at Lochgilphead.  His wife, Helen, was pregnant with their son, Walter, at the time and three months previously, in September 1855, Walter and Helen's second daughter had died. A traumatic start for the family!

I will expand about the life and times of my great grandmother later, but will now try and lay out the little information I have on her siblings, chronologically, from William in 1873 to the last born, Alexander, in 1896.

William, born Saughtree in November 1873 and married Janet Tate McCrae at The Prince of Wales Hall, Glasgow in 1905. I found one child of theirs, Archibald William, born in 1911. Both William and Janet died in Glasgow in 1955.

After my great grandmother, came Walter, born in November 1875 at Saughtree.

John was born in January 1877 at Saughtree and married Jane Hudson in Langholm in 1903. They had 3 children, Mary, Margaret and Archibald, born 1904-1912. Jane died in Hawick in 1916 and John died in Newcastleton in 1945.

Elliot Stavert was born in April 1879 at Saughtree, but unfortunately died 4 months later from "hooping cough and gradual exhaustion after 1 month". (The origins of the middle name STAVERT was a bit of a mystery, but after finding out that father Archibald Scott Hardie was employed as a shepherd at Saughtree by Archibald Stavert, I can only assume that Elliot was named after him).

Elizabeth was born in July 1880 at Saughtree. She died unmarried aged 27 in Melrose, from "intestinal obstruction".

Elliot Stavert was born at Saughtree in October 1881. (it was very common back then for the next born to be named after a child who either died in infancy or very young.) In the 1911 Census, Elliot is aged 29 and living with his parents at Saughtree, but there is no mention of his occupation, only that he is "feeble-minded". He died in July 1959 at Dingleton Hospital, Melrose (the local asylum or as we would now say the "mental health facility") from "chronic nephritis" or chronic kidney disease.

Margaret was born in October 1882 at Saughtree and married Arthur Wylie Ross in Hawick in October 1930. No children from this marriage have yet been found and Margaret died in June 1964 in Hawick, a widow. Cause of death is stated as "dysphagia metastatic" (difficulty swallowing particularly relating to esophageal cancer (although no mention of cancer on the death certificate)) and "bronchitis" and "heart disease".

Archibald was born in February 1884 at Saughtree and married Margaret Thomson in Canonbie, Dumfriesshire in March 1908. They had 8 children that I know of, but information is limited. Archibald died in December 1929 and Margaret in July 1970.

The tenth born was James, in August 1885 at Saughtree. He appears to never have married and died in Carlisle in March 1974.

Agnes was born at Saughtree in January 1887, but unfortunately died 5 weeks later in February 1887 from "bronchitis" and "derangement of digestive system".

Thomas was born in April 1889 at Saughtree and married Catherine Thomson in Castleton Parish in May 1924. They had one child I am aware of, Margaret Ann, born August 1925.

Agnes Mary was born Saughtree in August 1890 and married Henry Spreng in January 1923 in Hawick. They had two known children, Henry and Margaret. Agnes Mary died in September 1974. Henry was born in Germany and had been a German citizen, but became a naturalised British subject in May 1913.

Janet was born in August 1891 at Saughtree. She appears not to have married and died in October 1971.

Jane was born at Saughtree in August 1893. Again, there is no apparent record of a marriage and she died in Newcastleton in February 1955.

Last, but by no means least, Alexander was born in September 1896 at Saughtree and married Janet McVittie Robson by 1922 in Castleton. They had at least 4 children born between 1922 and 1935. Alexander died in Newcastleton in May 1966.

My great grandmother, Helen Hardie, was born at Saughtree in October 1874. In the 1891 Census she was living with her parents and nine siblings at 4 Saughtree Cottages, Castleton Parish, Roxburghshire. By 1901 she was living just over the border in Northumberland, working as a domestic housekeeper for John, Frank and Thomas Anderson (Frank is my great grandfather and John and Thomas his brothers). They all worked at a farm in Upper Longhouse, Wellhaugh, Falstone Parish in Northumberland. This information is all from the 1901 Census, where Helen's sister, Elizabeth, is also mentioned, being a visitor to the dwelling (with her occupation stated as a domestic housemaid).

Helen and Francis ("Frank") Turnbull Anderson married in October 1903 in Yarrow, Selkirkshire and my great uncle James was born in February 1904 at Muttonhall in Yarrow, a shepherd's cottage which Frank had taken over from his twin brothers, William and Cameron. My grandfather, Archibald Hardie Anderson, was born the next year at Muttonhall, on 25th December 1905.

Above, Jim Anderson, Frank Anderson and Helen Hardie (Anderson)

Above, Archie, Frank and Jim Anderson, with Helen Hardie in front.

By 1911, the family had relocated to a Shepherd's Cottage, at Southdean, Roxburghshire, but in May 1912, Francis Turnbull Anderson was born in Newcastleton, Roxburghshire, but died in February 1913 at Burngrains, Ewes parish, Dumfriesshire, from what was stated in the Death Certificate as "(probably) paralysis from 2 days of teething".

In 1915, Helen and family were living at Hillhead House, Hawick and in 1920 were living at Whitehillshiel House, Burnmouth, Castleton parish.

Above, Helen Hardie (second from right) with three of her sisters

1936 sees Helen and Frank living at Redmoss Flatt, again in Castleton, but in 1946, Frank died at Riggfoot, in Ewes parish, Dumfriesshire.

Helen, aged 84, died in 1959 in Langholm, Dumfriesshire. I do however have a photograph of her and me, circa 1954.

Helen Hardie (Anderson) and Neil Byers

MUTTONHALL, YARROW - A HOUSE THROUGH TIME

My first family history recording of Muttonhall, a shepherd's cottage in Yarrow, is in the 1901 Census, where Cameron and William (twin brothers of my great grandfather, Frank Anderson) lived and worked. Shortly after that, by 1903, my great grandparents, Frank and Helen, were living there and in 1904 my great uncle, Jim, was born at Muttonhall. The following year, my grandpa, Archie, was born there, but by the time of the 1911 Census the Anderson family had moved on to a farm near Hawick. (It is perhaps worth mentioning that the family residing in Muttonhall in 1911 was a shepherd and his wife and their 10 children - with the Census stating that the property had "only 2 rooms with one or more windows". Rather crowded I suspect).

Muttonhall is located approximately 4 miles north of the Selkirk to Moffat road. Turning off approximately 1 mile west of The Gordon Arms Hotel, at Craig Douglas Farm (and before you come to St Mary's Loch), it is reached by following the Douglas Burn northwards, passing both Craighope and Blackhouse.

The earliest mention of this cottage I have found to date, is from a book
published in 1902, titled “A History Of The Tweedie, or Tweedy, Family; A
Record Of Scottish Lowland Life & Character”. It states – "Something quite after the fashion of the good old days happened to Thomas Tweedie of Oliver in 1753. It seems that he had some difference with the Crawfurds of Muttonhall, and on the 10th July in that year they "insidiously and violently attacked" him as he was riding on the high road to Linton, a little to the North-east of Hairstanes".

The next mention is in the 1841 Census and from then to 1935, via various Census and Valuation Rolls, it is apparent that the cottage was always occupied by shepherds and their families (with the land owned by wealthy families such as the Tweedies and the Maxwell Stuart's of Traquair).

In July 2013, for no reason other than I thought it would be a good idea to walk to the cottage where my grandpa was born in 1905, I walked from our house in Peebles to Muttonhall and then on to The Gordon Arms. A total distance of just under 20 miles.

My journey that day is related in a separate blog - neilbee.blogspot.com

Not long after that, in early 2014, I contacted a past owner of Muttonhall who had compiled a photo album of the property and surrounding area and uploaded it to an online photobook web site (which my sister had randomly found). Tim Price, whose family had owned Muttonhall from 1982 to 2010 and had completely refurbished the cottage, mentioned that his aunt had made a painting of Muttonhall in 1987/88 and he forwarded to me a printed copy of this painting - which is probably as near as I will get to see of the original building. Here it is.

  

This month (April 2019), I thought I would see if there was any updated online information about Muttonhall. Nothing on any family history websites but I did notice that the sale of Muttonhall and surrounding forestry was mentioned on a couple of estate agents websites. It was being marketed as "The Blackhouse Forest Estate" and I contacted one of these agents and asked if they could send me a copy of their sales particulars, which they did in a glossy brochure.  Here is the front cover of said brochure, as well as a couple of other photos. And the estate agents also created a short video to accompany their sales pitch. This is also included below. And I should mention that the cost to purchase was over £1.8m!!

My great grandparents and grandpa could never have imagined the changes made to their old home! 

AND YET MORE PUBLICITY FOR JAMES HOGG!

Well I bought the local newspaper last Friday - the Peeblesshire News - and in the inside front page was an article taken from another newspaper, the Border Telegraph.

The headline said that there were plans to mark the birth of the Ettrick Shepherd, as next year is the 250th anniversary of the birth of James Hogg.

A Dr Hunter of Stirling University and the Ettrick and Yarrow Community Development Company are getting together to promote Hogg's work and organise events and celebrations in the Scottish Borders during 2020. Local people and businesses will be encouraged to get involved.

Dr Hunter is a Senior Lecturer of English Studies and is quoted as saying that "It is really important to celebrate James Hogg as he is one of the great literary geniuses of the 19th Century, whose work is just as relevant now as it once was".

I look forward to seeing what will be arranged but in the meantime the full newspaper article is undernoted.

GREAT UNCLE RICHARD BYERS - THE STORY SPREADS!

About a month ago, I received a comment on one of my posts. This related to great uncle Richard Byers, who was killed in action in the Great War, and was from someone who was involved with a project at Langholm Academy.

Because Richard was born in the catchment area (Rowanburnfoot near Canonbie) of Langholm Academy, they wished to include Richard in their "Remembering My Soldier" project, which had commenced in 2017. One of its' aims was to create a memorial book, to be retained at the school, with details of all the men from the catchment area who had fallen in the Great War - and a total of 264 were currently known.

A page in this book would be dedicated to each soldier, including as much information as was available, and I was asked if they could use the photo and some detail from my blog post in compiling this page for their book. I replied absolutely no problem.

I was subsequently forwarded a copy of the aforementioned page - and here it is.

A CRITIQUE BY BILLY CONNOLLY OF ONE OF MY COUSIN'S NOVELS!!

In an article written for Penguin Books, in October 2018, Billy Connolly provided a suggested reading list, and of the 12 books he listed, one of them was the undernoted - written by my cousin (six times removed).

For a young Billy Connolly, the library was his salvation. He discusses his love of literature and how it has accompanied him through his adult life.

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg

"Now, here’s a character! James Hogg was a shepherd from a village in the Borders called Ettrick. They call him the Ettrick Shepherd. In fact, I think somebody once called him the Electric Shepherd! I was first attracted to Hogg when I read a quote by him in a bookshop in Inverness. He said, ‘I spent most of my youth trying to lose my innocence and succeeded only in finding a higher form of innocence.’ I read that and I thought, Oh, I like you! It felt like he was writing about me. Because with all the reading I was doing, and the playing instruments, and trying to make something of myself and change my life . . . I wasn’t becoming somebody else. I had thought I would become this other person, but all I was becoming was a bigger version of what I already was. Hogg wrote this work of genius, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justifed Sinner, about twins who are desperately unlike each other. You eventually – spoiler alert! – conclude that it is two sides of the same person. It’s like Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde but it came before it. It’s a brilliant book – and it was written by a wee shepherd! A few people have tried to make it into a film, and Peter McDougall did a good version for T V. James Hogg should be a much bigger figure in Scotland than he is. Everybody goes on about Robert Burns, which is great, but they don’t seem to have room to celebrate anybody else, which is a pity. So, go on! Read the Electric Shepherd!"

FOUND!! - A PHOTOGRAPH OF MY GREAT GRANDFATHER

Well, about 3 weeks ago and totally out of the blue, I had a message sent to me over Facebook Messenger, by a Leslie James Byers. It said "Hi Neil. If you come from Gretna you will be related to me. I had three uncles and half a dozen or more cousins there..." And that was it.

I replied saying that I was indeed born in Gretna and that my grandpa was George Byers. This was Leslie's uncle and it transpired that he (Leslie) was the son of my grandpa's younger brother, Marius. So Leslie was my dad's first cousin and mine, once removed. He is 81 years old and lives in Springfield, just outside Gretna.

Leslie also went on to say that he had messaged a Neil Byers in Lockerbie, who he thought was the grandson of John Thomson Byers (1903-1967), the youngest of the 12 children born to James Byers and Mary Jane Thomson. He had received no reply from this Neil Byers (who I had not heard of before).

Anyway, I thought, on the off chance, to ask Leslie if he had a photo of my great grandfather (his grandfather), James Byers, who is the only one of my eight great grandparents I don't have a photograph of. Amazingly, he replied within half an hour, through Messenger, with a photo of James and here it is.

My great grandfather, James Byers

And upon saying to Leslie that I had a dearth of photos from the Byers side of my family, he also sent me the following - 

My great grandmother, Mary Jane Thomson

Janet Glendinning Byers (1881-1962) (My grandpa's eldest sister and the oldest of the 12 children)

`

Her brother and my great uncle, Robert Byers (1887-1951)

My great uncle, Thomas Joseph Byers (1893-1968)

Another photo of my great uncle, Richard Byers (1896-1917) (Killed in action in the Great War)

My great aunt, Mary Isabella Byers (1897-1962)

My grandfather, George Byers (1899-1960)

My great uncle, Marius Anderson Bell Byers, and wife Hilda Mary Davis, at the time of their Silver Wedding in 1953

As a matter of curiousity, I asked cousin Leslie, why his father had been named "Marius". He said that my great grandfather had worked at some stage for a Marius Bell, at "Broats Farm". (There are a few Broats Farms, but the most likely one, and the closest to Scotland, is near Penrith, Cumbria). Leslie added that Marius' middle name "Anderson" was after the Doctor who delivered him. His other middle name "Bell" is not from the Marius Bell mentioned above, but is the maiden name of his paternal grandmother.

My great uncle, John Thomson Byers (1903-1967) and his wife, Mary Helen McWhir, on their wedding day in 1928

And finally, this is a photograph of my first cousin, once removed, William James Johnston Byers. He fought in the Second World War, was captured by the Japanese and became a Prisoner of War. He worked and died on the building of the Burma Railway. (This was a 258 mile railway line between Thailand and Burma, built by the Empire of Japan in 1943 and more than 12,000 Allied prisoners died in the making of it).

William J.J. Byers (1912-1943)

Quite a treasure trove of family photographs and all as a result of my father's cousin randomly getting in touch.