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NEWSLETTER OFSIBTHE ORKNEY FAMIFOLKLY HISTORY SOCIETY NEWSISSUE 31 SEPTEMBER 2004 CONTENTS Front Page Nan Scott 2 From the Chair 3 The 1997 Committee 4 Orkney’s Pirate 5 Ann’s Quest 6&7 Graemsay Visit 8&9 Brigadier S P Robertson presenting Nan with a bouquet at the AGM Vedder Part 2 10&11 Nan says farewell Wills & Testaments 12&13 A toon lad but not goodbye 14 Can you trace An appreciation by Frank Eunson, Member No 9 Robert Scollay Members will have noticed when they received committee continues to meet until the “Sib Folk News” - Issue no 30 in June 2004, inaugural meeting.Mrs Nan Scott agreed to 15 that the opening article :- “From the Chair” - chair these meetings, including the Tracing your signed “Nan” was to be the last such editorial inaugural meeting.” family tree by our first chairman, Nan Scott. Then, after a list of those agreeing to be Our society has been in existance for seven and nominated for office, there is the following 16 a half years but Nan predates even the society’s terse sentence :- The Adventure inauguration. A public meeting in Kirkwall “A chairman to succeed Nan Scott is to be was called by expatriate Orcadian Gavin actively sought” (! !) 17&18 Rendall in Autumn 1996 to see whether there So there we are, seven and a half years later, was enough interest in Orkney to form a local the committee has been active and has Just a minute family history society.From this meeting a found a successor for Nan! We must thank steering committee was formed including, as Nan for continuing to lead us and we must 19 Chairman - Nan Scott. Looking back in the apologise for really ignoring her occasionally- Whales and minutes of the first meeting of this committee, voiced wish to retire from the post. Your name in print held in Billy Cardno’s house in Finstown, one For seven years Nan has been the person in finds the following :- charge of leading the society into Paragraph 6 Nomination of Committee coordinating the written sources of Orkney 20 Members family history. Membership “After some discussion it was agreed that and subscriptions the present working party/steering Continued on Page4 2 NEWSLETTEROF THE ORKNEYFAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY reached the pier waiting room where we sheltered until the boat came back for us. For those of you who missed the trip,Bryce has an article on page 6 where you can read about the interesting day we had. From the July is usually our chance to get a willing band of volunteers together to record the stones in one o our graveyards. This year we finished off the Finstown churchyard, on a chair lovely calm evening, a project started some time ago. This will be available in booklet s you can see from the front page we form fairly soon. regretfully said goodbye to our The next project will possibly be Burray— Afounding chairman at this years AGM next year,I think, as nights are suddenly as she has decided that it was time to retire. drawing in again. I would certainly like to thank her for her The Orkney Vintage Rally has become a encouragement and advice when I was regular fixture in our August calendar and ‘persuaded’ to take on the job as chairman. I again we were invited along to take part. certainly have a lot to live up to. Hopefully I Our lap top holds most of our census won’t be in the seat too long before I can material and this made it easy for us to persuade someone else to take on the task. show people how searches for property and The start of the year was quite difficult individuals worked. In addition to selling a with two of our members pointing out that fair number of census books we also enrolled our decisions at the committee meeting at a number of new members. the start of the year was unconstitutional Our September meeting is booked for the and had to be rectified at the AGM. I would Orkney College Lecture Room where Donna like to thank Hugh for his tactful and Heddle will give her talk “On the Border of dignified speech at the beginning of the this Massive Mound’. The October meeting meeting; only going to prove that his will be given over to the launch of James withdrawal from the office was more our loss Irving’s new book ‘Tracing your Orkney than his. ancestors’ and signed copies will be We have had a very busy summer in the available for purchase on the night. office with visitors from far and wide.A Hopefully a review of the book will appear large percentage joined ‘on the spot’ no in the next issue of SIB Folk News. The doubt encouraged by the help they received annual November dinner menu will be held from the office volunteers.Fiftyfive people on the second Thursday in November at a have joined since the AGM making it a very venue still to be decided. If any of members healthy society. from across the water are in Orkney at that Our annual summer outing to Graemsay time they will be welcome to join us. was a great success more so thanks to Bryce Now that Dave Higgins has recovered Wilson who shared his extensive knowledge from his 1100 mile walk from Lands End to on a walking tour round his native island. John O’ Groats he has turned his attention We started off in thick fog but by the time back to the web site and hopes to have more we stopped for lunch the mist had rolled information available to our members from away and the cliffs of Hoy towered over us. 1st October. l Fortunately the rain held off until we Anne Rendal Continued from page 1 computers and to churn out rapid fire census Of course there has always been a tradition books (especially when the 1901 census of of folk knowledge being passed orally down the parishes became available). Members are the generations. There have also been family aware that the society has had the aim of trees, drawn to differing degrees of regular meetings so that we can be nearer complexity. Again, considerable amounts of than a newsletter, a phone call, snail mail, or information have been jotted by enthusiasts even e-mail contact to one another. (Is into notebooks or even on sheets of scrap someone thinking “what an old fashioned paper.Gavin was the strategist who had the idea” ?) Family history is about people and vision of a body to collect these disparate people meet and see one another and talk to scraps or bodies of information coinciding one another. Anyone who has not been able with the awakening worldwide interest of to attend a monthly get together won’t know people to connect with their roots. It has the buzz of conversation after a meeting as been left to resident Orcadians to be the members talk “family”. footsoldiers to man the office, to fire away at Continued on page 3 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEYFAMILY HISTORYSOCIETY 3 Other notable THE 1997 COMMITTEE OF THE THEN NEWLYFORMED ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Back Row. Brig.S.P.Robertson, George R Gray, Gavin Rendall, Stephen Bichan, Frank Eunson, the late David Rendall, events of Billy Cardno.Front Row.The late Janice Sinclair, Helen Manson, Nan Scott, Norma Craigie, Helen Angus. 1997 Continued from Page 2 Jim Wallace had his Nan has always been a gracious In the society’s seven years we have been at fourth victory in the chairperson of these gatherings and has three addresses close to St Magnus Cathedral. Orkney and Shetland welcomed regulars and visitors alike. Our present one on the first floor of Orkney General Election and Committee meetings were often held in Library’s new building with a view across gained more votes than the Scott home and the hospitality , Tankerness House Gardens to the cathedral and the palaces is easily the most attractive all the other candidates especially the gingerbread and fatty cutties, put together. and, most convenient for location and facilities. was much appreciated by members. Two brothers were fined In obtaining each of our premises Nan played a Nan was shrewd in assessing people’s £90,000 each at considerable part as a link between the society gifts and how these could relate to the Kirkwall Sheriff Court and our landlord on each occasion - Orkney benefit of the society. She has always been a for egg stealing. This great encourager and generous in her praise. Islands Council. was later reduced to Behind the scene she was frequently making On committee Nan has served with four £6,000 and £4,000 phone contacts with people near and far in different vice-chairmen, two secretaries, three respectively. order that society meetings might go ahead research secretaries and three editors of Sib A former Kirkwall in an interesting manner, Folk News. Meanwhile the society has grown :- woman won nearly Nan has a number of interests outside 125 members at inauguration in 1997; £3,000,000 on the family history and through these the society 200 after one year; 400 at the end of our National Lottery. has become better known. This has led to third year; 500 at the dawn of this century Mastermind was invitations for speakers to address meetings in 2001; 600 one year later; 900 had joined by screened for the last of womans’ rural institutes, church womans’ the start of 2003 and finally, member 1000 time at St Magnus guilds and tourist organisations along with joining during that year.