Buchans of Borthwick

When I travelled to Newlandrig, on the day I came down with Covid, I was probably missing the subtle clues about the landscape and the built environment. Helen was driving me around the locations associated with Robert Buchan b1813. Most of these places are significant for many other Buchan descendants too.  The Buchans were in Newlandrig by 1808, when an infant son died and was buried in Newbattle Churchyard. They were there in the 1921 census, barely. We drove along the Dalkeith Bypass (A68) to turn off onto Main St (B6372). Soon after the turnoff was Dewarton, and I really can't remember it, where the Buchans lived from about 1800-1804/5. Newlandrig is half way between Pathead and Gorebridge. It  is about 10 minutes drive from Dalkeith, and perhaps 20 minutes from Edinburgh by car. Being tucked in the middle of a rural landscape, only a minor road passes anywhere near it. However it is a pretty place, with wide open fields on either side, and patches of dense trees that evoke my

Buried with our Buchans in Newbattle Churchyard are five other people. Four of those are named Brown.  Refresh your memory of the lair records .  Is there a reason why they were buried across the same plots as the Buchans? When I found that three were related to each other, and the stillborn Brown child was also probably part of this family, I began to suspect that there just may be a link. The first child I looked at was named Janet McCree Brown and you can image why her name caught my eye. She was only 18 months old when she died of Croup on 13 April 1889. She was buried on 15 April 1889.  She lived at Hunterfield, as did the two other Browns. Hunterfield is a hamlet about 2 miles from Newlandrig, and is the closest settlement to our village. Janet's parents were revealed to be Abram Brown and Mary Falconer. I then bought this couple's marriage certificate of 31 December 1880. They married in Stobhill, another nearby small village near Gorebridge. I was thrilled to see that A

My Buchan ancestor came to Australia in 1852. Buchans have been probably been on the move for a very long time. Our DNA confirms that the Buchan family have ancestral roots in Scotland, meaning they were there between 500-1000 years ago. [Many 'Scots' find out that their DNA suggests Irish or sometimes English or European ethnicity].  A study such as mine can document  where  Buchans went, and  when  they went. Social history might tell us why they emigrated when they did. I have traced the movements of all descendants of George Buchan and Jean Johnston until modern privacy laws kick in. Scots, like all peoples of the British Isles, moved primarily to North America (USA - 33% and Canada 48%), to Australia - 76% and New Zealand - 70%, to South Africa - 3%, to countries in South America, to the Indian subcontinent as well as western Europe, Scandinavia and Central America. The darker the colour in the map below, the higher that place's current population is thought to have Br

I'm a medical doctor so I find cause of death an interesting and powerful part of understanding the past. But an individual's information tells us about something that might have been bad luck or random or .... But what if we could combine the information about why people died over the centuries, across family lines, in different places and whether young or old? We would get an understanding of the forces acting on the lives of our ancestors and their families.  While in Scotland I spent a day at the National Records Office in Edinburgh, extracting the information from all death certificates of the descendants of Robert Buchan b1813. When I go back next year I will do the same for the other siblings; George b1802 will be the doosey. Up until 1855, information on causes of death was dependant on either the clergyman recording this on a burial register or cemetery records. Examples of each of these from our family are: 1. Excerpt from Old Parish Registers Deaths for Parish 695, N

My trip to Borthwick was very successful. Firstly I survived, I only got Covid on the third day before coming home and really only two days were seriously disrupted - I didn't know it was Covid till I got back to Australia. I do wish I had not got Covid because it limited what Helen and I could do in Newtongrange and Lothian Bridge, and I did not get to wander around the Old Town of Edinburgh. But I did have a next best thing of doing 3 hours of hop-on hop-off tours of Edinburgh and Leith when I was mildly ill on my last day. It was sunny, and I sat on the open top level and I reckon not too many people would have caught my bug. Let me run through what emerged: National Records Centre (of ScotlandsPeople) I booked two days at the centre. The first day was spent recording all the people who lived in Newlandrig from 1841 to 1921. It was clear by 1911 that there were no more Buchan descendants living there. I was disappointed. Nevertheless I think there was a discovery at Newlandrig,

After the initial success of finding which Buchan family my emigrant Robert Buchan belonged to, the goal of my DNA study was to identify the parents of George Buchan and Jean Johnston from the DNA of their descendants.  George and Jean are my x4 great grandparents, both were born between 1770-1780. No document has yet been found that identifies their parents. Many researchers, including myself, propose that Jean is the daughter of James Johnston and Mary Bowstie. This couple had a daughter Jean baptised on 1 February 1780 in Temple Parish, Borthwick.   Temple is a village and civil parish in Midlothian, lying immediately to the west of Borthwick, and about 6 km from Newlandrig. Their address is provided as "Slabs Greenh[ouse?]" and as yet I have not found a similar place on any map. Findmypast has transcribed the date of baptism as 14 February 1780. I think the correct date might be 17 February, reading the text on the document as "James Johnston and Mary Bostie in Slabs

Robert was 74 years old when a wagon struck him at eight o’clock in the morning on a winters day in January 1887. He died instantly. His wife would learn quickly of his death as his body was returned home immediately to Newtongrange, a mining village less than half a mile from the colliery.  Certainly a doctor was required to certify the cause of death, it being an accident. Two days later he was interred in the Newbattle Churchyard, now known as the Old Newbattle Cemetery.  Scotland has a system called Register of Corrected Entries (RCE).  Since 1855, all death certificates are issued  following a declaration by a medical doctor. This is the system we have in Australia. The death must be registered within 8 days. If the registration is delayed by the need for an investigation, then it will often generate an RCE.  RCE are also created about sudden and violent deaths for the same reason. As well, they are created for divorces, and any significant change about a birth as well.  Often not