Buchans of Borthwick

  Readers will not be surprised that I would want to visit these centres. Here, for the cost of £15 a day you can search and see all certificates since 1855, and censuses from 1841 to 1921, and then transcribe them - though absolutely no photographing or downloading. The cost for me in Australia is $2-3 per certificate to download, and these are restricted to ‘historic ones’, those before 1925 for births, 1950 for marriages and 1975 for deaths. In a Centre I can see certificates from 2024! My Buchan study has over 2,500 descendants of George and Jean Buchan, with perhaps 70-80% generating a certificate in Scotland. This is due to bigger family sizes in the 1700-1900s. Emigration kicked off only in 1852 when our x3 great grandfather, Robert Buchan, sailed to Melbourne. My goal was to transcribe all the death certificates for our family that exist on ScotlandsPeople. Then I would do births for the recent decades, and marriages where it was warranted to check identity or a particular ...

The visit to Edinburgh Castle in 2025 provided another serendipitous discovery of a Buchan connection. This was my description of that afternoon. Back to the castle. What a hot-potch. Wandering with Monica, my fellow medic, we agreed to see both the Prisons display (her choice, and it was very good), and the Scots Guards museum (my choice). You may remember that Big Bob, our relative, had joined the Scots Guards as a cadet and risen to become Commander-in-Chief at the time the regiment did two tours of Northern Ireland in the troubled 1970s.  Unfortunately Monica had not agreed to me reading every display. But once we hit Northern Ireland, I was looking for him. I found him in two photographs, and, of course, on the Colonels-in-Chief honour board. General Sir Robert Richardson … actually we share the same middle name - Francis/Frances. Had my parents known something even then, without even knowing it?… I would know that profile anywhere after reading his memoirs. There is a very go...

Alexander Buchan b1816 was the only one of the siblings to my knowledge who had a headstone. He was also the only one of the siblings to move outside Midlothian to work, see the brief biography to follow. As luck would have it I was staying in Roxburghshire, where he lived, died and was buried. I had hopes of finding the lovely headstone that adorned FindAGrave in Maxton Churchyard. Getting a hire car in Roxburghshire, which was initially not on the cards, did mean that I wanted to make an effort. Well it was really was not so much digging out, more scraping away - lichen. I went to Maxton Churchyard where Alexander, brother of Robert Buchan, was said to be buried with wife Jane and son James. I first saw Maxton as I drove out of the hire care place and headed towards Dryburgh Abbey, my first tourist spot! What luck I thought, here is Andrew! A day or so later, after my first day in Hawick Heritage Hub, I drove to Maxon, found the church and two cemeteries and spent an hour looking for...

  Recognizing the life of Robert Francis Richardson 1929 - 2014 He was known as “Big Bob” because he was tall and, I think, carried an air of competent authority. But his distinguished career was not handed to him on a plate.  He was a working class boy who worked and studied hard. He is Helen’s mother’s first cousin, and so he is my third cousin once removed.  Robert Francis Richardson came from a long line of wine and spirits merchants in the port town of Leith. Trade was probably good. His grandfather, father and many uncles were all in the trade, but there were risks. 1895 was a horror year for his family. In the space of a few months his grandfather died in a far-distant health facility, called the Hydropathic Institute, of an alcohol-induced mania, lasting just 2 days. It took some time to find his family several counties away. Soon after this his youngest child aged just one year and nine months died of scarlet fever, while his wife and mother of the other sons die...

This is a story of finding an image of where Robert b1813 and his wife Margaret Ireland lived in the 1860s.  It shows the wonderfully friendly experiences I had in Scotland in 2025, and for me, a major find. I am thrilled to think that he and his family had a substantial home at this time. I just happened to be driving to Lasswade when I saw Lothian Bridge ahead. On a whim I turned in. The first young woman asked what I wanted and I told her the story of 1861 census address 1 Lothian Bridge. "On no, none of these buildings are old, all came with the caravan park." Oh well. Leaving the premises I spotted an old tiny cottage being hammered by a young man up a ladder. I told him the story. "I’m just a worker, the owner might know - that’s his office behind the van." When I turned the corner what I saw was a mansion, clearly undergoing renovation. Danny, the owner, duly answered my “hello” through a pane-less window, and said to come around to the front door. Inside it ...

  Hawick is a medieval market town, of course it is. But it is also home to one of six ScotlandsPeople Centres where for £15 a day I can peruse 100s of certificates. This is so I can do a robust Mortality Survey, documenting the causes of death of every descendant of George and Jean Buchan who died in Scotland. Yes I am a bit weird. Side view of Heritage Hub The journey there is a bit awkward at first. Helen drives me to Kelso (6 miles) and then I catch a bus to Hawick for 50 minutes - all rural. On the first day I shared the small space with 2 researchers and a few workmen moving bits of furniture. On the second day, before the planned film festival in my very space, I was the only researcher but I was joined by 10+ arts students, a theatre director and a student professor all trying to set up some vintage film to best advantage. In the end I sat in a corner, completely enclosed by blackout curtains that were stapled to a bulkhead above me. They gave me a small lamp as they spent ...

  It was unplanned, but it made perfect sense. Late on a day of checking out the the places where Robert and his family lived, and heading towards Newtongrange, a mining village, I suddenly saw a sign to Borthwick Castle. This is the majestic tower house, where Mary Queen of Scots once stayed before fleeing somewhere else, again. And where I sought the daily hiring rate - £10,000 but room for 30-40 guests overnight! But this does include dinner and breakfast. The Church and churchyard were in front of the castle. So I stopped and wandered around. The Castle and church are on a rise, with rather steep sides down to a stream of some sort on the right, and just deep gullies on the left where farms spread out over the hillside. There were some old graves here. A series of terraces, mostly overgrown, led down to the stream. The oldest gravestones were here, not many, a few of the local landholding families. Back up on the main churchyard I wandered around all sides of the church - impor...