Buchans of Borthwick

The following story was written as part of "1,500 to 2,000 biography" exercise. Some of this information can be found  in this post  where images provide more general interest. Uncovering the facets of a life lived very long ago is a mixture of luck, techniques and context. Robert Buchan [b1813] emerged in piecemeal from what was only a name for me for over two decades. He was named on his son’s Victorian marriage certificate in 1860, another Robert. How I found which Robert Buchan senior was mine in Scotland through DNA is described here . Even finding him quickly through DNA brought a context. I’d found that ancestors of five of my matches were siblings George and Isabella Buchan, and that the informant on George’s death certificate was his brother Robert. Two years later, let me reveal his life in a standard chronological biography, that mixes the personal, familial, biological and historical contexts, somewhat like a tossed salad. ⇝⇝⇝⇝ Robert Buchan was born in 1813, pos...

Reconnectin g to my Scottish roots has spiralled out of control!  Firstly I just wanted to find the parents of my x2 great-grandfather Robert Buchan who left Scotland aged about 18 years, for Melbourne, Australia in 1852. After all I had their names from Robert’s marriage and death certificates in Australia – Robert Buchan and Janet “McCray”. Yet I could not find their marriage, their child Robert's baptism or a death record for either of this couple. There were plenty of Robert Buchans, but which was mine? As you'll see by the end of this post, I have now embarked on a world-wide Buchan DNA study, which by necessity needs a complete family tree down to the present day. In 2022 I focused on this question using the DNA of my father’s first cousin, Pat, a lady born in 1924. Robert and Janet were her x2 great grandparents, as she was a generation closer to them than I was. The techniques used to ‘isolate’ DNA that came from Robert and Janet were to: 1) build a genetic network o...

  There is a great new way to delve into the Kirk records of Scotland. It is called 'Full text search' on FamilySearch, and is powered by AI. It took me a while to delve into these as they are only available at an affiliate library of this church. Fortunately Family History ACT, my local group, is one such library.  You need a free account, and then I typed in 'Buchan' in the keyword search and 'Borthwick, Midlothian, Scotland' - after all that is the name of the blog! 490 records appeared. I was particularly looking for kirk session minutes or accounts. It was not long before this record appeared, dated 3 November 1821: Excerpt from Borthwick minutes Nov 1821, image courtesy of FamilySearch I think this reads: "Item 5 Widow Buchan - has 7 children at home, the oldest son gets 9 shillings/per week constant at Vogrie - another is employed occasionally at Women's Work - 5 are unable to work. She has 2 cows and £15 in Bank. The meeting having taken the ab...