February 2012
9 posts
A Father's Loss to Cholera, 1832
I stumbled on a sad story today, but one which shows the real cost of the Cholera epidemic in 1832. Its easy to read about the outbreaks of Cholera in the 19th century in a clinical historical sense and it can be difficult apart from finding the numbers of deaths to finding out how it affected an individual family, to find out the real human cost.
Thomas Ternant, a Gardener living in Coldstream,...
First Visit to Kelso Library
On Friday, we met with the staff at Kelso Library to discuss future exhibitions as part of a rolling programme to make the Kelso Archive accessible for a wider audience. Our colleagues at Duns Museum are also involved in the project, which highlights the strengths of local partnership working.
The Kelso Archive Collection is one of the most important held at the Hub. It provides a unique insight...
Walkerburn Mills
Recently, we spent a highly productive and enjoyable morning working on a project with a colleague from Arts Development.
They are developing a programme, which uses traditional song and other active learning approaches to bring to life Walkerburn’s industrial heritage for young people in the local primary school (P1 to 3 & P4 to 7 classes).
As we hold the Ballantyne (Walkerburn Mills)...
A trip to Eyemouth prompts some musings!
Today we went to Eyemouth to pick up the records that the Eyemouth Harbour Trust Board have decided to deposit with us. This will be a great collection to get cataloguing as it details the life of the harbour - which is still a fishing port today!
Before we left we had a quick search to see if we could find an interesting, amusing story to inspire our trip and came accross a volume on google...
Lest we forget
We had a really interesting email today from Gerry Graham, Honorary Secretary of the Hawick Archaeological Society, in connection with our Olympics project.
Gerry enclosed an article about Ivan Laing from Hawick who scored the first ever hockey goal in the Olympics. He is commemorated every year with a hockey match between the senior boys and senior girls of Hawick High School and local...
Archives and Olympics – starting local, thinking...
Border sporting greats of yesteryears are about to enter the arena once more, only this time in the form of an education resource.
We’re currently busy developing a pack of archive newspaper reports to support schools delivering sport-themed projects in this Olympic year.
Via David Ferguson, chief rugby writer, The Scotsman, we were able to track down Henry Gray, manager of Eyemouth leisure...
Jimmie Guthrie rides again
We’re currently helping Burnfoot Primary School to resource a really interesting project on Hawick Historical figures, starring Jimmie Guthrie, Hawick’s racing legend, Isobel Baillie (Hawick’s bright eyed soprano, who performed live at the Hollywood Bowl) and many, many more.
This is entirely in tune with Curriculum for Excellence’s aspirations to offer personalisation and choice in learning...
Border Horrible Histories Exhibition
Posted by: Keith
We're in Who Do You Think You Are Magazine!
Just so you know! We’re featured in this month’s Who Do You Think You Are Magazine.
As a result of this one of our regular archive users came bounding in to tell us that she was delighted to find her great-great grandparents marriage (Robert Kinghorn and Janet Patterson July 1828) shown on a digitised document (Smailholm Kirk Register of Collections and Mortcloths May 1822 - May...
January 2012
3 posts
A Burns Exhibition & Happy Burns Night!
In the past we worked with our lovely Museums service here in the Borders on a number of exhibitions. One was our ‘Burns Tour of the Borders’ some of which can be viewed online:
http://www.heartofhawick.co.uk/heritagehub/exhibitions/onlineexhibitions/burns_tour/burns_tour.html
Coming up soon - the Museums service will be opening an exhibition at Jedburgh Castle Jail on...
Bringing it Home
As part of my new role as Education & Outreach Assistant at the Heritage Hub, I’m currently working with the team to develop an exciting primary and secondary schools project based on the local experience of the First World War.
We aim to add to schools’ existing work on this subject, by using items from our collections to create a set of resources that emphasise the felt experience of the...
Bradshaw's Tour of the Borders!
(North British Station, Peebles, c.1910. Ref: PC/5/4)
After watching some of the BBC’s latest series of Great British Railway Journey’s with Michael Portillo (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xgqxy) we looked to see what Bradshaw said for the Scottish Borders.
Bradshaw’s shilling handbook or descriptive railway handbook, volume for 1860, section IV, which includes some...
December 2011
4 posts
Happy Christmas to all our users, friends and...
Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year from the team at the Heritage Hub!
The image is adapted from a Christmas Card in our collections from 1889 (ref: SC/R/32/3/14)
Posted by:Rachel
World War I - Football Between the Trenches
One of our regular visitors came across a Berwickshire News article from the First World War describing a Christmas truce between British and German soldiers.
The article, dated 12 January 1915 was based on correspondence received by Mr Andrew Davidson, West Coates, Berwick from a former groom (unnnamed) serving in the Seaforth Highlanders. This gentleman wrote:
“We had a rather curious...
Opening Hours from January 2012
Heritage Hub Opening Times: December to the New...
November 2011
7 posts
A swearing competition?!
Kathy in our team was doing some research for another enquiry and came across a report in the Kelso Chronicle, December 15 1893, in the Jedburgh column section on the Police Court. This tickled us as remembering a fine from court that in the news last week we note that this fine was 7s 6d or seven days as opposed to £50 today!
‘POLICE COURT, - Swearing Competition - At the Police...
Beyond the Web: Taking your research further
The internet has revolutionised the ability of people to research their family history but there is life “Beyond the Web” and you will find it at the Heritage Hub.
Here we hold unique archive sources that are not available anywhere else. These help you go beyond the standard resources of census returns, old parish records, and monumental inscriptions etc. many of which can be accessed online....
Unpublished Poem? - The Ettrick Shepherd (d. 21...
Since its the anniversary of James Hogg’s death we thought we’d post up a letter containing what we have been told is an unpublished poem! (Ref: SC/S/12/19/2/2)
The poem was penned on the reverse of a letter concerning the repayment of a local of £6 2s 6d. We can only speculate if the content of the poem and the topic of the letter are in some way connected.
‘Now twenty two...
A story that just keeps on giving.......
We found the story of the Brown Family, who worked in the textile industry in Hawick from the 1840s to the 1870s, to illustrate archives and research to our NVQ local investigations group. Little did we know how much we’d connect together and find out about them!
Postcard of Mid Row in Hawick (late 19th century) - The Brown’s lived in this area and around the west end of Hawick...
Caddonfoot School Celebrations
The Heritage Hub has recently been working with volunteers from Caddonfoot Primary school to pull together information and stories on the history of the school. Stories found include the school coping with the effects of bad weather, proof that some things never change! We also see the effects of the two World Wars on day to day school life.
An exhibition shall be held in the school this coming...
Celebrating Ednam Primary's past and present!
I spent a wonderful afternoon celebrating Ednam Primary’s 100 year anniversary since the opening of their school building. The pupils had researched their school and what life was like in their village and in the wider world during a visit to the Heritage Hub.
From their research and requests for help from the school to local people they produced……
a wonderful display with...
Don't keep your tar next to your bonfire!
There’s a short piece in James Turnbull’s Hawick in Bygone Days book about a bonfire incident. Its not actually about Bonfire Night but its topical all the same!
It seems it was common practice to have celebratory bonfires in Tower Knowe, the example given in the book was when victorious news was sent back from the Crimea. During one of the fires a tar barrel burst and caused flames...
October 2011
7 posts
Forget Burke and Hare, meet Lawrie and Wilson....
A report in Kelso Mail of 11 Dec. 1820 stated that the residents of Coldingham and Eyemouth were ‘considerably agitated by rumours of corpses being dug out of their respective church-yards, and sent to Edinburgh.’ They had organised night watches, taking turns but suspicion grew stronger and………
Coldingham, Dec. 8, 1820
‘a trunk, in the cart of a carrier who...
Not quite David Blane.....
CEILING WALKING – On Monday night the 16th ult, an exhibition of this feat took place in the Commercial Inn, Buccleuch Street, which gave very poor satisfaction to the audience. The entertainment was one of the most paltry description and was not very gratifying to those of the company present who have their threepences to earn by hard labour.
From The Hawick Monthly Advertiser 4 February...
Scandal, Blasphemy, Blood & Ryot
A recent user at the Hertiage Hub spent a marvellous day uncovering tales of her ancestors in Records of the Baron Court of Stitchill, 1655-1807, transcribed by Rev. George Gunn. Edinburgh University Press, 1905.
The book covers 152 years of records from the time when Oliver Cromwell was in his 2nd year as Lord Protector to twelve years before the birth of Queen Victoria.
In every...
How will you present your family history?
You’ve done the research and built a paper mountain, but how are you going to use all that material to write up your family history?
I have just prepared a new fact sheet on this topic with a range of ideas for you to consider.
The mega life-time work of a fully documented family history book, or the setting up a website or weekly blog may sound daunting.
So why not look at creating...
Theft, Breakfast, Mills and Detective work!
Working on our project for our Local Investigations group, we uncovered the story of Thomas Brown and his family. On the face of the census they seem ordinary mill workers but Thomas and his family were soon found to feature in criminal registers, prison records and newspapers to allow us to build a story of their lives.
His sisters provide an intriguing story which is documented in newspapers...
From Ednam Schoolboy to University Professor!
We’ve been working with Ednam Primary School in preparation for a class project and their anniversary of the opening of the new school building in 1911. Now the school know us and how we can help, when they got an enquiry about a former pupil the email flew straight off to our enquiry helpline!
The enquirer wanted to know about David Smith Cairns who grew up in Stichill and attended...
Rabble Ending to a Day Trip - 1851
The Heritage Hub’s rich collection of local newspapers (25 titles dating from 1804) provides some fascinating titbits of informaton on life at the time. Catching my attention in the “Kelso Chronicle” of 12th September 1851 was this colourful account of a railway excursion to Kelso.
“A train, consisting of thirty carriages, containing between eight and nine hundred...
September 2011
3 posts
Water Driven! An Exhibition
01 October 2011 to 29 January 2012
An exhibition is currently running in conjunction with The Borders Textile Towerhouse looking at water power and its part in driving local mill machinery. The Hub’s exhibition theme is William Elliot’s Mill on the Slitrig in Hawick, the current Tower Mill premises, which is believed to be the only mill built on a bridge in Scotland. This successful hosiery...
We're on Twitter!
Follow us now on Twitter to find out about what’s going on at the Heritage Hub - interesting finds in the archive, new accessions, events, new resources and behind the scenes work! @SBC_Archives
Join a Family History Workshop
Are you watching on TV “Who Do You think You Are”? Are you interested in tracing your family history … but don’t know where to start? Then come along to a Family History Workshop at the Heritage Hub, Hawick on Tuesday 25th October 7pm-9pm.
We will show you how the resources at the Heritage Hub can help you in your search. As well as the standard census returns, old parish...
August 2011
4 posts
The Bill McLaren Archive
The Heritage Hub is currently assisting the Bill McLaren Foundation by cataloguing the Bill McLaren archive. This important collection contains hundreds of McLaren’s ‘big sheets’ which he compiled to record a wealth of information about rugby teams, players and officials in preparation for commentating on each match. The sheets are accompanied by pages of notes, descriptions of matches, programmes...
Education isn't what it used to be ...
Well in some cases that might be a good thing. In 1799 children arriving for a new term at school could look forward to a new course of handwriting lessons, consisting of copying out worthy phrases from “The New Copy Book Written and Designed for Schools and Academies”. These might provide sensible advice for negotiating the adult world to come:
Others might reassure those pupils...
14 Steps to Tracing Your Borders Ancestors
Names on the Militia List of 1797 for Castleton, Roxburghshire (R/LR/1/1)
A new series of the popular BBC’s ”Who Do You Think You Are” is launched tonight, to it seems a good time to highlight how the Heritage Hub can help you trace your Borders family history
Contact us at the Hub, home of the Scottish Borders Archive, Local and Family History Service. Tel....
My Ancestor was a Common Riding Principal
Was your ancestor a Cornet, Callant, Braw Lad or Standard Bearer in a Borders Common Riding Festival?
I recently dealt with a remote research enquiry from a Hub user keen to find out more about her grandfather, a Galashiels Braw Lad in the 1930’s.
We hold on microfilm 25 titles of local newspaper, including a complete run of “The Southern Reporter” from 1855. They all...
June 2011
4 posts
Burnfoot sheepfank project
Last week we received a visit from a group of P5 pupils at Burnfoot Community School, who are working with artist Jane Gaze on an exciting design proposal for a viewpoint up on Galalaw. The pupils are creating a design based on the traditional sheepfank - a circular dry-stane structure used by farmers to enclose sheep. Sheepfanks are a very distinctive feature of the Borders hills.
As part of...
All aboard for the emigration exhibition
Earlier this year there was a series of posts about the Heritage Hub’s emigration project with Kirkhope, Ettrick and Yarrow primary schools. Now the pupils’ work is on display at the Heritage Hub alongside the orginal archives documents, in an exhibition all about emigration from the Scottish Borders in the 19th century. The exhibition tells the stories of four sets of emigrants who...
The Purest Pleasure - Archives!
Over a lunchtime reading the newspaper I came accross one of the best quotes about archives from a researcher:
‘The purest pleasure in any historian’s working life comes from a discovery in the archives: nothing compares to the sensation that, as you read through an old document, old certainties are liquefying, and new truths about the past are taking shape.’
What a great...
A "Long Lost Relatives" Successful Search
Attracting large audiences has been the ITV series “Long Lost Relatives” reuniting family members after many years of searching.
. Hawick’s Heritage Hub was recently delighted to make its own contribution to an emotional family reunion, with a visitor from England, spending a week in the Borders to trace a family member whom he had not seen sine the 1950’s.
Apart from the name and some...
May 2011
5 posts
We Will Do the Research for You!
Are you unable to get to the Heritage Hub to consult our unique resources on the Scottish Borders? Then why not make use of our Remote Research Service? We will research any topic relating to the heritage of the Scottish Borders – that is the four counties of Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire, and Selkirkshire
In a unique initiative, we are now working jointly with the Scottish...
Starting on the Ancestral Trail
Above - one of the archive items on display: Smailholm Kirk Mortcloth Book, 1822-47. (SBA/10/1). A mortcloth was a funeral pall hired out to cover a coffin or corpse during the funeral service. In many cases this may be the only record of death before 1855. (Click on the image to see it enlarged)
People from across the Borders recently gathered at the Hub last week to lfind out how to...
Fun at Berwick upon Tweed Family History Fair!
Two of us attended the Family and Local History Fair in Berwick Upon Tweed at the weekend organised by Friends of Berwick Upon Tweed Record Office and Linda Bankier, the Archivist there.
It was a great event with stalls from Local and Family History organisations, Archaeological societies and Archive Offices like us. With over 900 people on the first day we had our work cut out talking to...
Genealogy thoughts from 1842
Doing some research for an education project we looked through some 19th century journals and newspapers. While perusing ‘The Galashiels Weekly Journal’ from 1842 we came accross an article entitled ‘Genealogy’.
Its starts ‘Genealogy in our opinion is a matter of very little importance, fit only for chattering gossips over their tea…..’. Well we had to...
HUBCAT
The Heritage Hub’s new online catalogue, HUBCAT, is now available at: http://www.calmview.eu/HUBCAT/CalmView/default.aspx
It contains collection and item level descriptions of archives and digital images of many of the items we hold. Highlights include descriptions of the:
· Walter Mason Collection relating to the Royal Burgh of Selkirk. 1654-1955.
· Aimers McLean & Co Ltd...
April 2011
2 posts
Join a Family History Workshop on May 12th
Interested in tracing your family history … but don’t know where to start? Then come along to a Family History Workshop at the Heritage Hub, Hawick on Thursday May 12th 7pm-9pm
We will show you how the resources at the Heritage Hub can help you in your search. As well as the usual census returns, old parish records, and monumental inscriptions, you will have the opportunity to view a...
Reivers
Yesterday saw three visits from Drumlanrig St Cuthbert’s Primary School to the Hub, rounding off a series of Reivers-related events to coincide with the Hawick Reivers Festival. As part of the Reivers Festival, the Hub put on a Ballads and Storytelling Session, gave a talk in partnership with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS); and we also...
March 2011
2 posts
Victorian Kelso
This week saw a visit from Edenside Primary School in Kelso, who are studying the Victorians this term. They examined the school reports for the “Ragged School” for poor children and the log book for Kelso North Public School, to find out what school life was like for the different social classes in Victorian times. They also discovered some unsavoury details about public health! In...
School visits and a 17th century witch trial
It’s been a busy start to the year at the Heritage Hub with several school visits, starting off with p1 from Drumlanrig St Cuthbert’s Primary School in Hawick. The wee ones were taken on a tour of the different buildings in the Heart of Hawick, and got to see inside the strong rooms and learn how to move the electronic shelves - an exciting task even for grown-ups!
Next in was...