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Archiver > ALT-GENEALOGY > 2004-10 > 1096750948


From: "Anne Burgess" <>
Subject: Re: New Scottish Genealogy/Ancestral site launched
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2004 21:02:28 +0000 (UTC)
References: <FyiO2cDQlQXBFwki@siliconglen.com> <2s55daF1gb2jhU1@uni-berlin.de> <cjjrs9$1k4$1@hercules.btinternet.com> <9Cf7d.8206$By5.745697@read2.cgocable.net> <cjk51n$q4b$1@sparta.btinternet.com> <0en7d.8260$By5.759442@read2.cgocable.net> <cjm6t0$255$1@titan.btinternet.com>


> I noticed your comments on AncestralScotland and, reluctantly, have to
> agree that www.ancestralscotland.com is not all that it should be.
>
> I was one of the Committee members that helped in the development and >
> final launching of this site which was designed to encourage Genealogy
> through Tourism.
>
> We had great ideas and thoughts as to what should/should not be on the >
> site but the plug was pulled by Visit Scotland (lack of funds so I
> believe) before the full potential could be realised.
Now where have I heard that story before??

> So there you have it - any questions please fire away and I'll do my
> d.......... to reply.
> Ewan

Well done for admitting it isn't all it should be.

I think the main problem with it is that it lures you in with the promise
that it will help you trace your Scottish ancestors, then not only fails to
deliver, but also fails to direct you to, for example, www.genuki.org.uk.
Worse, it sidetracks you away from its purported reason for being there to
material which duplicates the main VisitScotland site.

The links to parishes, heritage centres etc would be much improved if they
contained hyperlinks to the appropriate web sites - GENUKI pages for
parishes, own web sites for libraries and archives and so on.

I looked at the 'clan and family heartlands' bit for Moray. Where are the
references to Innes and Brodie, Leslie and Gordon, all of whom were
important clans in Moray?

Under Kincardineshire the only names listed are Fraser (refenced to
Fraserburgh) and Gordon (centred on Strathbogie). Neither Fraserburgh nor
Strathbogie is in Kincardineshire - and where is the reference to Keith, the
family name of the Earls Marischal, of Dunnottar Castle in Kincardineshire
(and also of Aberdeenshire)?

Oh, there it is, under Banffshire. Well, well, well.

What about Angus, I wonder? Hmmm. It says that Carnegie, Lindsay, Douglas,
Ogilvie are 'a selection of the most common names (note, 'names', not
'clans') in this area'.

Yet these four names are ranked respectively nowhere, 71st, 69th and 98th in
the list of the 100 commonest surnames in 'Tayside' in the booklet published
by the GROS in 1991. The commonest surnames in 'Tayside', according to the
Registrar General for Scotland, are Smith, Stewart, Robertson, Thomson,
Brown, Anderson, Wilson, Duncan, Scott and Mitchell.

How on earth did all this pap and disinformation get past our so-called
'National Tourist Board', which ought to be making sure that the information
it provides is both accurate and as helpful as possible?

Positive points are that the site mentions the various family history
societies (though again hyperlinks to the societies' own web sites would be
a useful tool).

And I congratulate it for not offering me any spurious clan links for most
of the surnames in my (100% Scottish) family tree. It openly and correctly
admits that it cannot find clan links for them.

I very much hope that VisitScotland (daft name!) can be persuaded to supply
a small amount of funding to turn this site into something vaguely useful to
prospective genealogical tourists.

Anne
(who worked for a quarter of a century in various Scottish tourist
information centres)


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