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SCOTLAND
United Kingdom TOP OF PAGE |
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Introduction
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It is believed that the first
group of humans in Scotland appeared around 8,000 years ago. A group of
permanent settlers began building villages on Scottish soil around 6,000
years ago. The written history of Scotland largely began with the arrival of
the Roman Empire in Britain, when
the Romans occupied what is now England and Wales, administering it as a Roman province called Britannia. Part of southern
Scotland was briefly, indirectly controlled by Rome. To the north was
territory not conquered by the Romans—Caledonia, peopled by the Picts, with the Scots of Dalriada in Argyll. Pictland became dominated by the
Pictish sub-kingdom of Fortriu, but
the Kingdom
of Scotland is traditionally dated from 843, when Kenneth
I of Scotland became King of
the Picts. In the following centuries,
the Kingdom
of the Scots expanded to something closer to modern Scotland. The
period was marked by comparatively good relations with the Wessex rulers of England,
intense internal dynastic disunity and, despite this, relatively successful
expansionary policies. Sometime after an invasion of Strathclyde
by King Edmund of England in 945, the province was handed over to King Malcolm
I. During the reign of King Indulf
(954-62), the Scots captured the
fortress later called Edinburgh,
their first foothold in Lothian. The
reign of Malcolm
II saw fuller incorporation of these territories. The critical
year was perhaps 1018, when king Máel Coluim II
defeated the Northumbrians
at the Battle of
Carham. The Norman Conquest of
England in 1066 initiated a chain of events which started to move the Kingdom
of Scotland away from its originally Gaelic cultural orientation. Malcolm
III married Margaret the sister of Edgar Ætheling the deposed
Anglo-Saxon claimant to the throne of England, who subsequently received some
Scottish support. Margaret played a major role in reducing the influence of Celtic
Christianity. When her youngest son David I
later succeeded, Scotland gained something of its own "Norman
Conquest". Having previously become an important Anglo-Norman lord through
marriage, David I was instrumental in introducing feudalism into Scotland and
in encouraging an influx of settlers from the Low Countries to the burghs to
enhance trading links with continental Europe. By the late 13th century,
scores of Norman and Anglo-Norman families had been granted Scottish lands. After the death of the Maid
of Norway, last direct heir of Alexander
III of Scotland, Scotland's nobility asked the King of England to
adjudicate between rival claimants to the vacant Scottish throne, but Edward I
of England, instead, attempted to install a puppet monarchy and
exert outright control. The Scots resisted, however, under the leadership of
Sir William Wallace
and Andrew de
Moray in support of John Balliol, and later under |
that of Robert
the Bruce. Bruce, crowned as King Robert I on March 25, 1306, won
a decisive victory over the English at the Battle
of Bannockburn on June 23 - June 24, 1314, but warfare flared up
again after his death during the second Wars
of Scottish Independence from 1332 to 1357 in which Edward Balliol attempted
unsuccessfully to win back the throne from Bruce's heirs, with the support of
the English king. Eventually, with the emergence of the Stewart dynasty in the 1370s,
the situation in Scotland began to stabilise. By the end of the Middle
Ages, Scotland was showing a split into two cultural areas — the mainly Scots-speaking Lowlands,
and the mainly Gaelic-speaking
Highlands.
However, Galwegian
Gaelic persisted in remote parts of the southwest, which had
formed part of the kingdom of
Galloway, probably up until the late 18th century. Historically,
the Lowlands were closer to mainstream European culture. By comparison, the clan system of the Highlands
formed one of the region's more distinctive features, with a number of
powerful clans remaining dominant until after the Act of
Union 1707. In 1603, the Scottish King James VI
of Scotland inherited the throne of the Kingdom of
England, and became James I of England. With the exception of a
period under the Commonwealth,
Scotland remained a separate state, but there was considerable conflict
between the crown and the Covenanters
over the form of church government. After the Glorious
Revolution and the overthrow of the Roman Catholic James
VII by William and
Mary, Scotland briefly threatened to select a different Protestant
monarch from England. In 1707, however,
following English threats to end trade and free movement across the border,
the Scottish and English Parliaments enacted the Acts of
Union, which created the Kingdom
of Great Britain. Two major Jacobite risings launched from
the north of Scotland in 1715 and 1745 failed to remove the House of Hanover from the
throne. The deposed Jacobite Stuart
claimants had remained popular in the Highlands and north-east, particularly
amongst non-Presbyterians. Following the Act of Union
and the subsequent Scottish
Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution, Scotland became one of
the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Its industrial
decline following the World War II was particularly acute, but in recent
decades the country has enjoyed something of a cultural and economic
renaissance, fuelled in part by a resurgent financial services and
electronics sector, the proceeds of North Sea oil and gas, and
latterly the devolved parliament. In 1997 the people of Scotland voted to
create a new devolved Scottish
Parliament, subsequently established by the UK government under the Scotland
Act 1998. |
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SCOTLAND, U.K.
Surnames
The following are surnames
of our persons in our databases identified as having been born, married, or
died in this location. |
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Avenel; Beaumont; Campbell; Comyn;
Dickson; Douglass; Kerr;
Lawson; Moffat; Neely; Poynings; Robertson; Strathbogie; Todd; William |
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To find out more about each surname listed
above click on the corresponding LINK. Additional information regarding these
surnames may also be found at: |
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SCOTLAND, U.K.
Ancestral
Counties
The following named
counties are associated with the history of our DIRECT ancestors. At our Ancestral Locations home page you
will find additional links to county pages where you can obtain information
about our family gen-sites, images of localities, and surnames of persons, in
our database, who have lived in the selected county. |
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Aberdeenshire (1); Dumfries (11); Midlothian (19);
Stirlingshire (30) |
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To find out more about
each county listed here use the following LINK |
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SCOTLAND,
United Kingdom County Research
Links
The links below may assist
you with your research within the various counties of this state. |
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Genealogical Research Links |
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Source: The BritishIslesGenWeb Project |
Source: GENUKI: United Kingdom and Ireland |
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East Lothian;
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Aberdeenshire; Angus; County of Argyll; Ayrshire; Banffshire; Berwickshire; County of Bute; Caithness; Clackmannanshire; Dumfriesshire; Dunbartonshire; East Lothian; County of Fife;
Inverness-shire; Orkney; Peeblesshire; Perthshire; Renfrewshire; Ross & Cromarty; Roxburghshire; Selkirkshire; Shetland; Stirlingshire; Sutherland; West
Lothian; Wigtownshire |
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General
Research
Links Source: Wikipedia |
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City of Aberdeen; Aberdeenshire; Angus; Argyll and Bute; Clackmannanshire; Dumfries and Galloway; City of Dundee; East Ayrshire; East Dunbartonshire; East Lothian; East Renfrewshire; City of Edinburgh; Falkirk; Fife; City of Glasgow; Highland; Inverclyde; Midlothian; Moray; Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles); North Ayrshire; North Lanarkshire; Orkney Islands; Perth and Kinross; Renfrewshire; Scottish Borders; Shetland Islands; South Ayrshire; South Lanarkshire; Stirling; West Dunbartonshire; West Lothian |
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SCOTLAND, United Kingdom |
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The following are links to websites that will provide
you with specific genealogical
information to assist with your research of this location. |
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Use the
following LINKS to find more information that may pertain to this location. |
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·
Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia |
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Contact
Information
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Pony
Express: Tom |
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Snail
mail: Fred USA |
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