4th June Visit Report

A lovely sunny afternoon saw around twenty of our members, including Janice and Alistair Menzies from Aberdeen, embarking on the eagerly anticipated visit to Dumfries House near Cumnock.

Dumfries House was designed 250 years ago by the architects John, Robert and James Adam. This building presents a calm, imposing, unfussy exterior: inside is a wonderful treasure trove of 18th century rococo furnishings. The furniture collection is exceptional containing many pieces by Thomas Chippendale and by the important Edinburgh furniture makers Alexander Peter, William Mathie and Francis Brodie.

It is only by a small miracle of organisation and generosity that all these delights, most carefully tended, are there for us to see and enjoy, for upkeep costs forced the owner, John Bute, living in the principal family property of Mountstuart, Isle of Bute to put Dumfries House on the market. Fortunately for us all, the estate, the house and all its furnishings were purchased by a consortium headed by HRH the Prince of Wales and Duke of Rothesay and an independent trust with the marvellous title of ‘The Great Steward’s of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust’ was established to manage the house, its collection and grounds. It had been a close call, however, as quite a few pieces of furniture retain their Christies labels and, indeed, some had already been carefully packed in vans on the drive and some were even recalled whilst on their journey to London for sale!

From beautiful ceilings to intricate mirror surrounds, from well worn 18th century carpets to the pleasing designs of small tables and chests of drawers to breathtaking Gobelin tapestries – there was a feast for the eyes wherever one looked. This was not a pretentious house, but a much loved country home, a place for relaxation and holiday and as such, its interior furnishings changed little over the years, making it now a unique national asset.

Our two guides were delightful, extremely knowledgeable and first-rate communicators and our enjoyment of the visit is due in no small measure to their enthusiasm and skills. A bonus for those experiencing difficulty in negotiating the stairs and/or standing while the contents of rooms were described was the offer of lightweight yet solid shooting sticks. Definitely a plus for many!


Well now, Barbara, what about a visit to Mountstuart next June?!

Sheila Dinwoodie

21st May Meeting Report

After a late and rocky equipment start by Andrew Davidson, a good turnout of local members enjoyed an interesting talk and demonstration on ‘Saving Photographs for Family History’.

Many people have old photographs of their relatives which are a vital part of their family history, and Andrew discussed ways of copying, sharing and storing them electronically to send them to other family members, store in genealogy programs and to ensure their availability for future generations. Starting from the old colour or black and white print, scanning into the computer and the use of programmes such as Photoshop Elements, etc. can enhance the picture. The usual format for a picture file is JPG, but GIF may be used for black & white photos, taking less space. However, these do introduce compression effects, so the master, unaltered copy should be stored as an uncompressed image, such as TIF.

The picture files may then be stored on the computer hard drive, CD/DVD or flash drive, shared by email with others, and copied for backup storage elsewhere. Andrew mentioned how this electronic storage has changed over the years, from floppies to CDs, to DVDs, to flash drives, to high-capacity, portable hard disks and we can only speculate on what will be the next step. Hence, there is a need to ensure that the files and the data they contain can be retrieved by future computers. For example, few computers now have floppy drives and some CDs written by computers have been shown to have a limited life. On the other hand, paper prints have a proven history of survival of over 150 years, so adding a professionally printed copy of the electronic image files of your precious photos should always be made, e.g. at specialist photographic shops, at Boots or on-line, and stored in more than one location.

One final point made was to never to destroy the original print, whatever it's condition. In future, there will be better hardware and software packages able to extract more information from the original and to better repair defects.

Andrew Dinwoodie

16th April Meeting Report

The bonus following this year’s short A.G.M. was a presentation by local member Andrew Gray on "The Spithead Reviews of 1935 and 1937". Andrew built this around actual films of these events shot by his father, supplementing them with related slides and artefacts. The result was a real treat which fascinated his appreciative audience from start to finish. How very grateful we were for the good fortune which had preserved these priceless films as a treasured part of the Gray family archives: and how delighted we were to thank a newly emerged speaker of distinction from the local ranks.

Sheila Dinwoodie

19th March Meeting Report

We were delighted to welcome to our March meeting Mrs Irene Hopkins, Treasurer of Troon FHS and a former depute head of Galston School. Her subject was ‘On the Street where You Lived’ and her exploration of the reasons behind the choice of a street name both intrigued and entertained the good turn-out of members and visitors.

We learned that street names had many sources: they could be positional or directional e.g. High Street and Troon Road; a group of streets might be named for a group of battles; some were named after famous people born locally or after a Provost - or even after the names of the farmer's favourite cows! To the family historian, street names of today could indicate a building, park, station, farm or factory in existence earlier but no longer to be seen. Some could reveal who local landowners were before the roads were made, or even the occupations of a long lost past, e.g. Threadneedle Street was actually the centre of the Jewish rag-trade in the area, or Barassie, derived from the old French for a jousting field – nearby Dundonald Castle was a Royal household where jousting frequently took place on the nearest flat ground along the seashore where Barassie now is. The topic was fascinating and the speaker’s enthusiasm was contagious. We’ll all look more closely now at street names!

Sheila Dinwoodie,

12 March Joint Meeting Report

This year’s joint meeting of the four Ayrshire Family History Societies took place in Kilmarnock on Thursday 12^th March, hosted by East Ayrshire FHS. After a warm welcome from the Chairman and brief reports from three of the societies, the speaker Mrs Barr from Carluke was introduced.

We were given a fascinating , well-illustrated presentation on general William Roy, engineer, antiquarian and map maker extraordinaire. Born in 1726 at Miltonhead near Carluke he showed great mathematical ability from an early age, eventually becoming an engineer. One aftermath of the 1745 Rebellion was the enforced pacification of the Highlands, a task for which the Duke of Cumberland needed the Highlands mapped. William Roy, brought in initially as an assistant, was the right man in the right place at the right time. It was a mammoth undertaking for which the skill of accurate measurement was essential. By 1755 Cumberland’s maps were completed. When the war with France broke out, Roy served with the 53^rd Regiment of Foot and was involved in the creation of essential military maps, e.g. of Plymouth and Gibraltar. In 1767 for his unique achievements in linear measurement, William Roy was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a well deserved honour. Although many of his maps, plans, military and scientific reports and letters have been preserved, unfortunately no personal portraits remain apart from the appearance of a distant figure in a painting which it is very tempting to accept as a likeness of this gifted Scot.

It was disappointing that so few attended this jot meeting (only 3 of us were there to represent ASAFHS), and we hope for a better turnout when we take our turn to host a similar occasion in March 2010, in the Cranegie Library.

Sheila Dinwoodie