Unlockthepast 5th Genealogy Cruise- British Isles, 2014-Day 6, Tobermory, Isle of Mull

Day 6, 24 July 2014

The next morning we arrived at Tobermory, the capital of the Isle of Mull, which had been established as a fishing village about 1789. Again we had to stand-off shore and use the ship’s tenders to be transported into the town. An amazing little town snuggly tucked under the hill with the shops and houses brightly painted. It is not until you look carefully that you see there is more of the town high on the hill, behind the trees. The brightly coloured buildings seem to be a feature in the western highland ports, as we saw the same thing at Portree on the Isle of Skye, when we were on tour there a few weeks before.

The town was busy and there was an air of excitement, as the crowd grew on the town foreshore. We had arrived in time for the annual Highland Gathering, which was to take place on the plateau above the town.

The procession, led by the pipers assembled on the foreshore and marched up the hill to the sports ground. They were followed by both competitors and spectators in a brightly coloured mass, as they snaked their way up the winding road. We enjoyed the stirring music of the bagpipes, as we sat on the foreshore, and watched them out of sight over the brow of the hill.

We also made use of the free wifi offered in town to contact family at home and confirm arrangements to meet some Irish cousins in Dublin the following day.

Although we decided to remain in Tobermory for the morning, many other cruisers took a variety of interesting tours, including the seven hour round trip to Iona, where St Columba established a church in the 6^th Century. The island is steeped in history, including being the burial place of many of the early Scottish Kings.

We were to be all on board the Marco Polo by 4 pm, but then there was a delay with the tour to Iona, so the ship’s departure was an hour later than planned.

Unlockthepast had a full block of lectures from 3.30pm with the first hour’s time-slot allotted to Geraldene O’Reilly, with a ‘Portrait of a parish with focus on place names’, and Jackie Depelle’s workshop on ‘Family Historian’, a genealogical software program. Unfortunately Jackie was stuck on the Iona tour, so her talk was postponed to later on the cruise. I went to Geraldene’s presentation, as I’m a great believer that you can only understand your ancestors ‘by walking in their shoes’ one might say.  I delve deep into the local history, and place names can reveal much.

Geraldene O’Reilly, came from New Zealand, and although this was her only presentation, she has had a long association with family history groups, giving regular talks on a number of topics.

In the next set of lectures it was a choice between Sean O’Duill on ‘Country cures from Irish folklore’ and Lesley Silvester on ‘Quarter Session records’. Sean’s presentation was open to all passengers on the ship, while all other talks were only available to the Unlockthepast cruise participants.Again I was drawn to the Irish presentation which was very interesting.

After a few minutes break, more lectures to choose from. ‘Family History sources before 1837’, by Jackie Depelle and, ‘Timelines as a research tool’, by Helen Smith. I choose Family History Sources before 1837, as nearly all my research at present, is before that time, but I’m a great fan of time-lines and was disappointed to miss Helen’s talk. However, we were all very happy to take advantage of Helen’s offer to repeat her talk a couple of days later on the cruise. It was a great talk, and showed how ‘time-lines’ should be a basic tool, for all historians, especially family historians.

For the last set of lectures for the day, it was a choice between,’Highland Clearances’ with Mike Murray, or ‘Understanding the context and why social history is important in your research’, by Helen Smith. As we had heard so many references to the ‘Highland Clearances’ on all our earlier tours throughout Scotland, I decided it was time I found out more about them, and the part they played in Scottish immigration. Mike’s presentation was excellent and he was able to present the topic in a simple, but very effect way.

After dinner we had free time, and I decided to review all the notes I had made during lectures,and made a list of all the questions I wanted to discuss, along with the list of experts, whom I hoped could help me during the Research Help Zone. I also checked all the catalogue references and printouts I had made during my preparations, before I left home several weeks before, and brought along with me.

I had been holding off consulting these experts because I wanted to allow others to make the most of these wonderful opportunities, however we only had a few days left and time was running out. I needed to make appointments with my lists of experts, which I did.

I went to bed late in the evening, and as the weather had remained calm and warm, sleep came easily and quickly.

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Unlockthepast 5th Genealogy Cruise- British Isles, 2014-Day 5, Stornoway, Outer Hebrides

Day 5, 23 July 2014

We arrived early off Stornoway, on Lewis next morning, but we had to wait for the tender boats to take us ashore. This was the first time we had used the tenders, but the weather was perfect, so we could get away to our respective tours on time.

We took another morning bus tour, firstly to the Callanais Standing Stones, rated as the most important in Britain after Stonhenge.  When you stood on this hill-top you could also see other groups of standing stones in the landscape. All very mysterious.

A Tourist Centre was tucked in under the hill and could not be seen, until you walked over the hill and were upon it. Tea-rooms, toilets and gift shop, all a part of the system so these wonders can be visited by the ‘tourist’.

Then there was a short bus ride to the Carloway Broch, a 2,000 year old circular dry-stone, fortified tower.There was evidence of an internal staircase and rooms, but all without an ounce of mortar to hold it together.

Again a small Tourist Centre to tell the story of the broch, as well as offer handmade gifts, made locally, for sale. This enables people to remain farming in  the area, rather than a completely deserted landscape. This area is also popular as the backdrop of some  television series.

Then there was a longer leisurely bus ride across the island to the Arnol Blackhouse Museum. There the low stone houses were built in the old tradition, with stone-weighted, thatched roofs . A peat fire burned in the centre of the cobbled floor, and there was no chimney. No windows so light was by fire and ‘rush light’ arrangements. The animals occupied a ‘room’ at the end of the house, and there was also a ‘workroom’ where the men and women could undertake other activities such as weaving, when they couldn’t work outside.The very thick, low stone walls made the houses warm, dry and quiet when the Arctic Winter gales howled outside.  In some area these houses were occupied even after World War II. That is in living memory, for those family historians who know their ancestors came from Lewis or Harris.

[I believe in this photo there is a vent placed in the roof, so the tourist don’t choke when the peat fire gets smokey. I think those living in these as homes, would have been able to regulate the peat fire, so it wasn’t smokey all the time. The grassed, soil-topped ledge allowed repairs to the roof when necessary.]

Some cruise passengers went on a tour to Harris in the south, where they saw how the famous tweed cloth is made.

As we had taken a morning tour, in the afternoon before lectures, I was able to have a leisurely look at many of the Unlockthepast publications in ‘book form’ in the bookshop, which I planned to buy as e-books when we returned home.

Again as there were concurrent lectures in the evening, we had to make the choice between Helen Smith’s presentation on “Document analysis” and Jackie Depelle’s “Ideas,hints and tips for family historians in using digital photography”.

This was the first time that Helen had presented on this tour, although she had been very busy in the Research Help Zone every day. Helen is from Queensland and has extensive knowledge on many fields of family history. She is the author of several blogs and a number of publications and has been a team member on all the Unlockthepast cruises, other conferences and roadshows. I went to her talk, which centred on the analysis of documents, a very vital part of research for success in family history.

Although I wasn’t able to attend Jackie’s talk, I heard great reports of her ideas about digital photography. Just a pity I couldn’t be in two places at once. This was the first time Jackie had presented on the cruise too. Jackie Depelle is from England and works full-time in the family history field, much of it in adult education and is a special events co-ordinator. Her presentations ranged from digital photography to reading original and deciphering old documents.

Then it was a choice between Marie Dougan on ‘Scottish records at the National Archives of Scotland’, and Lesley Silvester on the ‘Lesser known London Records.’      I choose the one on London records as I’m doing extensive research in the London area at the moment, and I was able to make lots of notes to help move my research along. I heard those with Scottish ancestors were very keen to delve further into the National Archives of Scotland, after Marie’s presentation too.

After dinner, we sat on the deck and watched the islands disappear from sight as we sailed toward the Isle of Mull.

Before I went to bed I down loaded onto my computer the hundreds of photos we had taken in the first few days on the cruise. That is the great thing about digital photography. It doesn’t matter how many you take, as you can always cull them when you get home and have time to really look at them all. However, we were aware we needed to save them in more than one place, so if there was a ‘hicup’  we would not loose them completely.