Recent Investigations
In the last year alone, our service
has been responsible for making some extraordinary discoveries on behalf of many of our clients, including the following:
An American based client was shocked
to discover that two of her cousins had been
brutally murdered in 1911 by their father,
for which he was subsequently hanged.
A full account of this investigation
was published in the Scotsman newspaper in June
2007, with shocking consequences involving
one of Edinburgh's most influential
institutions, which resonate to this
day (The article can be read online at Stolen Lives).
*
A Stirlingshire based client was delighted when
we were able to confirm a long
held family tale that her husband was related
to the famous 18th century Scottish
poet
James Hogg, also known
as the Ettrick Shepherd.
*
During research for BBC Radio Scotland's
"Digging Up Your Roots" series, we made
an emotional discovery for one of the
programme's contributors, when he learned
of the existence of an aunt that he
had never heard of. The Poor Law records for
Glasgow showed that she had spent her
whole life institutionalised, and had sadly
passed away in the 1940s.
*
An Egyptian based client was
found to be found to have roots in the 15th Century
pre-Reformation abbey of Cupar Angus,
with ancestors from both the
distinguished Playfair
and Rogers families.
*
A Nova Scotian based client discovered how certain
antenuptial activities in early
19th Century Ayrshire helped contribute
to his ancestor's emigration to Canada.
*
An English based client had a mystery
solved when we were able to prove that her grandfather was not her real grandfather, but in fact the brother of the
supposed ancestor in question.
We were able to build up a picture of the circumstances that
led to the informal
adoption, which included the story of her grandfather's death in
the First World War and her real grandmother's
disability, forcing her son to be
adopted by the extended family.
*
Another American based client discovered
the story of how one of his earliest ancestors was in fact a Jacobite prisoner from the Hebridean island of Eigg, transported
after the 1745 rebellion to the new world as an indentured servant.
