RELEASE DATE: MAY 21, 2017



KINSEARCHING

by

Marleta Childs
P. O. Box 6825
LUBBOCK, TX 79493-6825
[email protected]
 

     Sad news: Noted genealogist Raymond Parker Fouts passed away at age 81 on 5 April 2017, in Rockledge, Florida. Known as Ray to her friends, she was a nice, kind, generous, and thoughtful lady with a lively sense of humor, a wonderful outlook on life, and a great love of animals.

     Over the years, Ray shared her enormous passion for genealogy by compiling and publishing more than twenty reference works pertaining to North Carolina. Material in her books ranged from old state-wide newspapers to county records, such as vestry minutes, marriage and processioners records, registration of slaves to work, and court minutes. Although she published works about several counties, her particular area of interest was Gates County.

     Her culmination of 32 years of research on her family went into her publication, FOLLOWING THE LAND: A GENEALOGICAL HISTORY OF SOME OF THE PARKERS OF NANSEMOND COUNTY, VIRGINIA, AND CHOWAN/HERTFORD/GATES COUNTIES, NORTH CAROLINA, 1604-2004. Ray’s hard work and shared enthusiasm for family history is a legacy that will be found in genealogical collections of many public libraries for years to come.

     Her husband, Bob Fouts, died several years ago. Ray is survived by her daughter, Kathy Conway, and her grandson, Ken Conway.


     As many genealogists have learned from the long list of his publications, David Dobson continually delves into primary and secondary sources regarding Scottish peoples on both sides of the Atlantic. His latest work is SCOTS-DUTCH LINKS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1675-1825, VOLUME III.

     Some family researchers may be unaware of Scotland’s strong social and economic ties to the Dutch since the medieval era. Scottish merchants and scholars gravitated as early as 1575 to the cities and universities of Holland, Zealand, and Flanders to partake of the commercial and educational opportunities they presented. Scottish Covenanters fled to the region to avoid religious persecution under the reigning Stuarts. Possibly the largest number of Scots in the Netherlands were soldiers fighting in the service of the United Provinces in the eighty-year struggle for independence against the Spanish Habsburgs and later France. During the seventeenth century, Scottish communities, which had their own churches, were found throughout Holland and Zealand. By 1700, approximately one thousand Scots lived in Rotterdam alone.

     The flow of human traffic also went the other way. A small number of Dutch merchants and craftsmen settled in Scotland. Some of them were attracted in 1672 by the Scottish government’s inviting inhabitants of the United Provinces to immigrate. Since the Scots were eager to gain the advanced mercantile, technological, and maritime skills employed by the Dutch, the government promised them full naturalization.

     This new volume contains a significant number of marriages in Rotterdam of Scottish immigrants, often with local residents. Other information comes from seventeenth-century Dutch wills or deeds of Scots, some of whom were bound for the Dutch colonies, including those in North America.

     Following the format of the previous volumes, Dobson provides the individual’s name and the source material. Although details vary from person to person, details may include occupation (usually merchant, soldier, mariner, or student), a date, and place of residence. Marriage entries give the names of the couple, the date and place of the ceremony, and sometimes the name of a parent or previous spouse.

     Again, Dobson is to be commended for shedding more light on the early ties between the populations of Scotland and the Netherlands. SCOTS-DUTCH LINKS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1675-1825, VOLUME III makes accessible much useful material previously ignored by family researchers.

     The 134-page work has soft covers and an introduction. Names of Scottish individuals are arranged alphabetically. To the book’s price of $17.50, buyers should add the cost for postage and handling charges. For U. S. postal mail, the cost is $5.50 for one book and $2.50 for each additional copy; for UPS, the cost is $7.50 for one copy and $2.50 for each additional book. The volume (item order #CF8119) may be purchased by check, MasterCard, or Visa from Clearfield Company, 3600 Clipper Mill Rd., Suite 260, Baltimore, Maryland 21211 (for phone orders, call toll free 1-800-296-6687; fax 1-410-752-8492; website  www.genealogical.com ).


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