RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 16, 2016
KINSEARCHING
by
Marleta Childs
P. O. Box 6825
LUBBOCK, TX 79493-6825
[email protected]
Ever diligent in his quest for discovering information about people with roots in Scotland, David Dobson has compiled SCOTTISH-AMERICAN GRAVESTONES, 1700-1900, VOLUME II. Encompassing approximately 1,600 inscriptions, the book, based on both published and unpublished material, is the first in the series to include tombstone inscriptions in cemeteries located on both sides of the Atlantic.
Gravestones and monumental inscriptions are important to genealogists because they provide details that may be found nowhere else. Because the Old Parish Registers focused on baptisms and marriages, the inscriptions are a significant resource for data concerning deaths prior to 1855 in Scotland. (Since death records were not required before that date, the only other places to find death information before 1855 are newspaper obituaries and various Registers of Testaments.) Since the monumental engravings in Scotland often include details about absent family members, they are also a valuable source of information about Scots who died overseas before 1855. A monumental inscription in Wigtownshire, for example, states that John McMillan LAWRIE, son of Robert LAWRIE [1779-1863] and his wife, Elizabeth McMILLAN [1787-1836], was born in 1837 and drowned in the Sacramento River in California in September 1851.
Entries furnish the name of the principal man or woman, date of death, place of death (usually Canada, the United States, or the West Indies), and source of the information. Many entries also supply a date of birth, date of emigration to North America, and names of parents or spouse. Some recurring surnames in the volume are ALLAN, ANDERSON, BARCLAY, BEATTIE, BELL, BRUCE, CAMERON, CAMPBELL, CRAWFORD, CRICHTON, FERGUSON, FRASER, GEDDES, GRANT, INGLIS, McARTHUR, McCASKILL, McDONALD, McKAY, McLAURIN, McLEAN, McLEOD, McNEILL, RAE/RAY, ROSS, SCOTT, SIMPSON, STEWART, WALLACE/WALLIS, and YOUNG.
Recently, various Scottish family history societies have been actively recording tombstones and monumental inscriptions because many of the stones are either crumbling, the target of vandalism, or in danger of destruction to make way for new “development” by local authorities. In order to save the information for future generations and make the material easily accessible to researchers in North America, Dobson shares his collection of invaluable data in SCOTTISH-AMERICAN GRAVESTONES, 1700-1900, VOLUME II.
The 158-page volume has soft covers and an introduction. Names of the main individuals in the entries are arranged alphabetically. To the book's price of $19.95, 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 #8117) 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 ).
This death notice can be found on page 22 of the March, 1938 (Volume 59, Number 2) issue of The Texas Druggist. (Surnames are capitalized for emphasis and some punctuation added for clarity.)
“J. Lon McCARVER, 63 years old and for years engaged as pharmacist at Denison, died at 3:30 a. m., Thursday, Jan. 6th. He was connected with the Tinsman drug store, which succeeded the Waldron store until the death of Mr. TINSMAN. Since that time, he had been connected with the Furman pharmacy, Blakemore’s and Baer drug stores.”
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