Welcome and a Happy New Year

I was brought up to believe that my father's line was descended from a Scot who came down to England with Bonnie Prince Charlie's army in 1745 and decided not to bother going back to Scotland.  The family were all very proud to have Scottish ancestors although no-one knew exactly where they came from.  My great grandfather apparently even had a Scottish accent.

Then I started researching my family history and because I believed what I had been told hit a brick wall in the 1780s.  I knew my ancestor was born about 1751 so assumed that the reason I couldn't find any traces of his birth was because his parents were lying low after the Rebellion.  In actual fact it was because I was looking in the wrong place.

As I became more experienced and explored records other than the usual BMDs and parish registers I found the clues in his will and lo and behold there are no Scots in my ancestry, there is no connection whatsoever to Bonnie Prince Charlie or to the Jacobite cause and my paternal ancestors seem to have been settled in Nottinghamshire since 1604 if not earlier.

I had to break the unwelcome news to my family who were very disappointed.

One of my ancestors read too much I think.  Sir Walter Scott has a lot to answer for.