Scottish exhibit comes to the USA
The historic art collection of The Drambuie Liqueur Company is touring the USA for the first time, traveling to 7 venues between 2003 and 2005, including the Headley-Whitney in Lexington, Kentucky.

The exhibition contains 117 pieces. Each of the objects on display - portraits, miniatures, gold and silver medals, ceramics, engravings, and manuscripts - were commissioned by, or in support of, the Stewart royal family from some of the finest artists working in Britain, France, and Italy at the time.

Included in the exhibition is an unparalleled collection of 58 engraved drinking glasses, which were used to toast the exiled Stewarts.

In the words of Robin Nicholson, Curator of the exhibition, "These exquisite works of art recall a turbulent and romantic period of history. They offer us insight into a world that combined taste, beauty, and conviviality with treachery, subversion, and betrayal."

The Headley-Whitney is located at 4435 Old Frankfort Pike, Lexington, Kentucky, and is open 10-5 Tuesday through Friday and 12-5 Saturday and Sunday; closed Monday. Visit www.headley-whitney.org  for more.

Thanks to The Scottish Society of Louisville, Inc. Newsletter.

My ancestor is MARY MANDANA McCORD. She was my great grandmother and mother to my grandmother MAGGIE ZICKEFOOSE. I am interested in joining the McCord Family Registry and need information on how to go about being a member so I will be able to research or receive information about the McCord Family. Any help you will be able to give me will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Irene Klinzman mommato6@aol.com

Want to hear Scottish music over the internet?
If you have an Internet connection, a sound card with a speaker, and a fairly fast connection, you can listen to Scottish music when you want. Go to this website: www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/ and pick from a menu a variety of archived radio programs you can listen to.

As a Scottish dancing enthusiast, I listen to a couple of programs, "Take the Floor" and "Reel Bland." The great thing is that you can listen whenever it's convenient to you, not at some fixed time.

Thank you to Scorrybreac: The Journal of Clan MacNicol in North America

Clan MacNicol Society holds AGM in Virginia
The annual meeting of the Clan MacNicol society will be held in Colonial Williamsburg on Friday, September 26th.

This is the weekend of the Williamsburg Scottish Festival and Celtic Celebration, and Clan MacNicol will be the Clan of Honor at the Games on Saturday, September 27th.

The chief's High Commissioner for the Americas, Dr. Murray Nicolson, will be the Honored Guest at the Games, representing our Chief with feathers flying! Of course we would like to have as many Clan members as possible to attend and make a good showing in the parade of the clans.

For a package with further information, events at the Games, etc., please put yourself on the list by phoning Jeremy Nicholson, Special Projects Manager at (770) 650-0905 or email him at: alatis@bsn1.net

Website released about Chinese immigrant heritage
The Library of Congress has released a Web site that traces the history of 19th- and early 20th-century Chinese immigrants to California.

The Chinese in California, 1850-1925
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/cubhtml
not only follows the journeys of the Chinese to America but also features about 8,000 images and pages of primary-source materials.

Thanks to the Newsletter of The Paradise Genealogical Society.

Middle Age:
The time when your memory is shorter,
your experience longer,
your stamina lower
and your forehead higher.

When tracing Scottish ancestry, the notation "H/F" in birth and marriage records means 'handfasting,' a form of "private or probationary marriage."

Hand-fasting was the form of announcing a union between a man and a woman who wished to live together as husband and wife before receiving the blessings of the church.

The couple would stand before a group of their peers, hold their clasped hands above their heads and state their intentions.

The agreement was good for a year and a day. If at the end of the specified time, both wished to go their separate ways, they could do so with no legal tie.

Any child of a handfast union was considered legitimate and would inherit.

Thank you to the Lake Havasu Genealogical Society, Inc. Newsletter.

Civil War fought by boys
Figures from Government records indicate that 78% of the Civil War was fought by 15 to 18 year olds. Specific age categories are as follows:

10 yrs old = 25
11 yrs old = 34
12 yrs old = 225
13 yrs old = 380
14 yrs old = 1,602
15 yrs old = 104,987
16 yrs old = 231,051
17 yrs old = 884,981
18 yrs old = ,158,434
19 to 22 = 617,511
22 to 44 = 52,696
Above 44 = None

Thanks to Nuggets From Paradise, Vol. 11, No. 5

What's in a title?
A person's title in Colonial days often had a different meaning from titles used today.

Stepmothers were sometimes called mother-in-law; Cousins could be relatives of any type, sometimes even close friends; Freeman meant a young man not yet married (also had other meanings); Domestic once meant housewife, but not necessarily a servant; Mister was a title reserved only for men of wealth and/or education; Gentleman frequently referred to a retired man.

Mind your manners!
Do you know that table manners proclaim at once your social training?
Never use a toothepick at the table or in the presence of others. If it seems absolutely necessary to use one at a table, cover your lips with your napkin; elsewhere, with your handkerchief.
Never should your table knife be used for conveying food to your mouth.
You find your small bread and butter plate and butter spreader at your left. Never spread at once an entire slice of bread; break off half or a quarter and spread it on your bread and butter plate - not on the palm of your hand.
When your plate is passed for a second helping, let your knife and fork remain on it, side by side; also, when you have finished. Never rest your knife or fork partly on the table and partly on your plate or your napkin ring. Avoid mixing your food on your plate.
Use a fork when eating vegetables and salad - and ice cream, if an ice cream fork is provided.
Make the least possible noise in chewing, and none at all in taking food from a spoon. Sometimes, in eating crisp toast, for example, it is very difficult to avoid a crunching sound, but eat slowly, taking very small mouthfuls, and you can avoid noise.
Don't drink from a cup while it holds a spoon. When not using your teaspoon, let it lie on the saucer. Do not drink from your saucer. Stir quietly, and lay your spoon in your saucer at once.
Eat a little less of everything than you might. Shrink from the slightest appearance of greediness.
Between courses avoid lounging back in your chair; keep your spine straight, your body poised a little forward, and your mind occupied with the conversation which you are helping to make pleasant.
Submitted by Richard Hoover

Need our Armed Forces home pages?
All of the services have outstanding home pages. The URLs are: Air Force http://www.af.mil/; Army http://www.army.mil/; Coast Guard http://www.uscg.mil/uscg.shtm; Navy (includes Marine Corps) http://www.navy.mil/; Vietnam Veterans Home Page http://www.vietvet.org/

Parks Family plans a reunion
The descendants of L.F. Parks and Marie Doak Parks will gather for a family reunion at Mountain Home, Arkansas on Yucca Corner, September 20, 2003. There will be a story exchange and barbeque dinner.
The Parks Family settled in Baxter County, Arkansas in the 1860s. Mrs. Parks is a descendant of W.A. Douglass, who also settled in Baxter County, Arkansas in the 1860s.
For more information write to: V. Parks Messick, 4411 Willow Road, Carlsbad, NM 88220.

McQuisten, Harper announce re-issue publication of Memoirs, Our People, The Indians
I can't recall the amount of times I have been asked if I had a copy of Memoirs. I inherited a copy of the original from my mother's possessions. She obtained this from her father, William Joseph Martell, when an attorney came in 1949, to register my grandfather in the Chippewa settlement of claims that were underway during that time in our family history.
Recently, I obtained an original that was graciously given to me by Linda (Verdon) Uetz, of Elk Mound, Wisconsin. It is terribly tattered, torn and well marked from apparent continual use.
We believed there were not to many people who had a copy of the original, and those that still remain treasure them deeply; and understandably with good reason.
Because there are so few of these booklets in existence, and because of the rich history they held, we are very pleased to announce our formal publication of Memoirs, Our People...The Indians, written by one of our most family dedicated ancestors.
Mary (McGuire) Martell authored and distributed to close friends and family limited copies of the first genealogical document that established Indian and French-Canadian heritages, 1750-1950, in the Upper-Mississippi region of the United States.
Mary began her quest sometime in the early 1940s. And I believe she continued her search until the day she died - October 30, 1986.
This Dubuque, Iowa woman spent many years in travel over the lands her husband's people once owned; for it was through the Martell lineage from which the Indian blood came. She spent many hours studying official documents that were crumbling with age.
She spoke to hundreds of aged Indians, all in an effort to establish her husband's family tree.
I firmly believe that her project began with the hope that her husband and her husband's people might participate in the settlement of claims culminating from the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946, set up by Congress to pay for lands that were taken from them by the palefaces more than 100 years ago.
As with all genealogists, hers was a work of passion, a sentimental task. Though her work did little to change the outcome of the negative decree determined by the U.S. Indian's Claims Commission, Memoirs: our People...The Indians provided an excellent compilation from which a much larger, more comprehensive hard-bound, three-volume series of the Martel/Martell/Martelle and allied families has been derived; which is currently being finalized for publication.
The majority of her book has been incorporated into the Martel/Martell/Martelle history publication.
Authors of this long sought after publication are Lynn Candace Harper, 1629 E. Morgan Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53207, phone # (414) 769-7694, and Richard McQuisten, 1706 Symons Street, Laramie, WY 82070, phone # (307) 745-8406.
To order your copies of Memoirs, Our People...The Indians; reprint, please send your name, full address and phone number to: Lynn C. Harper, 1629 East Morgan Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53207-3656.

Beautiful hand-knit sweaters available
Dave Martin's cousin, Mary, lives in Northern Ireland. After dedicating her life to caring for her father, she is living on very limited means. She knits beautifully, however, and made Dave an exceptionally attractive sweater. Several people admired it and ordered one for themselves. It occurred to Dave that perhaps more of you would like an opportunity to own such a fine garment. You need only send Mary your measurements and let her know what style sweater you would like (cardigan, pullover, etc). For more information call Dave at 248-464-0468.

A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by their descendants.
Macauley

Windmills are an important part of Dutch history
A sense that justice will prevail is contained in the proverb, "God's mills grind slowly, but surely."
The windmill is an important part of Dutch history, and as such has become an integral part of Dutch culture in the form of proverbs and folk sayings.
As a warning that one may have to face the consequences of his actions, the Dutch say, "Be careful, or you'll have to face the wind."
Cautious people are said to wait with a decision until they know out of which corner the wind is blowing.
Seizing an opportunity is known as pumping while the wind blows.
When someone seems a little daffy, he is said to have been hit by a mill, or when someone's business is not doing well, the Dutch say, "He cannot keep his mill going."