Your Ancestors

24/12/2025

Did someone in your family serve in the Merchant Navy? Don't miss our guide to Merchant Navy research ⚓

https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/feature/the-6-best-websites-for-tracing-your-merchant-navy-family-history

23/12/2025

Do you have a Chelsea pensioner ancestor? Discover how to trace the old soldiers in your family tree with our guide:

https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/tutorials/military/chelsea-pensioners-service-records

22/12/2025

First founded in 1665, The London Gazette is Britain's paper of record. Discover how you can search it for free to find out if your ancestors appeared in it:

https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/tutorials/london-gazette

22/12/2025

Dublin, 1914. As Britain declared war on Germany, thousands of young Irishmen lined up at recruitment stations, trading brewery aprons for khaki uniforms. At the Guinness factory along the River Liffey, management faced a choice that would define their legacy. While competitors across Europe dismissed departing workers as deserters or simply filled their positions, the board at St. James's Gate made an extraordinary decision. Every man who left to fight would keep his job waiting. More astonishing still, they would continue receiving half their salary while dodging bullets in Flanders mud. For families left behind in tenement houses, this wasn't just generosity, it was survival. A brewery worker's wife could still pay rent, still feed children, still hope. But the company went further. Throughout the war, packages began arriving at the Front. Soldiers tore open parcels stamped with the familiar harp logo to find bars of chocolate, tins of condensed milk, to***co, and warm socks. Luxuries that felt like miracles in frozen trenches. These weren't token gestures. They were lifelines sent to men whose employers remembered their names, their families, their worth. When the guns finally fell silent in 1918, survivors returned to find their positions genuinely held open, their loyalty genuinely rewarded. In an era when workers were seen as replaceable cogs, one company proved that compassion and profit could coexist.

20/12/2025

18/12/2025

18/12/2025

WOMEN OF THE HEBRIDES | BAN-EILEANAICH INNSE GALL

“I was raised among women of enormous strength and character.”

So writes Joni Buchanan in the foreword to this celebratory work, filling a long-neglected gap in Hebridean history. With a wealth of detail and intensive research, Joni tells the story of island women – their quick wit and political determination, hands that were deft with the loom and with the gutting knife, strong backs for croft work, endurance through times of tragedy and compassion and fortitude on the frontlines of war and disease.

The women in these pages travel the world, wage war against injustice and nurture their cultural heritage, all the time with two languages on their tongue, a light in their eye and undimmable spirit and humour.

“A glorious account of the real ‘influencers’ of our shared island culture.” – Cathy Macdonald, journalist and broadcaster

“Tha e math cothrom a bhith againn sgeulachdan a leughadh mu bhoireannaich às na h-eileanan a bha ri saothair air feadh nan eilean, na dùthcha agus an t-saoghail air fad.” – Anna NicSuain, MBE, Iar Mhorair-ionaid nan Eilean Siar

Air a’ gheàrr-liosta airson Duais Leabhair Na Gaidhealtachd 2024

https://acairbooks.com/books/women-of-the-hebrides-ban-eileanaich-innse-gall-paperback/

18/12/2025

Chestnuts roasting by an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose...

If that wee lad gets any closer to the fire, he'll be getting more than his chestnuts roasted!

We're down the Barras, in 1957, and it looks like a proper freezer of a day, with everyone except the wee fella overcoated and mufflered-up to the max.

The wee guy, caught playing cats cradle, couldn't care less about the cold. He's out in his shorts and sannies, with his socks around his ankles. Mind you, he must be getting a rare heat off the chestnut roaster's brazier.

Sadly, chestnut sellers are now a thing of the past. There used to be nothing nicer than juggling a hot, sweet chestnut in your freezing mitts, trying to pry off its charred and blistered leather jacket. The things tasted even better if the seller gave his wares a wee sprinkle of salt.

The last time I ate hot chestnuts in the street was on a winter visit to Paris, where traders still roam the boulevards with wee mobile charcoal burners. If you want to track one down, just follow your nose, and the trails of discarded chestnut shells...

When I first posted this pic, back in 2016, LG follower Sandra Docherty got in touch to say: "The man on the right is my granddad, Alec Ferguson. He apparently loved hot chestnuts. My mum has this photograph framed on her wall."

Even better. LG fan Paul Rogers then got in touch to say the old guy on the left was his granda, John Ward, who lived in Germiston.

Pic: Newsquest.

17/12/2025

On 17 December 1599, James VI of Scotland decided that New Year's Day would be changed from 25 March to 1 January so that Scotland would come into line with other “well governit commonwealths". Many in Scotland celebrated the New Year on 25 March as this date marked the beginning of the new year according to the Julian Calendar. Historically, 1 November signified the conclusion of the harvest season and the onset of winter, a period known as Samhain (pronounced sow-in). Often referred to as the Celtic New Year, this ancient celebration, which continues to be observed by many, commences on the evening of 31 October. The festivities typically include food and bonfires. Samhain serves as a threshold between the light and dark halves of the year, and those who partake in the holiday believe it is a time when the barrier between this world and the otherworld is at its most permeable, facilitating the passage of spirits and enabling communication with ancestors.

15/12/2025