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Shetland / Shetlanders with "dark hair and swarthy skin"?!
« on: Wednesday 28 December 11 20:07 GMT (UK) »
The Scott line of my ancestors hailed from Shetland and I have traced them back as far as into the seventeenth century. According to family legend, some of them had "dark hair and swarthy skin." I don't suppose anyone has ever heard of this occurrence in Shetland? Some of the family were not Scottish, but came from somewhere else, after their ship, which was emigrating to America, was wrecked - supposedly at Vaila Sound. This would seem to indicate the Bachelor of Leith, but according to all the records, everyone in our family tree was born in Shetland and certainly all have Shetland names (this ship was sailing from Caithnes and Sutherland in 1774). Also, I was wondering if the ancestors with dark hair and swarthy skin could have been descended from sailors of the Spanish Armada??
The member of the family who is said to have been shipwrecked has been potentially identified as Lilias Bain, born in 1760 and married to Peter Peterson, but again this has still to be independently verified...
The member of the family who is said to have been shipwrecked has been potentially identified as Lilias Bain, born in 1760 and married to Peter Peterson, but again this has still to be independently verified...