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Hi. In the course of my ongoing battle with the Minute Book of the Guild of Hammermen in St. Andrews, I came across something rather unexpected. This was a fairly brief paragraph, dated 1581 - which is odd, as the entries immediately preceding it, and following it, are in chronological order but with dates just over 100 years later!

At present, I have completed around 65% of the entire transcript and I am fairly certain that, in the text I have transcribed so far, this is probably the only part referring specifically to events taking place outwith the city of St. Andrews.

My efforts so far have yielded the following:

memora(n)du(m)
The secund day off June the yeir off our lord 1581 yeir The erill
off mortoun was behedit at edimbirgh & wass **** for ****** off
the ******** off king James the saxt father q(uha)tt wass muderit at
the kirke afild

I would really appreciate any help in filling in the blanks

Hi. Just wanted to share the demolition of one of my oldest 'brick walls'

My maternal grandfather was William Maxwell, born 1902. His marriage and death certificates list his parents as Jane Ewing and John Maxwell, however his birth certificate was not to be found. I searched everywhere for it, but to no avail and his parents were similarly absent from official records. His sons would not discuss the matter, and his daughters (including my mum) knew nothing.

I eventually discovered that my grandad was in fact christened William Ewen. He was the youngest of four boys, born to Georgina Ewen and David Maxwell. Of the four, three started off with the Ewen surname, while son #3 was a Maxwell. The birth certs of sons 1, 2 and 4 show only the mother's name, that of son#3 shows both, alongside a date and place of marriage (which turned out to be fictitious anyway).

Errant dad David was of Orkney stock from the island of Stronsay, and he returned there permanently around 1903, leaving behind a destitute partner and four illegitimate children, all of whom spent parts of their lives in local poorhouses. David, however, became a tea merchant, and died around 1916, leaving about £7500 to his brother (and nothing to his ex or his offspring).

Totally not what I expected to find, but  I was so happy to finally get to the bottom of this family mystery.

Hi. In researching my ancestors, I have often come across someone being described in this way:

'Robert Smith, yst son of John Smith'

It looks as if it could be an abbreviation for 'youngest', but I wondered if that was a bit too obvious. Can anyone confirm if this is in fact correct, or if it isn't, what is the correct meaning?

TIA

Manukarik,  I think you may be right. If you compare the A here with the A at the start of Alexander, they're nearly identical. The u seems right too, but I thought the next letter looked like an 'x'. Still,  'auchtein' is probably the right transcription. Thanks!

I think I can now declare this page complete, thanks to you guys. However, as is often the case, the answer begets another question.

The two individuals who had been asked to make their mark (William Deas and David Carstairs) do not appear anywhere within the main text below which the Latin paragraph appears. That text names only Andrew Edie, deacon of the hammermen, and William Sword, admitted as freeman. Furthermore, beside the Latin there appear three signatures (Robert Scott, William Waddell and William Morris) and two sets of initials (AED and WG). There are no other marks; the page is quite clear throughout. I also looked at entries immediately before and after - no trace of Deas or Carstairs.

Ah well... the golden rule is to transcribe what you see. I've done that, but will be adding to the notes section at the end of the entire 368-page document. If/when it finally makes publication I'll be sure to give credit for the help I've received.