Mackenzie: Finding Link between occupations and births

[Skoosh]

@ Rena, used to fish Loch Ewe back in the day after haddies but once somebody caught a dogfish that was all you got thereafter. The common variety was like sandpaper and had to be skinned by nailing the head to a shed-door, cutting round it & using pliers to rip the skin downwards. Gave them off but nobody wanted them a second time! A whale came up beside the boat once!!!

Bests,
Skoosh

[Rena]

@ Rena, used to fish Loch Ewe back in the day after haddies but once somebody caught a dogfish that was all you got thereafter. The common variety was like sandpaper and had to be skinned by nailing the head to a shed-door, cutting round it & using pliers to rip the skin downwards. Gave them off but nobody wanted them a second time! A whale came up beside the boat once!!!

Bests,
Skoosh

lol - sounds like something out of a horror film.   For all his dozens of fishing rods Bryan only ever caught rainbow/trout with them - his specially bought salmon rod was used once (at £25 per hour permit on a river somewhere) and was then consigned to the back of the cupboard under the stairs

[Rena]

Rena, I think rock salmon is what English chippies used to call dogfish, maybe they still do? 

You're right, I believe they do, but I can't see an obvious connection between fishing in a parish with no sea coast in 18th century Scotland and sea fish being sold in chip shops in 20th century England.

I apologise for not responding to your post earlier Forfarian.  Your previous post was invaluable and I've been able to use new search terms, so I can't thank you enough. I'm still floundering (not the fish lol)  though

I don't know about you, or anyone else, but some of the strangest answers containing specific words, phrasing, etc., triggers something in my memory banks with the result that I can follow a "new" clue.  For instance if I was researching any of the sailors in my other lines the "dog fish" remark by Skoosh could have led me along a path to some happening near Dogger Bank.

Compared with other skilled trades, Donald was a highly paid blacksmith.  There is no record of his apprenticeship in either the Edinburgh or London archives. This could mean that he was apprenticed to a family member.   If his father was a blacksmith, I can't think of any reason why he wouldn't stay in one smithy longer than two or five years.  One occupation that might mean that type of short-ish stay would be masons who have been commissioned to erect a large establishment, large manor house, church, etc.  Currently, although I've looked at some local history webpages written by interested locals, I haven't found mention of a building being erected in the time period of the above Mackenzie births.  Of course, that doesn't mean there wasn't one,it just means nobody has written about it.

[Rena]

Following on from postings by Forfarian and Skoosh concerning salmon. I've found an archeological account that mentions "Fish Road"
The road is known as the “Fish road” but whether or not fish were transported along it is debatable , however in 1794 the Old Statistical Account of Loch Boom Parish reports; “there is an excellent road betwixt Ullapool and the town of Dingwall

https://nosasblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/05/walking-the-old-fish-road-aultguish-inn-to-little-garve-bridge/

Somewhere down the years I've seen contracts lasting eleven years and nineteen years.  The movement shown by the births are much less and are never he same length of time. The couple either had some rich friends and accepted free hospitality from them, or maybe were self employed butler and housekeeper with a good business whereby estate owners asked them to housemind for them whilst they were away travelling.

Or, maybe they were drovers, taking geese, or cattle, or sheep from one place to another. Does anyone know of a website that shows the old drovers trails in Ross & Cromarty?   

[Skoosh]

Interesting stuff Rena, at the head of very lonely Glen Orrin the zig zag route made by the cattle is still there! Anent the drove-roads, what you want is Haldane's "The Drove Roads of Scotland!" the standard work on the subject. Checked Amazon, get it for about a tenner! 

 A cousin of my Grant grandpaw was the last mounted postie in Ross-shire, mebbes Scotland? He retired in 1964 after 35 years service with the GPO, he got the Imperial Service Medal & his hill route totalled 28 miles. His office was Conon Bridge where I assume the mail was sorted & he picked it up at Muir of Ord station.

Bests,
Skoosh.

[Rena]

Interesting stuff Rena, at the head of very lonely Glen Orrin the zig zag route made by the cattle is still there! Anent the drove-roads, what you want is Haldane's "The Drove Roads of Scotland!" the standard work on the subject. Checked Amazon, get it for about a tenner! 

 A cousin of my Grant grandpaw was the last mounted postie in Ross-shire, mebbes Scotland? He retired in 1964 after 35 years service with the GPO, he got the Imperial Service Medal & his hill route totalled 28 miles. His office was Conon Bridge where I assume the mail was sorted & he picked it up at Muir of Ord station.

Bests,
Skoosh.

Thanks for the book information Sckoosh.

I apologise for not gettng back earlier, the reason being that I awoke one morning and realised I was sharing the room with large piles of ignored ironing;  documents that needed filing;  and general clutter that hadn't put itself away.