What’s it about
This book by David Dobson identifies roughly 1,200 Moray inhabitants, giving the name, occupation, a date, the source & sometimes the names of family members, vessels along with other details.
Moray lies between the Moray Firth & the Grampian mountains, and is composed of a fertile coastal plain with river valleys, such as the Spey. The district of Moray now includes the former adjacent counties of Banff & Nairn. The major families or clans in the district included Gordons, Grants, Innes, Dunbar, Rose, Leslie, Fordyce, Brodie, Geddes & Ogilvie.
In 1130 the Mormaer [Earl] of Moray and his followers rebelled against the rule of King David I of Scotland based in Edinburgh. King David suppressed the revolt with the assistance of Flemish knights who had settled in Scotland. These knights, men such as Freskin & Berewald, were granted the lands of the rebels. The knights mostly adopted the names of the lands as their surnames, thus founding several notable Scottish families such as Murray, Innes & Duffus, while some used Fleming as their surname. A branch of the Dunbar family from southeast Scotland also settled there.
By the early modern period, the main settlements & burghs in Moray were Forres, Nairn, Auldearn, Findhorn, Spynie & especially Elgin. Moray’s economy was based on agriculture, fishing & trade. Vessels traded from the ports of Moray to Scandinavia, the Baltic, the Netherlands, England, and on occasion to the Americas. These trading links facilitated emigration. The Moray inhabitants identified here may be the antecedents of persons living in those countries today.
Our Review
Having Ancestors from this area myself I was interested to see what might be included in this 99 page book which was published in 2019.
In his research David has consulted a range of sources not only from the area mentioned in the title but from many places overseas including Georgia, New York, Bergen & Poland.
The type of information can vary & includes burgesses, names taken from testaments, Jacobites, transported prisoners, sasine entries, criminals, those who died abroad & much more.
To give you a feel for the kinds of entries you might expect I have provided a few examples: -
DUFF, Robert, son of Alexander Duff in Craignoch, was admitted as a burgess of Elgin in 1775
HAY, Patrick, a Major on Honourable East India Company Service, a Sasine, 1794
MCLEOD, Alexander, born 1792, son of Captain William McLeod [1761-1833]. A Lieutenant Colonel of the 61st Regiment, died in India on 18 August 1849
PATERSON, William, Master of the ‘Nelly of MacDuff’ from Christiansand, Norway, to Banff in August 1806
SANDERS, John, a late merchant in Elgin bequeathed £100 for the poor in 1742
All in all this little book is packed full of names of people connected to this area & is an amazing resource for anyone struggling with pre-registration or brick wall research.
If you live in the US you can purchase this book online via the Genealogical Website
Outside of the US your can purchse this via The Book Depository
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