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About Clelland-Mauchline Inglis-McCallum Davie-Farmer Family History
Why did I want to do this?   Well, I was born in 1955 and only knew one of my natural  grandparents, the others having died between 1918 and 1928.  My own parents died in  1973 and 1985 and I regret not asking all those family related questions while they  were still alive.

With that in mind, I set out in February 2009 to investigate and document my own  family tree (Clelland / Mauchline) with limited objectives of establishing where  my direct ancestors came from and to learn something about their lifestyles in those  times.

Over the next three months I achieved my initial aims and extended the tree to cover  my wife Sandra's family (Inglis / McCallum).  My sister, Rita, then asked that I  research her husband, John's family (Davie / Farmer).

The bulk of the investigations were completed making extensive use of the  Scotlandspeople website (www.Scotlandspeople.org) and making several visits to  Register House in Edinburgh.  It was fortunate that these resources were readily  available to me, living as I do in Edinburgh itself.

What did I learn?  I found that my Clelland line originated in Ayrshire working mainly  as weavers and farm workers in the late 1700s and early 1800s before progressing  towards the mining industry and migrating to Lanarkshire in the 1880s and Fife after  WW2. Other family members also emigrated to the USA in the second half of the 19th  Century, working initially as miners in Alabama and spreading northwards to  Illinois.   The Ayrshire link was a surprise to me as I had always believed that the  family had always originated from Lanarkshire.  The mining connection is a strong one  with my father, many uncles and various grandparents all being involved for much of  their working lives.

The mining story is often a harrowing one and is well documented in the Scottish  Mining website (www.scottishmining.co.uk).  The tragedy of whole families working down  the pits, including women and children, is one that resonates with myself, as early  census records show that my one of my great-grandfathers was working down a pit at 10  years old.  I was already aware that one of my grandfathers had also died in a pit  accident.

The other branches of the family have all had working class backgrounds again as  weavers and miners or are of farming stock.

I don’t anticipate making too many more changes to the tree as it stands as I have  achieved what I set out to do. I am satisfied with the accuracy of the information  gathered and more importantly content in my knowledge that all parts of my family were  hard working individuals and were wholly committed to doing their best for their  respective families.

Regards
 Eric Clelland

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