ORIGINS OF THE SCOTTISH FAMILIES

This page lists the Scottish Families (who include ancestors of both Gail and Ian IRWIN)and their associated counties. The families were mainly involved with the weaving trade, shoe making, flour milling, work as masons, building and with quarries. Some ancillary lines included farm workers for whom mobility was more important. An interesting aspect that Gail found whilst investigating their family trees, was that the Scottish families had passed down knowledge of their movements most of which have been verified, whereas tracing the English lines has been made much more difficult by the almost total lack of family information.

Gail's ancestors, the JAMIESONs were settled in Brechin, Angus, but her great grandfather William JAMIESON married in England, had a child born in Derbyshire and then returned to the family homes in Brechin, before emigrating to New Zealand. Gail's great great great grandfather William JAMIESON had a brother George JAMIESON who raised his family in Auchtermuchty, Fife. The birth place(s) of these brothers remains a mystery.

Of Ian's ancestors, the IRWINs came from Armagh, Northern Ireland, to Glasgow, Lanarkshire, then moved to Edinburgh, Midlothian. The JARDINE family as compared to the other main families in these ancestry charts, showed the greated tendency to move significant distances within the United Kingdom and to remain in their new areas for periods of time. Their journeys started with Roxburgh to Selkirk and continued to Glasgow, Lanark, with a side excursion to Towermills, Perth, for the birth of some children, then to Leith and Edinburgh, Midlothian.