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BACKGROUND COMMENTS

The initial research into the Smith, Harcus, Paterson, Wishart & Redland families in Orkney was started by my late uncle, James Smith Wishart, who also compiled a Dictionary of old Orkney words. He left me both his research and the dictionary to continue his work in my generation and then pass it on the the next generation. As a child I used to spend many hours each weekend helping him as he made up index cards for his Dictionary. Each word or phrase was entered on a separate card with an explanation and derivation of the word/phrase and a sentence or story showing how it was used. These were all cross-referenced with any connecting cards and also entered in a large set of ledger books. He would often open a very large box of old photographs, letters and postcards and go through them all with me, telling me stories about the people, until I could recite the names of the people in the photographs when he held one up--although I had no idea who most of these people were at the time. He instilled the interest at an early age and, although I never had time to do any proper further research until about 12 years ago, I can still hear him telling me the old stories or conjure up the photograph image of the person whenever I look at my family trees. Below is a photograph of myself with my uncle Jim and another of me with my first set of "wheels".

The research into my English lines was started by my late mother many years ago, in the mid 1960s, before the days of computers and the Internet. She had some family information about her Broom[e] ancestors originating from near Rendham in Suffolk and her Abel family originating in Bungay, Suffolk but she had not managed to trace the families. I managed to pick up from her notes and take the research much further. She had not delved into her other family lines though and these proved to be as interesting and the research is continuing on these.

Thanks to numerous families and other researchers who have given me information to update their sections of the trees. Thanks also to the voluntary and paid researchers in Norfolk and Suffolk who helped with advice and helped point me in the correct research directions in two counties that I do not know and have never visited. Thanks must also go to the invaluable services of the Orkney Library Archive department and their staff who have helped with the Orkney family research.

Please remember to check out the entire trees and the connected photographs, plus the numerous other photos on our two other web sites at

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/m/c/l/Marion-A-Mcleod and