The biggest date in the Society calendar, the annual Scottish Games, is now only two months away, and organizers are finalizing plans for what promises to be another highly successful event. This year’s celebration of all things Scottish at Steele Indian School Park is the 55th anniversary games and takes on extra special significance for the Society.

Games Committee Chairman Paul Bell is holding a planning meeting on Thursday 24 January at Rosie McCaffrey's Irish Pub, 906 E. Camelback in Phoenix. at 6.30pm. Everyone with an interest in contributing to the event in any way is welcome to come along.

Special pin badges to mark the event have been struck and can be bought from Paul at $5 each.

The pins depict a phoenix and an Arizona state flag on a blue and white Scottish saltire.

Around the edge of the design is a belt with a buckle at the bottom and the inscription ’55 years’ at the top.

Scotland's Hidden Gems - Kirriemuir, where Peter Pan was born
Iain Lundy

He was the boy who never grew up, so it’s fitting that his memory lives on forever in the small Scottish town that inspired his creation.

Kirriemuir is an ancient market town located in the Angus Glens. It was there, in 1860, that the playwright James Matthew Barrie (JM Barrie) was born. He called the place his ‘wee red toonie’ because of the red sandstone used to build the houses. The small whitewashed weaver’s cottage where he was born became the inspiration for his most famous character, Peter Pan.

Although Barrie left the town when he was 13 and spent the remainder of his childhood in Dumfries and London, it is Kirriemuir that is most associated with the Peter Pan stories.

A statue depicting Peter playing a flute stands in the Main Street, and Barrie’s birthplace is a visitor attraction run by the National Trust for Scotland.

There is even a Peter Pan playpark for local youngsters – including some residents who have perhaps never grown old themselves.

Kirriemuir sits in the center of typical Scottish east coast farmland, seven miles from the town of Forfar and only 6 miles from Glamis Castle, the childhood home of the late Queen Mother. Like most old market towns, it has seen better days, but it is nowadays a magnet for Peter Pan aficionados the world over.

The town was also known as the center of witchcraft activity in the 16th century. Many older buildings still contain a ‘witches stane’ – a grey stone set into the building’s red sandstone – that was said to ward off witches.

Kirriemuir – or Kirrie as it’s known – is also the childhood home of the original lead singer of rock band AC/DC, the late Bon Scott. It can be reached by taking the A90 from Dundee to Forfar, then turning west on to the A926. And if you have an interest in the British royal family, then don’t miss nearby Glamis Castle.

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Upcoming Genealogy Events for 2019

by Robert M. Wilbanks IV, B.A.
Chief Genealogist & Historian, C.S.A.
genealogy@arizonascots.com

I have often talked about the importance of “Networking and Ongoing Learning”. As you progress in your genealogy, discovering new and interesting facets of your family history, you will find that there is always something more to learn about the research process and resources available.

Finding others with common research interests, but with more practical experience, is an important, and fun, aspect to genealogy.

Whether it is finding a distant cousin who has made more progress in the researching of your common family tree, or learning from a record type expert, or research locality expert, networking with others to learn more is just one aspect of becoming a more skilled researcher. The other key aspect is just straightforward genealogy education. Getting out there and learning more. Self-learning and continuing education is very low cost and readily available in a variety of formats and locations.

Even though you may not have Arizona ancestry, local genealogy societies across the state are a great place to network, learning from others, and attend meetings, and learn from great presenters on a variety of topics. With the beginning of a new year, I thought I would let you know of a variety of highly significant genealogy conferences and seminars coming up in the next few months hosted by various Arizona genealogy societies. Don’t hesitate to take the time to go out and learn more. Here are just a few events coming in January through March.

The Pinal County Genealogists  (www.pinalctyazgen.com), will be hosting their annual conference, 2019 Genealogy Workshop, on Saturday, January 26th in Casa Grande. Registration ($20 before January 12th; includes a lunch) is now open and the syllabus of speakers, topics and handouts, is now available on their site as downloadable PDF files.

The Tucson Family History Center  (www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Tucson_Arizona_Family_History_Center) will be hosting its annual Free Event, the 2019 Family History Fair on Saturday, February 2nd, 8am to 4pm, with 35 classes. Visit the website for more details.

The West Valley Genealogical Society (azwvgs.org) is the largest genealogy society in Arizona and operates its own genealogy library with over 4000 square feet of books and more, plus access to a wide variety of subscription-based genealogy databases. In addition to monthly meetings, the Library provides a number of “How-to” genealogy classes on a variety of topics. Their Facebook Events page (www.facebook.com/pg/WVGS12222/events) has a long list of special classes from software to DNA to researching a variety of other countries. Their annual seminar on February 16, 2019 will feature Judy Russell, “The Legal Genealogist” (www.legalgenealogist.com.

The annual seminar of the Green Valley Genealogical Society, south of Tucson, (azgvgs.org) will be on February 23, 2019 featuring Cyndi Ingalls of Cyndi’s List fame (www.cyndislist.com): A website that sorts and organizes all known genealogy websites on the internet, currently with over 336 thousand web links in 220 categories.

The Pima County Genealogy Society, in Tucson  (azpimagensoc.org),  is one of the larger genealogy societies in the Tucson area. In addition to their monthly meeting programs, they have an extensive variety of classes at various locations around Tucson. Visit the website for details and registration information.

The Family History Society of Arizona (fhsa.org) has seven chapters around the valley that each meet a different day of the month. You could theoretically attend all seven meetings monthly. Its 2019 annual meeting will be on March 9th and will feature D. Joshua Taylor, a nationally recognized speaker and author, who will be presenting five different topics.

There are many other Arizona genealogy groups, historical and heritage societies that you can find through the Arizona Genealogical Advisory Board (AzGAB) (azgab.com), promoting genealogy and history by addressing the educational needs and interests of Arizona’s genealogical community through cooperation by the various groups and individuals. They have an impressive calendar of genealogy events around Arizona.

This is another of a series of articles in which I show you the basics of searching for your family history, discussing the use of family records, public records, and online resources nationally and internationally, etc. The previous articles are now available on the Genealogy Section of this website.   See “Genealogy” in the menu options at the top of the web page.

It’s the New Year so what better time to relate a heart-warming tale which reaches us from, of all places, the frozen wastes of the Arctic.

The story surrounds a British airman, Flight Officer James McCutcheon. who perished with eight others when a Lancaster bomber crashed in the Canadian Arctic in 1950.

CBCNews article, photo of the Lancaster crew, 1950

Last summer, almost seven decades later, Mr McCutcheon’s grandsons, who run a pub on the Isle of Arran, were startled when a senior Royal Canadian Air Force officer stopped in at the pub. It turned out he knew the entire story and helped the family piece it together.

Read the full article at CBCNews.

More than 200 men returning from World War 1 died when the naval yacht Iolaire struck a reef within sight of Stornoway Harbour.

Prince Charles and Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will be present at the service.

Read the article at BBC News

The 150th anniversary of the birth of Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh is a happier one.

According to statistics his work is more popular than ever.

Following the £10m restoration of the artist's only surviving tea room in Glasgow, venues connected to the artist have record their best ever year for visitor numbers.

Read the article at STV News