Street talk goes down well in Timespan!

 Group attending talk by Nick Lindsay in Timespan

Today, Nick Lindsay, the Chairman of Clyne Heritage Society, presented a talk about his research on the houses and past residents in the Parish of Clyne.  He informed the group that he had used the information obtained from census records, valuation rolls, statutory registers, and graveyard records, compiling it all into computer searchable databases.  He said that colour coding the information was a useful way of following a house or property and its occupants through the ages, i.e. 1841 to 1901.  There were many questions from the 20 strong audience, some of which had traveled from Brora for the event.

Nick told the group that during the course of his research he had found out that some street names had changed over time, i.e.  Commerce Street in Brora changed to Roselyn Street by 1871.  He also indicated that the first ever valuation roll numbers recorded in 1849 were allocated to existing tenants in alphabetical order according to surname and that these numbers were the original croft numbers, some of which are still used today.

He had also noted that some census records contained ‘bynames’, as well as the correct surnames.  This was probably done to distinguish between the many families with the same surname, i.e. Robert (Bain) Sutherland.

He finished his presentation by informing the group that his research would take another five years to complete - and he wished the Timespan group well with their ongoing research!