My office today is terminal five at JFK airport in New York. I am on a somewhat lengthy layover on my way to Glasgow, Scotland. Next week I have two wonderful days full of tours and lectures in Edinburgh and Glasgow. This is in conjunction with my post-graduate course in…
As many of us have discovered delving into our family research, families and in particular the individuals that make up that ancestral past, have histories or even the proverbial skeleton hidden in the closet. Investigating for our own knowledge affords us space to digest information uncovered of a sensitive nature….
(For the previous instalment of this multipart series click here) Soviet Invasion On the 1st of September 1939 Germany invaded Poland from the West, and sixteen days later the Soviet Union did the same from the East. Their secret pact to shred Poland from existence commencing and leaving the Poles unable…
(For part 1 of this multipart series click here) Rzeczpospolita Polska To understand Poland is to understand her people – complex, diverse and resilient. In the late 1700s, without any natural geographic borders to protect her, Rzeczpospolita Polska (the Republic of Poland) was carved into three by Russia, Prussia and Austrian…
Smyllum Park Orphanage Opened in 1864 and in operation until 1981, the Smyllum Park Orphanage in Lanark was a place of last resort for Scotland’s working-class poor. Children were often placed there if the family fell on hard times, or split apart due to unfortunate circumstances. In similar fashion, forty-two…