Fergus Smith
oldscotbooks.bsky.social
Fergus Smith
@oldscotbooks.bsky.social
Legal history, historical data geekery, genealogy. Owner of oldscottish.com. Historical Records Specialist at FindMyPast.co.uk. All views my own, obviously. Lives in St Andrews, Fife
I think it's likely taken on the day the paper was released - sunny Sunday makes a lottie sense ...
(I would say ah'll get ma coat but it's too hot.)
July 13, 2025 at 8:38 AM
I think I can date that first photo to 5 June 1949. The headline in the newspaper is about the rail strikes, and if you look carefully you can see it's the same photo. The woman - your granny? - is reading a slightly different edition of this paper (www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer...)
July 13, 2025 at 8:03 AM
It was hot in St Andrews today, so in response to popular demand, I got in the sea.
To much disappointment, I also got out ...
June 20, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Here in the UK, one police force justified attacking protestors by the injuries received by officers. Turned out more than half of these injuries were bee stings. Another was caused by an officer slamming his thumb in a car door ...
June 15, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Random Feg story: I ended up cooking for the Waterboys when they played St Andrews students union ca1988 - a pal was events coordinator and the caterer didn't turn up after not being paid.
19-year-old me was not a good cook ...
May 20, 2025 at 10:16 PM
It's a very odd approach they've taken. They could have been very helpful and recorded parents' names - which are usually given in Scottish death records - but no!
May 18, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Ah yes, in 1855 children's ages were recorded on death certificates, but not those of spouses. After 1855 you won't see children's ages.
May 18, 2025 at 9:16 PM
There are some spouses, parents and even informants indexed, so they may have grabbed every name. For death records, the person should have an age and hence approximate birth year.
It's very odd though.
May 18, 2025 at 8:41 PM
They've not got these from FamilySearch, at least not directly. They've received a microfilm from Dunbartonshire archives, and simply scanned and indexed that. They seem to have indexed more than just the deceased's name, but I haven't done a deep enough dive to work out what they have indexed.
May 18, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I've had a dig through and what they seem to have done is simply extract every name from the record and attach that to the death record. It's systematic, and by (very poor) design.
Not sure it's AI - it could just be a classic case of GIGO in terms of keying rules.
May 18, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I've been in that house! I bought books from the owner maybe 15 years ago - I recognised the decor so clicked through and checked. I remember it well as my sister was then living round the corner.
May 12, 2025 at 6:04 PM
I somehow missed this first time around. Hearty congratulations my friend, and well deserved!
May 12, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Lecturers: There are only 24 hours in a day.
Management: We're thrilled to announce we've redesignated hour to mean 45 minutes, so there are now 32 hours in the day.
May 7, 2025 at 7:52 AM
A big boy done it and run away.
May 6, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Freed up a fair chunk of floorspace too! Annoyingly, I had to dismantle the shelves and rebuild them *inside* the cupboard as they wouldn't quite fit.
May 4, 2025 at 8:31 PM