Contents:
Larry Bethune Graham Black Ron Conners Sandra Anderson and Janet Morrison
From: Larry Bethune lbethune@berklee.edu
Ian,
Wow! I have been getting some fan mail from that letter about turning 50 you published. Very funny.
Now, I have another idea.
I think I'll start some trouble. I am going to write a letter for your next issue proposing that the good folk of Kintyre and a small band of ex-patriots set up a week where all "Former Kintyrians" return to Kintyre for a Kintyre reunion. Must be thousands of us around the world and at least hundreds would take us up. be great fun and wonderful for Kintyre tourism
I wonder where everyone could stay.
I know a lot of folks do go back and I also know that some groups plan such trips. I have more in mind to market it like crazy. The cyber world is amazing for networking and if I started building a Kintyre database, now, within six months, I'd have an amazing list of folks once tied to the motherland of Kintyre. (Check out just the attached list built by some Bethunes in Australia that I have been contributing names to.)
Besides, with your mag and all the mags around the world, including family newsletters, with a little posting an planning (reverse those thoughts), I am sure we would get the word to thousands.
Maybe I better just try to get through Christmas, first, eh?
Well, fun thinking about it.
Good Hunting,
Larry
6/12/99
From me to Larry:
Hi Larry,
Pleased to hear that your getting e-mail re your turning 50 letter.
What a thing to say, "I think I'll start some trouble." :-]> Actually, it's a great idea. I'll be up in Campbeltown in mid-May and, probably, again in September next year. It would be great if we had a KintyreMeet. Btw, I think that you forgot to attach your attachment!
As to Kintyre databases, if you haven't already, take a look at Johnny MacKinnon's website.
As ever, any of your schemes have space on the Mag website. Take care and have a good Christmas.
All the best,
Ian
9/12/99
Back from the man himself:
I hope I didn't scare you with such a grandiose idea; I know I scared myself. having done some large scale productions myself, I do know that even this little idea has some major planning to make it work. Perhaps starting small could work, though, the idea itself is about being huge.
Maybe I'll write something to float the idea and see if even a smaller core group might like to meet and plan an evolving "reunion" that ends up huge in a few years.
We'll see, eh?
See if the attachment comes through this time (the same doc in two different formats). Can't tell if I forgot it (always possible after 50 yo) or there is some other problem.
Merry Christmas to you and your family and all those hundreds of staff at THE KINTYRE ANTIQUARIAN.
Good Hunting,
Larry
9/12/99
Larry's 'attachment' was his e-mail database. Wow! Unfortunately, it will take me 50 years to gain the permission of all the people upon it to post it here! - Ian
Finally - me to Larry:
See you, Jimmy,
Thanks mate. You don't scare me one little bit. I'm up for anything you like. A KintyreMeet is a superb idea. I'll post this whole shebang in the December Mag and we'll see what occurs.
By the way, your forgetting the attachment has nothing to do with age, so it must be something else! Har har.
Have a cool Yule, the noo (Scottish version).
Ian.
10/12/99
From: Graham Blackhivolt@id.co.zw
Hello Ian,
I continue to read and visit your site with pleasure - thanks for your efforts. Although I've been a subscriber to the "paper" edition for some years I particularly enjoy the interaction from your correspondents who have discovered the online version. In fact I've pointed a few people there myself when I have genealogical queries and they have all come back and thanked me for the address. So you're getting it right!
Hope all continues well with you and my best wishes for the New Year. I hesitate to say new milleniun because I cannot see that it is - and with a bit of basic genealogy behind me and knowing a little about how the calendar has been hacked about through the centuries it's obvious the date is a bit arbitrary anyway. But that's a real can of worms and we may as well just enjoy ourselves anyway. So, have a good one and we'll "see you" next year!
Best wishes
Graham Black
13/12/99
I sent this to Graham:
Hi Graham,
Among the reasons for my enjoyment of posting the online Mag, is the reaction I get from good, warm, friendly folk such as yourself. It is particularly nice when I'm advised that I'm getting it right, and that folk are good enough to use up their valuable time and energy in telling me.
I agree 100% with you. If we are to use the calendar we use day after day, then the new millennium will not start until 1 Jan 2001. But, I suppose that we will just have to go with the flow. I'll be doing much the same as I do every other year anyway. Spending the night at home with my beloved wife, and toasting the bells together.
I hope that you, too, have a really good Christmas and New Year, and always remember the toast:
Here's tae us,
Wha's laik us?
Damn few,
An' they're a deid.
Slainthe,
Ian
15/12/99
From: Ron Conners RConners@aol.com
On your Merry Christmas to all page you have a picture of Campbeltown Main St. circa 1886 showing the 14th century cross. Is there anyplace that I could buy a nice print of that picture? Thanks for your help.
Ron Conners
Box 30, Berne, NY 12023
As an afterthought which should have been a forethought I especially enjoyed the lyrics to the Scottish Songs. I'm happy I found this page
20/12/99
I advised Ron that the image of the Main Street was scanned from an 8"x4" postcardof Campbeltown I bought when I was last up there. I offered to send him one. That offer is, of course, open to all. Just let me know. - Ian
From: Sandra Anderson sandra@georgem.globalnet.co.uk
15/12/99
More from my good friend Janet...........
Hey Ian,
Another great Mag! I've read at least part of every article already. My two articles look good on there. I do hope your readers enjoy reading about our trip. Since I hadn't read it since I sent it to you, I enjoyed reading about our first week in Scotland all over again. (Do you think I've used the words read, reading and readers enough in this paragraph?) I am an English teacher's worst nightmare.
Our Thanksgiving in Georgia was really a good holiday. Traffic on the interstate highways was horrendous, as it seemed every American decided to hit the road for the four-day weekend. We feasted on turkey, dressing, potatoes,, giblet gravy, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin pie and coconut pie.....
You asked if Angus had asked me about printing any of my articles in the hard copy magazine. Not exactly. When we talked with him at the Southend Highland Games, he said he understood I'd submitted a couple of articles to you for the online edition. I told him what they were about. He said he'd have a look at them online and would get in touch with me if he wanted my permission to put them in the magazine. I haven't heard from him and I don't expect to. I think the 1756 church petition article has some merit -- not due to anything I wrote, but only based on the value of the petition itself and its signatories. Perhaps he will pick up on that yet. He didn't strike me as a man who would ever get in a hurry. Maybe I should take the bull by the horns and just mail him the church petition article. He can always turn it down. That's his prerogative as the editor.
The wheels of government turn slowly everywhere, I suppose. I may have told you a couple of months ago that "the other Iain" in Glasgow had found a reference to a 1676 will of John Morison of Crossibeg. I e-mailed the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh -
The National Archives of Scotland
H.M. General Register House
2 Princes' Street
Edinburgh EH1 3YY
- and inquired how I might obtain a photocopy. After eight weeks I had just about given up; however, yesterday I received an e-mail informing me that for seven pounds 45 pence they will send me a photocopy of John Morison's will AND inventory. - The photocopy is the 1687 Inventory and Will of John Morison of Crossibeg Farm in the Kilchousland Parish, Campbeltown. Ruaraidh Wishart, Search Room Archivist, Historical Search Section was the one who e-mailed me with the information.- I found out I can get a money order in pounds sterling at the post office. As soon as NAS receives payment, they will airmail the documents to me. I smell another Mag article in the works.... Ha! Ha!........... 1/12/99
..........Still watching the snail mail box for your Christmas card.... Perhaps it will arrive today. The wee package from Alex arrived on Friday. He sent a nice calendar of Campbeltown, some snow photographs I must return to him (in due time, of course) and a gorgeous Christmas card of the wee toon in the snow. It's the picture you used in the December, 1997 Mag, if memory serves me correctly. We love that picture and will probably put the card in a frame.
I think the last of the Christmas cards will be mailed today and all the presents got wrapped on Sunday while we watched a football game on TV. So, we're just about ready for Christmas............14/12/99
.................We, too, look forward to a quiet Christmas at home on Saturday. We'll go to the candlelight service at Rocky River Presbyterian Church on Friday night. It is always a beautiful service in the historic sanctuary. (Well, it's historic by our standards. I realize 138 years makes it a new building by British standards.)................23/12/99
Janet
Back
to top
Page 2: Janet and
Marie Morrison's 1999 Trip to Scotland - Part Two
Page 3: A Series
of e-mails from Daniel Stevenson
Page 4: An American Lady
in Southend, 1878
Page 5: Bits and Bobs
Page 6: Antiquity and
Technology
Page 7: Lt Colonel John
Porter: A Gallant Provost
Page 8: By Hill and Shore