February 2012
2 posts
Well, damnation.
You know? It’s nights like this that I pine for the good old days of Cyndi’s List and the original RootsWeb discussion threads — I miss the days when we genealogist sleuths shared the scarcity of laboriously discovered and put up online good, documented-at-the-courthouse, information and commiserated in our poverty to make the work easier.
Sure, now I know why that valuable...
Got to the LDS library and didn't run into myself.
It was refreshing to discover there are a couple or three researchers that have turned up Allie Monteith in their family tree pursuits and to finally see data besides that found in my own Ancestry.com GEDCOM.
Unfortunately, Allie’s vitals — birth year and marriage date — are not supported with documentary references attached on any of the posted trees, and the dates given are...
January 2012
3 posts
3 tags
Idle hands are devilish tools.
Well, whoot! Someone’s finally gone and done it.
A few minutes of down time at work; a news story about a U.K. archeology dig and a Google Map search to see where; a whim to check out Templeton Burn on my new pen pal’s recommendation; piddling, I find a Templeton Court in Glasgow that one Monteith Row dead ends into. I wonder, “See if anything’s turned up on Allie...
2 tags
A greeting outta thin Ayr ...
Got an email from a very, very — very distant “cousin” in Scotland. It’s exciting to hear from folks that reach out. Doubly so from someone living within 3 miles of Templeton Burn (a little creek).
2012.01.23 UPDATE: Well, the good news is I haven’t heard from my Ayrshire correspondent since my reply. The first time I wrote back, my email was returned...
3 tags
Ah, the holidays.
Father Christmas holding court.
Shame that I was too distracted & busy to take advantage of the freebie one- or three-day offers from Ancestry.com to mine their databases. But I did get a cool turntable-to-USB device that’ll let me listen to my old 33 1/3 LP albums once again. Yusef Lateef, it’s been too long!
November 2011
2 posts
1 tag
The almost-meditative monotony of "Browse"*
Sunday with genealogy and the laptop.
* Browse — as in “browse images of census records.”
I’ve scanned the LDS collection of the 1890 Census of Union Veterans and Widows of the Civil War for three or four counties of Wisconsin and three counties of Ohio so far this weekend. It’s almost like spending time accomplishing something.
Actually, I found myself...
9 tags
Pin-balling around the genealogy searches.
This screen in front of me can quickly become the flickering lights and ringing bells of an arcade game — a stream-of-consciousness carom from thought to link to link to thought, then trailing down to a flipper with a whip back up into another zig-zag through the bumpers of data points scattered around the Internet. It was a photo of a headstone in a discussion thread notification that got...
September 2011
2 posts
4 tags
It's great to be asked.
“Austintown” cover.
It was Friday that I discovered that I was called out in the “Acknowledgements” of a 2007 history of Austintown, Ohio, written by Joyce Pogany. I recall Ms. Pogany’s research assistant emailing me, asking for references to our Templeton ancestors being among the first settlers of the valley in eastern Ohio, back before 1798 or whenever I asserted in...
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I'm wondering what else I can do with my research.
I was asked to rate a Wikipedia entry last evening. I’m checking Wikipedia all the time and such a thing as a pop-up asking me to contribute just because I logged on and looked something up at the same time … well, it’s never happened before.
Wikipedia, “fun with Dictionary,” chasing etymologies of words after I find out how to spell them, searching my way deep...
April 2011
1 post
150 years ago yesterday & today our country broke.
Inside Fort Sumter, April 12-13, 1861. Harper’s Weekly, April 27, 1861.
On this occasion I can link you to the few Civil War stories from the family saga that I have up on the Web, as of now:
Robert H Templeton, Wisconsin infantryman at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and with Sherman on his way to Atlanta.
Samuel Kirk Robins was also with Sherman and of course other places in the...
March 2011
1 post
Odds & ends.
We’re burrowing down on those First Generation (historic-record speaking) ancestors in the American Colonies, right now. In otherwords: we’re on the trail of the Monteiths.
In this instance, the church father, John Monteith, Daniel’s brother and uncle of the celebrated Rev. John Lenox Monteith*:
Rawlinsville, in the eastern part of the township [Martic township, Lancaster...
February 2011
1 post
7 tags
Nineteenth century photography didn't always catch...
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
We’re told that the stern, stiff-necked gentleman above had a delightful sense of humor. You wouldn’t know it by looking at him in this picture, but as a younger man he was an unabashed adventurer and not afraid to live outside the law, to boot. He must have been a fascinating conversationalist since he was an educated university man back...
December 2010
2 posts
4 tags
Ha-ha! It's already here.
Alas, no ‘Tempiltoun’ in the index, and I’m going to have to read the thing to see if there’s any mention of ‘messenger-at-arms’ or ‘justice’ or ‘sheriff’. It’s certain that our Roger Tempiltoun was not one of the few General Procurators through 1549 nor Crown Advocates up through 1582. Nor was his son, James, in either...
You look here, you look there, and voilà,...
I’m discovering that there’s more to say about Justice Roger Tempiltoun (ca. 1510 - ca. 1555) of Edinburgh than I initially thought. I guess I got a bit fascinated by the fact that he seems to have been among Scotland’s first truly professional lawyers. At least, as I read more about the establishment of the College of Justice in 1532 and discovered the only two free...
November 2010
2 posts
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Wherein I keep turning up Ye Olde Templetons.
OK, I have attempted to move to more contemporary Templeton biographies and have found it hard to keep focused on the task. I even nearly finished a draft of a bio for my adult niece, Erin, and found it’s harder to craft an acceptable biography — in all the ways a person’s bio must be ‘acceptable’ — for someone that’s living and I expect to see in person...
OK - a 'personal' note.
I first looked into my “Templeton” family heritage once I had moved a couple of thousand miles away from my parents. I think, now, that it was an interest that may have kept me connected to something — a place — that I knew was “home”, or something.
It was when I was a newcomer to San Francisco, and after I’d made my first trip back to Mom &...
October 2010
3 posts
4 tags
OK, I've found some Maxwells that begat "Jameses".
It’s my first discovery of a Maxwell line that coined ‘James’ as a family name. They’re the Maxwells that held the baronetage of Calderwood, now a neighborhood of East Kilbride.
While the timeline of successors can be confusing in the first source book I came across, it seems that back in 1400, one of the many John Maxwells of Pollok split his lands between two sons;...
6 tags
Sometimes you get caught in the eddys.
The ‘eddy’ in this case isn’t even an Edward. It’s James Maxwell, co-abductee of our 16th century lawyer ancestor, Roger Tempiltoun. I was hoping to find James Maxwell among the Maxwells of Nether Pollok, since that branch of the clan were close to the Stewarts, and ‘James’ is a name associated with the Stewarts. So, I chased down that family’s...
We've caught the miscreant that 'distrained' our...
OK — Moving on (and pardon my absence; there’s been ‘stuff’ distracting me of late).
Piddling with Google again, I’ve turned up a court of justice record of the violence done to our 16th century ancestor, Roger Tempiltoun, who was a member of the court of justice in Edinburgh from around 1546 or so, as he discharged his duties as a messenger for the Queen. Check it...
September 2010
1 post
5 tags
The Boyd charter, for the record.
Archibald Duncan is the kind of academic that will spend two- or three paragraphs discussing the import and implications of a 14th century charter using the Latin “Scottorum” instead of the later form “Scotorum”. He’s the guy designated to assemble and analyze the official acts of Robert I, king of Scotland, in the definitive series of books that are the compendium...
August 2010
4 posts
7 tags
My loaner finally arrived.
It finally came. My inter-library loaner of the Regesta Regum Scottorum, V, Robert I 1306-1329. I’m about to find out about that ‘tenendas clause’ that Google Books left dangling with their “snippet view”. Maybe learn what happened with James de Templetone’s Achindalosk property when Boyd took over in 1315.
Ah, the lengths I’ll go to in order to...
5 tags
Picking at a thread, I find the same scrap I saw...
Estir Tempilton was living in Dundonald parish around 1604. She and Kirkstyle “of Dundonald” had their land become the subject of some transaction involving their “temple lands”:
“…into the hands of William, Lord of the Blessed John of Torfechin as Lord Superior thereof, of the temple lands of Estir Tempilton and the Temple lands of Kirkstile of Dundonald and on the...
Getting go-juice from a dry hole.
It’s only by analogy, of course, but I do have a bit of sympathy for Chevron oil company’s efforts to make California’s nearly-dry oil wells produce usable product. I’ve gone ahead and injected the ‘hot steam’ of an inter-library loan (with the attendant fees involved) of an obscure 1895 book of old royal charters, and such. All I know is that is...
6 tags
Ya follow out the details, regardless, and then -...
Thankfully, there are days like this one. I was poring through the few ‘facts’ I unearthed last Saturday, chasing thin, thin leads, when I came upon a page with this:
Seal of the abbot of Kilwinning Abbey, circa 16th century.
I didn’t get back to “update” my previous post as I thought I would. Got distracted by the detective work, I suppose. That, and...
July 2010
1 post
We've got exciting news breaking about Gilbert,...
It’s exciting to stumble over something unseen earlier with the potential to open a whole ‘nother avenue of inquiry under a rock you thought you’d turned over some time back, but discover you hadn’t, really. Such is the case with a new (ugh, still fragmentary) source that mentions Mestre Gilbert de Templeton — this time from higher in the Church, itself: the...
June 2010
3 posts
6 tags
OK. A draft is up for James de Templetone.
Fortalice, circa 1240.
I finally had to let go of getting anything “real” on Jacobi de Templetone, landowner somewhere around Kilmarnock, or West Kilbride, or Dalry, or some damn place in Cunninghame. The piece on James de Templetone feels incomplete to me, but there it is. I really do have to move on.
But, first I have to get back to it and edit the links, clean up some...
2 tags
Today's a good day to celebrate Scottish...
Illustration courtesy of MarkChurms.com.
It was on this day, the 24th of June, in 1314, that Robert the Bruce defeated the English army under King Edward II at the battle of Bannockburn. This was the decisive battle that assured Scotland’s independence from the British crown that — after a lot of dilly-dallying and appeals to the Pope and whatever — was finally affirmed by...
3 tags
Time out.
It’s been more than a couple of weeks since the last post. Been writing on James de Templetone for the Web … intent upon putting up his ‘bio page’. But there’s a bit of writer’s procrastination going on.
There’s been some procrastination going on, I should say. I keep getting hung up on the historical facts I don’t have — where...
May 2010
4 posts
4 tags
OK -- One more nugget re: James de Tempilton
One of the guys listed with Templetone in the Boyd charter was apparently still in possession of his lands near Dalry in 1320. Laurencii de Mora appears* in a Robert I charter of Ardrossan.
In 1320, King Robert the Bruce, by Charter under the Great Seal, gave to Fergus de Ardrossane his lands of Ardrossane; “cum tenandriis terrarum Willielmi de Potteconill, Richard de Bodyill, Laurencii...
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I think I've got all I'm gonna get on James de...
I surrender. It appears that Achendolosk is not going to be found, and I am not going to get a good translation of the Latin charter to clear up just what Robert I (the Bruce) was doing with the James de Templetone (Jacobus de Templetone) property. Even after finding a book by G.W.S. Barrow that goes into some detail about who forfeited what, and why, back when Robert began disinheriting his...
Distractions, distractions...
So I’m sitting here trying to get something done on James de Tempilton, and I flipped on the TV just to have some noise in the background. I wasn’t going to do genealogy, per se, but collect biographic information and see about getting some of the writing done.
I see that Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s series tracing a dozen prominent Americans’ ancestry is on … hm-m-m. ...
4 tags
Google Books can be damn frustrating.
There are times you’re hot on the scent of discovery and think you’ve sniffed out that rarest essential truffle of info in one of those obscure books that Google has scanned and put up on the Web for all us micro-market researchers. Last night, I was probing for records of the men around our Jacobi de Templetone de Achendolosk. What happened with them before the time of the Charter? ...
April 2010
3 posts
2 tags
The mystery of the two Boyd charters
I’ve got a footnote going under my working draft Templeton Family Site entry for Jacobus de Templetone that’s threatening to take over the whole page. It has to do with the odd fact that there are at least two Latin texts for the same ancient charter supposedly penned by Robert the Bruce, taking confiscated lands from John Balliol and others in order to cobble together a credible...
5 tags
Alright. I may be changing my mind. At least I'm...
I got sick of trying to word-by-word translate non-Classical Scots Latin and dropped that particular ball, when it comes to sorting out James Tempilton’s relationship to the newly-minted baron of Kilmarnock back in 1316. I’ve allowed myself to get distracted with other online piddling — Facebook is a great time-waster — and in general taken a break.
Today, I kind of got...
More septs.
Do the Frasers also claim us Templetons as a sept of their clan?
…On further poking around Robert Livingston’s pages, I’m guessing this is just a page of notes — an artifact set of pages thrown online back in the ‘old-days’ Internet of 2005-06.
Oh, well. As Emily Litella used to say, “Nevermind.”
March 2010
4 posts
6 tags
Really, really this time. OK? (...probably not.)...
I was following footnotes and links a while ago only to discover that Clan Boyd claims us Templetons as a sept of their clan.
The Boyd Clan crest.
I’m still worrying the Latin translation of the Robert the Bruce charter of the Boyd barony, but this turn of events — actually, this assertion of family affinity — would seem to indicate that the mention of James Tempilton...
7 tags
OK. This is it. Really, this time.
Just one more bit of worrying the “Achindolosk” thing — James Tempilton’s holding in 1315/6 — and this turned up. It’s the best that I’ve got, for now:
You see “Assloss” up there, just above and to the right of Dean Castle? There’s apparently a connection between that place and the Sloss family. That would be the family that...
5 tags
Time to sum up an move on.
I’ve had no luck pinning down just where James Tempilton’s property in Achindalosk was in 1315/6. And, while I’ve done some guesswork trying to translate the Robert the Bruce charter setting Robert Boyd up as Baron of Kilmarnock, I’ve not been able to confirm my suspicion that our James, in fact, lost his landholding to the new baron in the transaction. Or, on the other...
8 tags
Wow. It was quick, but worth it.
I got back to 100% from Wednesday night’s food poisoning yesterday, Saturday, at about noon or 1 o’clock. It was a bit odd how I went — in the space of a couple of hours — from tottering from bed to bath feeling the effects and wondering about my G-I tract to feeling as if nothing had happened at all. Flying back Thursday was touch ‘n go; almost fainted at...
February 2010
5 posts
3 tags
We'll be going to Munich next week.
Munich city center. (Thanks, Mariott.)
I expect we’ll see whatever Medieval remnants of the old city there are to be seen, but I suspect the Third Reich Tour will be the more resonant experience on our agenda. That’s just a guess.
I don’t really have a “Templeton Family” hook to bring to the trip, and we’ll only be there two days, and...
5 tags
Ask, and it will be revealed...by someone on the...
I got connected to Facebook’s Ancestor Chronicles and asked if anyone knew what “Auchen” means. John P Poynter was good enough to tip me to not only the meaning, but what could prove to be a valuable research tool:
Scottish Place Names
Place names in Scotland often have common prefixes, many derived from Gaelic. Ordinary words like ‘ben’ and ‘glen’ also appear...
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Let's face it: The Bruce wasn't looking like a...
I’m beginning to think that our good James Templeton of Achindalosk picked the wrong horse after England’s Edward I subjugated Scotland through 1303 and while Robert the Bruce was on the lam, hiding from Longshank’s men. At least, James must’ve held himself too far away from the action running up to the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, which finally sealed Scotland’s...
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Pullin' at 700 year old threads in Ayrshire
Our second-oldest Templeton in the records turned up so far is James Templetone (or Tempilton — I’ve found it both ways transcribed from the same original document), who appears in the charter issued by Robert the Bruce establishing the Boyd Barony in Kilmarnock, in 1315 or 1316. You have to suspect that James (“Jacobi” in the Latin) was kin to Gilbert, the Mestre, out...
Had dinner with Marlin, who was in LA visiting...
We shared a booth with his friend Melanie at Chili’s in Manhattan Beach Tuesday evening. It was half way between Rolling Hills Estates, where Melanie lives with her mother and two teen aged sons, and Karin’s and my place in Santa Monica. A place we could both find.
Marlin has been “next” on my list for a biography since I went over to Albuquerque a couple of years ago...
January 2010
6 posts
2 tags
FLASH: International tension over pudding eased.
Photo courtesy of Cap’n Hef at Flickr.
It’s January 25th, and tonight Scots the world over eat their traditional Haggis in celebration of the life and work of Robert Burns. ‘The world over,’ except in the United States — until now.
Turns out, for more than 20 years the Scottish national dish has been banned from import to the U.S. out of fear of infection by...
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Uh-oh. Could this be another line?
Pulling on the loose string I’ve found on Google Books, I’ve come across another “Templeton” place-name in Aberdeenshire that may — may — have spawned a line of Templetons that George Black didn’t uncover (or assume as a provenance).
Seems that one James Tempiltoun and his wife, Euffame Frame, both registered their “testaments” as hailing from...
16 tags
Still digging.
Is there a greater gift to genealogists and armchair historians than Google Books’ searchable archive of utterly obscure and ancient texts? I don’t think so.
Here’s a list of the first several olde Templetons I’ve come across in Medieval Scotland using the Google, along with the date, the burgh they’re associated with and a note of the text in which they can be...
7 tags
Roger Tempiltoun, court official after 1546
Now this is frustrating:
The above is a ‘fragment’ of a scanned page from the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, Volume 9 that has been scanned by Google Books. However, that’s all that Google Books has made available online. No context, no explanation.
Apparently one Roger Tempiltoun, my Medieval namesake, worked in the Royal courts in some capacity some time...
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Another message in a bottle tossed into the Web...
Rummaging through the Lord High Treasurer’s records from the 1st half of the 16th century I came across an interesting fillip. Seems that Old Man Templeton that ran the soume (pack) horses for the king was brought on the books as “Tempilman” and switched over to “Tempeltoun” after a couple of years on the job. I then found a David Tempilman being used as...
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Maybe it was blood memory.
I went looking online for where the King’s Stables were located back when Old Man Tempiltoune “that dryvie the soume” (pack) horses for James V of Scotland and then for James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran who was regent for Mary, Queen of Scots while she was an infant. I quickly came across King’s Stables Road and a site for some “self-catered” apartment rentals...