In a time of Giants...

Welcome to Orkney in the time of giants or really peedie hooses and ships...

We just thought we'd brighten up your day with this lovely old map o Kirkwall.


This is part of a plan of Grain surveyed and drawn by William Aberdeen in 1766 for Sir Laurence Dundas.


Orkney Archive Reference: D8/E/19[G3]

A Chance For You to See What We've Been Banging On About For So Long...

Films and talks about Margaret Tait?

Films by Margaret Tait?

Yes Please!

See you all there. We'll be the ones at the back with bells on.

Never A Doll Moment

Look what I found when looking for shipbuilding apprenticeship documents. What are they for? Who knows?

One of the figures has "Napolean - 5' 4" and Horatio Nelson was 5' 5"' written on it's leg.

Reference: D116/6

Bringing Home The Beacon

Brinkie's Brae, Stromness. It's a brae that belonged to Brinkie presumably? Possibly not...


We hold an 1852 plan of Stromness which names the hill 'Wart Hill'. Wart was the old Orkney word for beacon or pillar and derived from the Old Norse word varða.

In every Isle there is a Wart or Ward-Hill. the highest hill in the Isle, on the top thereof they used to kindle a fire, when they saw an enemy approaching.

John. Brand, A Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pightland Firth and Caithness. (1701)

'Brinkie' is in the National Dictionary of Scotland as 'A comely person of lively disposition' and originates with the word 'Brin', a gleam or flash, which in turn derives from the Old Norse brenna, to burn.

And brae is a general Scots word for hill.

So. Brinkie's Brae, the burning hill.

Right?



Sources,

The Orkney Norn, Hugh Marwick
The Scottish National Dictionary
Rotten Tomatoes (Picture taken from Lord of The Rings)

Great New Acquisition News!

Gunnie Moberg Archive Collection

We're so overcome with delight, that we're are unable to put into words the news of the latest archive acquisition for the Orkney Archive. So here's some links to other blogs about it instead, including a great one by Alison Miller our Reader in Residence.

http://stromnesslibrary.blogspot.co.uk/

http://readerinresidenceorkneylibrary.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.orkney.gov.uk/OIC-News/library-secures-funding-for-gunnie-archive.htm

I'm sure we'll be able to talk about it soon, so we can keep you updated on our progress.

Whar dis thoo think thoo ar? (Westray)

It's Who Do You Think You Are? Live this month on the 23rd -24th February. http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.com/

Whar dae you think you aar? (Sanday)

So we thought we'd help our customers by creating a display which suggests alternative sources of information for family history research.

Whar dae ye think ye er? (Harray)

We show examples of usual sources such as IGI, census, graveyard surveys, parish registers, etc. and also show more unusual sources such as 18th century muster rolls, a 19th century customs & excise book of ships' crews discharged, a commonty map showing tenants names, a school admission register showing pupils names from 1897.

Wha deu you tink you urr? (North Ronaldsay)

We hope to encourage our genealogy customers to dig a little deeper into our archive collections and discover some information treasure of their own. if you know of any other unusual sources, please let us know.

Dear Rest of The World, Is it Tea-time yet?

Orkney is completely connected and global nowadays. We have internet-shopping, the UHI, hats, everything; but this was not always the case.

Reading copies of the John O'Groats Journal, a Caithness paper, from the 1850s highlights how remote the Northern Isles used to be. The news updates from Orkney and Shetland are very occasional, the regularity of the mail service to the isles is referred to as 'a joke' and on the 18th of July 1851, the Stromness correspondent asked WHAT THE TIME WAS...

Sheeply Disturbing

As a lily-livered, city-bred Sooth-moother, I found these photographs of sheep shearing really disturbing when I found them today:

But not as distubing as this:

Aaaaggghhhhh! And look at THIS!:

AAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!

Quick! Look at this:

Awwwwwww.

And this:

Lovely!

Images taken from the Orkney Photographic Archive:

Sheep shearing at Grain farm

Unidentified sheep shearing photo.

Two headed sheep.

Pat Cooper's monkey, 1927

D. Gorn's bee-hives in 1932.

P.R.O.U.D.!

Regular readers of this blog may have received the impression that it is merely an excuse for us to write about the celebrity-flavoured nonsense which fills our tiny, malformed brains and to complain incessantly about the weather.

This impression would be mostly correct but it turns out that we have been helping people too! People have found things of interest upon this site and have then contacted us for further information and/or copies!

True, we generally don't answer any of their calls or emails as we are too busy dancing to this, but it feels good to be useful.

This blogpost led to a delighted relation of the servant being indentured getting in touch and receiving a copy of her ancestor's apprenticeship documents. Hooray!

The Fereday Project

It is that time of year again. Again.

Every January the second year pupils of Orkney's two secondary schools complete a local-history themed project and often come here (HERE!) to research them. We cannot help but feel that this seasonal influx of new users, although very welcome, clashes badly with our desire to curl up on the ground behind the counter eating left over Christmas sweets and waiting for Spring.

Be gentle with us children for we grow older each year. Any time you are not in here being young, free and thirsty for knowledge we gently embrace each other whilst swaying along to this and feeding each other chocolates:

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all our lovely followers. I hope you all had a great holiday full of laughter, singing and parties.

Talking of singing, here is a link to The Big Orkney Song Project's version of the New Year Song. Every year we have a little bit more information about this song, which was once sung throughout Orkney on New Year's Eve.

And this year all the details, words and music can be found in a book & CD which was published in 2012. It's called "Voices in Chorus Songs and their stories from The Big Orkney Song Project" by Sarah Jane Gibbon. In this book you'll also find lots of information about other Orkney songs which the project gathered from our archive collection and the Orkney community.

"the men of a district travelled around the houses performing the song. An older man led the singing, the other men joined in the chorus, and one man carried a caisie (creel) on his back in which to gather food and drink. The bounty was shared out at the last house visited, where the men held a party." http://www.reverbnation.com/bigorkneysongproject/song/2535631-the-new-year-song

The book can be purchased here: http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/ORKNEYSINGERS/index.asp?pageid=3863

Don't Fear The Spinsterhood...

We love It's A Wonderful Life here at Orkney Library and Archive, don't get us wrong, but there is one scene in particular which irks us a little:




Yes, we are all spinsters, yes, we all wear spectacles and yes we dress like our grans but no librarian or archivist would ever, ever break into a run.

Come Back Sun! (Whatever we did or said, we're SORRY!)

The only way to describe the weather in Kirkwall today is the noise "UUUUUUUUURRRRRRGGGGHHHH!"

How wet, how cold, how windy, and dark. Not even the reappearance of our flock of waxwings outside the window can lift our soggy, water-logged hearts.

Thank goodness for Stromness library's wonderful advent calendar then which has been filling our days with cosy, Christmas cheer and reminding us of classic children's serials such as The Box Of Delights and The Children of Greene Knowe.

We therefore humbly remind you dear readers of the1988 BBC adaptation of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe which is the final member of the holy trinity of Children's Christmas shows.


We don't have anything to do with this C. S. Lewis classic in the archive but we do have the screenplay of Margaret Tait and Peter Hollander's documentary of Perugia entitled The Lion, The Griffin and The Kangaroo as well as some lovely snapshots taken by Margaret Tait when she was living in Italy.

Screenplay ref: D97/9/6, Photographs ref: D97/29/14

Get Het Up About Hetty...

If you have time, take a look at this wonderful blog by Highland Archives Service. It is called Caithness At War and tells the story of WW2 in real time, starting from August 1939 this past August and, presumably,  continuing into 1940 when the new year arrives.

The weekly articles are illustrated by newspaper clippings and several excerpts from Henrietta 'Hetty' Munro's war time diary which we also hold here at the Orkney Archive. Have a look, do! Do! Go on! Do!

Dame Difference

'I'm writing a blog about Pantomimes!' said Dusty brightly as I entered the archives.

'Are you?' I said.

Dusty stared at me coldly. 'You were supposed to say "Oh no you're not, ' " she said quietly.

'Oh no you're not!' I shouted but it was too late...

Later that day Dusty couldn't find her favourite feather duster (the pink one). 'Where is? Where is it?' she kept saying whilst dramatically 'looking' for it.

I found this strange as it was very obviously protruding from the back of her chair. 'I... I think it's maybe on your seat,' I offered, disturbed by her maniacal zeal.

Dusty promptly snatched the duster, sat down and turned to her work. That was a week ago and I've not had a word since. I thought I heard a low 'hsssssss' though and once, a very quiet 'booooooooooooooooo....'

A Cast of Cinderella (ref L4062/3)

                                           Poster advertising Kirkwall Arts Club's production of Sleeping Beauty.  

 ref D44/5/15

The South Ronaldsay Dramatic Society's 1910 production of 'The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe.'

The Cast of Panto-revue 'Cinderella or Phew It's Warm.' 

Ref D1/117/1: Script for "Cinderella - a pantomime in four acts", performed by the Red Triangle Club, Y.M.C.A., .Kirkwall. Found in a darkroom in Kirkwall library and transferred to the archives.


(The lovely dame up top is taken from the cast photos of Orphir's 1999 panto Snow White.)