Mr. Dobson combed through a variety of sources to produce lists of Scots who settled in Poland, Russia, and the Baltic states. Arranged alphabetically, the entries furnish the individual's name with variants, a place of residence in Eastern Europe, the date of the record, and its source. Given the widely disparate character of the subject matter, one may also find a reference to the individual's place of origin in Scotland, occupation, relationships to other persons named (i.e., parent, spouse, offspring), membership in a fraternal organization, etc.

In the period between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries a considerable number of Scots migrated to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Some sojourned there for some time, while others stayed permanently and exercised commercial business and crafts. The migration stopped in the eighteenth century, and the Scots who remained in Poland seem to have lost their ethnic identity. This book offers an examination and assessment of this migration: numbers of migrants; patterns of settlement; laws regulating Scottish presence in Poland-Lithuania; their commercial, academic, religious and military activities; their social advancement into the Polish nobility; their assimilation and then the eventual disappearance as a distinct ethnic group in Poland-Lithuania.

Scotland is a land with a proud and centuries long history that far pre-dates its membership of Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Today in the 21st century it is also a land that has done much to make its historical records accessible, to help those with Caledonian ancestry trace their roots back to earlier times and a world long past. In Tracing Scottish Family History on the Internet, Chris Paton expertly guides the family historian through the many Scottish records offerings available, but also cautions the reader that not every record is online, providing detailed advice on how to use web based finding aids to locate further material across the country and beyond. He also examines social networking and the many DNA platforms that are currently further revolutionising online Scottish research. From the Scottish Government websites offering access to our most important national records, to the holdings of local archives, libraries, family history societies, and online vendors, Chris Paton takes the reader across Scotland, from the Highlands and Islands, through the Central Belt and the Lowlands, and across the diaspora, to explore the various flavours of Scottishness that have bound us together as a nation for so long.

Scottish Migration since 1750: Reasons and Results begins a fresh chapter in migration studies using new methods and unpublished sources to map the course of Scottish migration between 1750 and 1990. It explains why the Scottish population grew after 1650, why most Scots continued to be female, and the underlying economic reasons for Scottish emigration after 1820. It surveys migration to England, Canada, United States, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. It explores their names, marriages, family structures, and religions, and assesses how well they really fared compared to other British migrants. Far from being just another Celtic sob story, this book offers a model about how the histories of other migrant groups might be reappraised.

The Scottish Enlightenment is often portrayed as elitist and Edinburgh based with no universally agreed beginning or end. Additionally, the Philosophers and scholars (the great Scottish Enlightenment figures) sometimes obscure significant contributions from other disciplines so that the achievements of a wider conception of the Scottish Enlightenment are not universally known. Sir Walter Scott also recognised that his nation 'the peculiar features of whose manners and character are daily melting and dissolving into that of her sister and ally' had an identity crisis. Both issues are addressed in this enquiry which seeks to highlight the scale and breadth of the Scottish Enlightenment whilst posing the question as to how Scottish identity can be preserved.

As a medical, economic, spiritual and demographic crisis, plague affected practically every aspect of an early modern community whether on a local, regional or national scale. Its study therefore affords opportunities for the reassessment of many aspects of the pre-modern world. This book examines the incidence and effects of plague in an early modern Scottish community by analysing civic, medical and social responses to epidemics in the north-east port of Aberdeen, focusing on the period 1500–1650. While Aberdeen’s experience of plague was in many ways similar to that of other towns throughout Europe, certain idiosyncrasies in the city make it a particularly interesting case study, which challenges several assumptions about early modern mentalities.

This book explores the life of Robert Lyall, surgeon, botanist, voyager, British Agent to the court of Madagascar. Born the year of the French Revolution, Lyall grew up in politically radical Paisley, Scotland, before studying medicine, in Edinburgh, Manchester, and subsequently St. Petersburg, Russia. His criticism of the Tsar and Russian aristocracy led to an abrupt departure for London where Lyall became the voice of liberalism and calls for political reform, before appointed British Resident Agent in Madagascar in 1827, representing the interests of the Tory establishment that he had hitherto so roundly castigated. However, Lyall discovered that the Malagasy crown had turned against the British alliance of 1820, his scientific pursuits alienated the local elite, and his efforts to re-establish British influence antagonized the queen, Ranavalona I, who accused Lyall of sorcery and forced him and his burgeoning family to leave for Mauritius where he died an untimely death, of malaria, in 1831.