Inspiration from a Highland Historical lecture

 

                                                                            Fields on Islay in modern times

Some of my ancestors came from islands on the west of Scotland, Islay and Skye and maybe some others too, if I ever find a link. That's why I'm interested in many of the lectures put on by Highland Historical Research – see lectures@highlandhistoricalresearch.com if you're interested in what's on offer. Most recently the lecture was Climate Change in the Highlands 1810-20. These were years of cold and rain (snow in August was mentioned), a hard and deadly time in an agrarian society. The years before and many decades after weren't the best for farmers either.

I wanted to watch because my people in the area would have been greatly affected and perhaps that's why they eventually left and went to Canada. Strangely, as the lecturer presented her subject, my Skye and Islay ancestors didn't come to my mind first although they came from the area. My first thought was of the older brother of my great grandfather William Strange Chambers. Charles Pratt Chambers (the Pratt middle name was probably a surname from an ancestor much like William's Strange middle name) was interested in the weather. I have copies of some of his lectures about weather phenomena.

So I had to check Charles Pratt Chambers' dates but I didn't have him on my Ancestry tree. Turns out that Charles wasn't born until 1852 which was not in the time directly affected by miserable weather but the climate change did affect the land for long after the period highlighted in the talk.

So it was a presentation that left me wanting to see how the challenging weather had affected my families on Skye and Islay. I know that some of them at least, worked the land and scarcity of food and the resultant depressed economy would have been hard on others in the community as well. That was a natural result expected from the topic of the talk. But the fact that I now want to update the Chambers part of my family tree because it invoked the memory of my grand great uncle's weather interest was an added bonus. You never know what historical talks might inspire.

Sources:

Society of Highland and Island Historical Research   https://www.highlandhistoricalresearch.com Lecture 34: Climate Change in the Highlands 1810-20 by Karen Dean (unpublished thesis)