When I left home on 14 April 2011, to go to the USA and New Zealand, quite a number of aspects of my trip were still being sorted out by those helping me to organise it. So I set off to go to the three Highland Games and various talks not quite knowing what was going to happen. I went to the three Highland Games at Las Vegas, Nevada; Greensboro, NC and Woodlands, California and spent 5 days talking to people who visited those tents about their Boyd family tree and some of our Boyd History. I was also able to talk to quite a number of other Clan Tents about contacting their Historian or Editor of their Magazine, with a view to telling them about our Clan Boyd Pyramid Project of collecting all Boyd descendants. In addition to this I did 10 talks to people at Grand Rapids, MI, Troy, Ohio; Elizabeth, PA; Pikeville, KY; Greensboro, NC; Waynesville, NC, Knoxville, TN; Nashville, TN, Woodlands, CA and Auckland, New Zealand. I would like to thank publicly all those people that helped to arrange these meeting during my trip. I hope from these meetings to be able to pick up another 50, plus, new Boyd family trees. When I was not involved with meeting people, during this trip, my host - who had to work - pointed me towards the Local Library. There I was able to pick up another 250 new Boyd family trees and fill my family tree bag full of paper on these families. While Mindy Householder was able to copy additional families onto her hand scanner, which she has yet to send to me, so that will add to the total of new families we now know about. And I think that Judy Spiers from Pikeville, KY had some extra families on her laptop from when were at Lexington and Pikeville Libraries which will need to be added to my list of new family Chapters as well. It will take me about a month to sort and Index these papers which I will do after I write some letter to those people that assisted me and those from other Clans. I still have not finished Indexing my papers from last years trip yet. I was also able to pick up the book, The Boydstun - Boydston Family, by Gladys Boydstoun Domonoske, 1971. This book seems to have some 55 separate Boydston families in it. This is the first time that I have looked at the name of Boydston in relationship to Clan Boyd. While I was at Kaikoura, on New Zealand's South Island, I meet Murray Boyd and got a copy of his book From Donegal to Blackgurads Corner, A history of the Boyd family of Kaikoura, 1992. I have been after this book for some 18 years, as it relates to 2 Boyd brothers from Loughrous Point in western County Donegal, near where my late wife's Duncan family came from and her first Mr Duncan married a Miss Boyd. This will allow me to work on Volume 12 for Boyd families from County Donegal which will take another months work or so. I hope that I was able to provide some history of Clan Boyd to those that came to my talks, so that they can pass on this knowledge to others. One of the early jobs I will have to do is to look at "History Topics" I drew up on 2009, so that I can revise these and pass these sections of our History to Editor Kevin and to the Boyd net list. This will allow more to be passed onto other Boyds whom I am hoping that they will encourage other Boyd to do their family tree. While those were only getting started, I hope they have now worked out their objectives including how much time per week they can spend on their tree, worked out what they want to do when with this research then they are finished, etc. And I look forward to seeing them asking question of the Boyd Net list about their own family tree. So this will now gives me about 800 separate Boyd family chapters to write up this year. So I will not be making a August/September trip this year to Scotland and Ireland but working on producing the 16 Volumes of Clan Boyd of Scotland that these families represent. I will again encourage those new members to the list to "publish" your own family tree branch and the first few generations of your tree, so that you can find "cousins" on the Boyd Net list. While this trip has cost me several thousand dollars for this 4 1/2 weeks "holiday" - plus what my host's also spent because of my being in their area, I think it is money well spent to spread the message about Clan Boyd history. Mike Boyd Chairman Historical Committee House of Boyd Society

I would like to offer my thanks to Mike and all those who participated in helping his trip to be such a success! Kim Boyd ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Boyd" <mikejboyd@bigpond.com> To: <BOYD-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 12:05 AM Subject: [BOYD] Mike Boyd's report of trip to USA and New Zealand -April/May 2011 > When I left home on 14 April 2011, to go to the USA and New Zealand, quite > a > number of aspects of my trip were still being sorted out by those helping > me > to organise it. So I set off to go to the three Highland Games and various > talks not quite knowing what was going to happen. > > I went to the three Highland Games at Las Vegas, Nevada; Greensboro, NC > and > Woodlands, California and spent 5 days talking to people who visited those > tents about their Boyd family tree and some of our Boyd History. I was > also > able to talk to quite a number of other Clan Tents about contacting their > Historian or Editor of their Magazine, with a view to telling them about > our > Clan Boyd Pyramid Project of collecting all Boyd descendants. > > In addition to this I did 10 talks to people at Grand Rapids, MI, Troy, > Ohio; Elizabeth, PA; Pikeville, KY; Greensboro, NC; Waynesville, NC, > Knoxville, TN; Nashville, TN, Woodlands, CA and Auckland, New Zealand. I > would like to thank publicly all those people that helped to arrange these > meeting during my trip. I hope from these meetings to be able to pick up > another 50, plus, new Boyd family trees. > > When I was not involved with meeting people, during this trip, my host - > who > had to work - pointed me towards the Local Library. There I was able to > pick > up another 250 new Boyd family trees and fill my family tree bag full of > paper on these families. While Mindy Householder was able to copy > additional > families onto her hand scanner, which she has yet to send to me, so that > will add to the total of new families we now know about. And I think that > Judy Spiers from Pikeville, KY had some extra families on her laptop from > when were at Lexington and Pikeville Libraries which will need to be added > to my list of new family Chapters as well. It will take me about a month > to > sort and Index these papers which I will do after I write some letter to > those people that assisted me and those from other Clans. I still have not > finished Indexing my papers from last years trip yet. > > I was also able to pick up the book, The Boydstun - Boydston Family, by > Gladys Boydstoun Domonoske, 1971. This book seems to have some 55 separate > Boydston families in it. This is the first time that I have looked at the > name of Boydston in relationship to Clan Boyd. > > While I was at Kaikoura, on New Zealand's South Island, I meet Murray Boyd > and got a copy of his book From Donegal to Blackgurads Corner, A history > of > the Boyd family of Kaikoura, 1992. I have been after this book for some 18 > years, as it relates to 2 Boyd brothers from Loughrous Point in western > County Donegal, near where my late wife's Duncan family came from and her > first Mr Duncan married a Miss Boyd. This will allow me to work on Volume > 12 > for Boyd families from County Donegal which will take another months work > or > so. > > I hope that I was able to provide some history of Clan Boyd to those that > came to my talks, so that they can pass on this knowledge to others. One > of > the early jobs I will have to do is to look at "History Topics" I drew up > on > 2009, so that I can revise these and pass these sections of our History to > Editor Kevin and to the Boyd net list. This will allow more to be passed > onto other Boyds whom I am hoping that they will encourage other Boyd to > do > their family tree. > > While those were only getting started, I hope they have now worked out > their > objectives including how much time per week they can spend on their tree, > worked out what they want to do when with this research then they are > finished, etc. And I look forward to seeing them asking question of the > Boyd > Net list about their own family tree. > > So this will now gives me about 800 separate Boyd family chapters to write > up this year. So I will not be making a August/September trip this year to > Scotland and Ireland but working on producing the 16 Volumes of Clan Boyd > of > Scotland that these families represent. > > I will again encourage those new members to the list to "publish" your own > family tree branch and the first few generations of your tree, so that you > can find "cousins" on the Boyd Net list. > > While this trip has cost me several thousand dollars for this 4 1/2 weeks > "holiday" - plus what my host's also spent because of my being in their > area, I think it is money well spent to spread the message about Clan Boyd > history. > > Mike Boyd > > Chairman > > Historical Committee > > House of Boyd Society > > > ______________________________________ > House of Boyd Society's (HBS) Annual General Meeting (AGM) & Gathering of > the Clan 2012 will be held in Woodland,CA, USA in conjunction with the > Sacramento Caledonian Club's 136th annual Sacramento Valley Scottish Games > & Festival in April 2012 (unofficial date April 28th and 29th -- to be > confirmed by the venue). Write AGM@clanboyd.org if you would be interested > in helping to plan it. > ____________________________________________________ > House of Boyd Society's (HBS) Annual General Meeting (AGM) & Gathering of > the Clan 2011 was a great success in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA in conjunction > with The Highland Games and Celtic Gathering April 16-17, 2011. > _______________________________________ > Support the Fellowship Activities of the Clan. Join the House of Boyd > Society! > http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BOYD/2008-06/1212428046 > ______________________________________ > House of Boyd Society sends HUGE thank you to all of our volunteers. The > Society would not be what it is without you! > ______________________________________ > > Want to contribute an article or query to the Dean Road? Contact Kevin > McLachlan, Editor at Editor@clanboyd.org > > ==================== > Visit the House of Boyd Society Website http://www.clanboyd.org > ==================== > For Officers and other Contacts, see > http://www.clanboyd.org/officers.shtml > ==================== > Most replies should go to the list, not just the author of the post. Make > sure to include the list address Boyd@rootsweb.com > ==================== > Need to contact the Admin? Write me off list at Boyd-admin@rootsweb.com > ==================== > Can't recall what the beginning of a thread was? Subscribe > mid-discussion? Visit the PUBLICLY VIEWABLE archives: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=boyd > ==================== > Got an issue that is beyond the purview of this list? Write the Help Desk > for assistance http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/ > Honor your fellow subscribers -- follow the Golden Rule! > **************************** > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > BOYD-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message