Hello everyone, When Peter announced the topic for this month I knew at once what my choice would be - The Scottish Country Miller 1700-1900: A History of Water-powered Meal Milling in Scotland by Enid Gauldie. Maybe it is a cumbersome title for a book that is extremely easy to read. I found it as unputdownable as a thriller. Of course, you get what it says on the cover - it is packed with facts and deals with the origins of milling and various technical aspects. What I find most fascinating is the vivid picture it paints of the daily life of the miller and his changing status over the years. If your tree is packed with farm labourers and country folk, as mine is, this book gives some fascinating insights. Mrs Gauldie says at the beginning: "The central importance of the corn mill to the traditional Scots community is not easily grasped until it is understood that the mill used to be the supplier of almost every mouthful of food." There is also the question of thirlage, which by the eighteenth century meant tenants had bondage to a particular mill - ie tenants were bound to bring their corn to be ground at their landlord's mill and no other. In summing up the changing status of the miller, Mrs Gauldie explains how the eighteenth century miller enjoyed the awe with which an uneducated community had regarded his ability to make wind and water work on his behalf. "But in the nineteenth century these things became matters of common knowledge. Townsmen were accustomed to the wonders of steam power, and on the farms the ubiquitous threshing mill had introduced rural workers to the principles of mechanics ..... "What millers lost in social status, however, they may perhaps have gained to some extent in the regard of the community. With a properly agreed payment for their services there was much less occasion for contest about their profits and less need for unscrupulous millers to cheat their customers. The constant accusations of dishonesty and extortion died away." For family historians there are particularly interesting insights. Millers' sons, trained by their father, might have had to move to find work. "There does seem to be some evidence for considerable mobility among millers," says Mrs Gauldie. "Not only did they move with some frequency from one mill to another, but their sons, in setting up for themselves, might very well move to another district quite far removed from their father's mill." And in the 19th century, she says, millers' servants were not so very different from other farm servants "whose habit of shifting jobs at the term was notorious. Millers' sons sometimes took labouring jobs on farms until there should be a place in the mill for them, young ploughmen sometimes marrying millers' daughters and getting taken on at the mill in consequence." She adds mill servants did not, however, suffer the indignities of the feeling markets, where ploughmen lined up to have their muscles felt by selecting farmers. "They were in a position to make private arrangements with millers who were probably already known to them through family connections." I have a few millers among "possible" ancestors. I'd be very glad to hear from anyone who has miller ancestors on Bute with a view to sharing information, Regards Madeleine The Scottish Country Miller 1700-1900: A History of Water-powered meal milling in Scotland, by Enid Gauldie. Published by John Donald. ISBN 0859760677 In a message dated 30/05/2004 05:26:55 GMT Standard Time, cookfmly@bigpond.com writes: next months topic ... "Books & other written material you have found of use, enjoyable to read, that have given you an insight into village/family/working life within the communities your ancestors lived - or Genealogy books that you have found helpful to your research."