I too have been wondering what happened to the usual flow of wonderful thoughts and exchanges through the site. The computer is fine, the provider has no difficulties, and now I am really concerned too. This note of yours was my last message from Orcadia-L. Stephen On Thursday, May 6, 2004, at 08:54 AM, k l wrote: > Been wondering about that myself. By the way, I'll be > in Stromness between May 26th and June 4th. If anyone > is interested in meeting, I would love to. > Kathy Edmiston > --- FloReming@aol.com wrote: >> >> I haven't received mail from the list since April 21 >> and I MISS it. Does >> anyone else have this problem??? >> >> Flo >> >> >> ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== >> To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send >> an e-mail with the word >> 'unsubscribe' in the message body to >> orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com >> > > > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs > http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover > > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the > word > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com >

Where in Orkney would someone have seen a man with very dark skin ? This was about 1890. I have photocopies of a cross-stitched sampler done in Orkney about 1890. The stiticher was born ~1860 and grew up in Orkney, the family had English roots which is why I think the sampler was made - it was more of an English tradition than an Orcadian one. There are several island images - a puffin, a cottage with a chimney on either end, a small pony, a Highland cow [horns facing forward, short legs], a steam engine, and a large bird with a reddish patch on its wing among many others not so identifiably Orcadian. Sadly there are no outlines of any Standing Stones, monoliths or large mounds, I would have loved to see them stitched on this piece. Centered in the group of stitched images is a black man, probably a musician who is obviously dancing ! He's holding a fiddle in one hand, waving it high in the air and possibly a tambourine or small set of bells in the other. He is dancing, kicking one leg up. Skin color is not medium or even a dark brown as I would have expected, its very dark brown-purple. I'm looking at the original thread color to see what was used and have discussed it with the current owner [descendant of the stitcher] to make sure the photocopy isn't off in its color generation. Lips and eyes were done with reddish yarn, the lips were especially wide on the face, he is wearing a short tunic type garment. I have to think this indicated someone with exceedingly dark skin, not the brown tones I see in the US, possibly from Australia or South Africa ? While at college I met students from South Africa and Australia whose skin was not brown but very black. Were there entertainers, carnivals, musicians, minstrels, or the like that came to Orkney in the late 1800s ? I'm becoming quite interested in finding out about this figure......Meg Greenwood / Oklahoma USA

I haven't received mail from the list since April 21 and I MISS it. Does anyone else have this problem??? Flo

Been wondering about that myself. By the way, I'll be in Stromness between May 26th and June 4th. If anyone is interested in meeting, I would love to. Kathy Edmiston --- FloReming@aol.com wrote: > > I haven't received mail from the list since April 21 > and I MISS it. Does > anyone else have this problem??? > > Flo > > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send > an e-mail with the word > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to > orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover

In what is probably the first in-depth study into the construction of Orkney's stone rings, Dr Colin Richards suggests that it was not necessarily the stone circles that were significant but rather the act of constructing them. The full paper includes Callanish, Arran and Orkney. See http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/stonecircles.htm -- Sigurd Towrie Blackhall - Kirbister - Stromness - Orkney Heritage of Orkney: www.orkneyjar.com Home: sigurd@orkneyjar.com Work: sigurd.towrie@orcadian.co.uk

On 27 April 2004 01:37, Kylie Veale wrote: > Fellow genealogists, > > Have you ever used the Internet to learn about genealogy > methods and resources? Taken a genealogy course online? Read > some 'how to' articles? Then I would like to hear from you. Replied off list. Anyone who wants to respond to this should do so offlist. Thanks -- Sigurd Towrie Blackhall - Kirbister - Stromness - Orkney Heritage of Orkney: www.orkneyjar.com Home: sigurd@orkneyjar.com Work: sigurd.towrie@orcadian.co.uk

Re Viking stuff: I went to a Viking Society convention in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) last Saturday (a local society and this was their first convention) particularly because my friend John R. Hale was speaking on precursors of the Viking longboat. If you have access to Scientific American (online or otherwise), you can find a wonderful article John published there in 1998 which is illustrated with his "genealogical" chart of the evolution of the longboat from hand-hewn canoes made from linden trees. He wrote a couple of other VERY interesting articles for Sci. Am. but.... not Viking connected. Anne in Ardmore , back after a hiatus

Hello to all who participate on Sigurd's site! I am currently working on some resources flipcharts which are used by teachers who use Promethean's Interactive whiteboard (I work for Promethean, who manufacture and supply these wonderful teaching resources) and I am creating flipcharts on Vikings for KS1 and KS2 (that's primary children for normal folks!) and Island life. I have lots of photos which I can use (most of them are from my many trips to Orkney) but I find I am lacking in Viking resources as my main passion lies in the Neolithic! Can anyone or is anyone willing to let me use any photographic material which can be put to use in creating educational flipcharts. These flipcharts are freely available to any schools who have Promethean boards and yes there are some in Orkney! If you can and are willing to assist I can be contacted on my freeserve address or jcounsell@promethean.co.uk and if anyone would like to view the company website it is www.promethean.co.uk By the way I will be in Stromness Spring Bank week so if anyone would like to meet up give me a shout. Kind Regards, Janis Counsell Lancashire England

Wonderful words! loved the analogy about the Boar's backside!!!!!!!! hilarious I always take back a few Orcadian words to Lancashire and use them whenever appropriate, Dreek and Peedie usually have folks chuckling. ----- Original Message ----- From: "stephen davie" <stephen.davie@sympatico.ca> To: <ORCADIA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 6:07 PM Subject: Re: [<orcadia>] Radio Orkney "tell me more" > "Erm" right back to you....and good mornin! And thank you. > > So, we have four titles of which three are out of print. In a > restaurant herebouts they don't put stuff on the menu which is not > available, because it would be precisely what the customer would want. > So that leaves us with the Orkney Dic. And one over here might well > wonder what span of time it would cover. > > For in many of the old documents I have tried to decipher, orthographic > peculiarities muddy the already unclear waters. I am trying to finish > what my old uncles and aunts gave up on years ago. There seems to be > some strange variation therein which is consistent with spelling > phonetically, with a large degree of variation. That is evident in > names, for example, which seemed to be spelled differently oftentimes. > > Consider the common expat trying to read and comprehend "pays in Scatt > butter two pispunds." three cowsworth of udal land" "of scatt malt six > meills four and half settings". "4d land1/2-6merk makes the pennyland" > . And this is after a wonderful person came to my rescue with pages of > interpretation for which I am very grateful. I have been lucky to have > that generous interpretation forwarded. That makes the remaining > mystery words more frustrating. > > Thanks for providing the book titles. I guess they aren't going to > grease up the printing machine and bang out a few copies of books "out > of print" so some offshore affectionado can try to decode old lore > documents. And I have asked them if the Orkney Dic goes back to the > 1500's, for example, where the language is difficult to read at all. I > can't discern whether some of the words denote simple colloquialism, or > rather some blend of languages perhaps rooted in Norway. Who knows. > > You know, Sigurd, it is true that to try to pry open this interpretive > door has been difficult and not just for me thank goodness, confessing > fully that I am no historian, scholar or researcher. My relatives got > stuck in the same mud while over there in the early sixties. This has > been going on since Moby Dick was a minnow. The "foxfire" series we > spoke of which is from the Appalachian Mountains and the Smokies, is an > example of how a culture and it's linguistic oddities are put down in a > form that an average, non-scholarly person can read, comprehend and > most importantly enjoy. Trying to unlock this stuff has been like > trying to talk a roving Aborigine out of his boomerang. For whatever > reason, it seems that it "taint" easy, and the keys to it all are > locked up tighter than a boar's butt in fly time. > > I have purchased some books from there that the schools were finished > with. The saga was great, and of course available here. Other stuff > spoke to the absence of trees in Orkney and therefore paper....that is > to say they were sparse at best, and cheap to mail out for sure. Over > here we would call them pamphlets. > > So we will see what seems to be the last available interpretive book > has to offer. I'd like to testfire that Orkney dic by sending out ten > of the befuddling strings of letters that I can't decode, and see if > the book lists any of them. I 'd bet a moose antler to a bullfrog that > I'd still be in the dark. > > Thanks for the info. By the way, some of your recent photos posted were > most enjoyable and truly appreciated. I mostly enjoy the eclectic > assembly of lost Orcadians from around the world that console each > other on this site, while feasting on the great information you > provide. Maybe locking up some of the language keeps the mystery of > Orkney alive. > > I am finally and irreversibly convinced that you actually do live in > Orkney, and are not living in a penthouse on Fifth Avenue in New York > City. Gosh, and a Borwick to boot! > > Yours AYE.....Stephen Davie > > On Wednesday, April 21, 2004, at 04:16 AM, Sigurd Towrie wrote: > > > On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 19:57:40 -0700, stephen davie wrote: > > > >> This e-mail of yours goes into my Orkney file. Wish there was more > >> of the same. What a great book topic/opportunity for some > >> enthusiastic Orcadian. > > > > Erm. The opportunity has been taken..a number of times. > > > > The Orkney Norn - Hugh Marwick (out of print) > > The Orkney Wordbook - Gregor Lamb (out of print) > > Hid Kam intae Words - Gregor Lamb (out of print) > > The Orkney Dictionary - Gregor Lamb and Margaret Flaws (still > > available at http://www.orcadian.co.uk/orkneybooks) > > > > -- > > Sigurd > > > > > > > > > > > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the > > word > > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com > > > > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the word > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com >

Fellow genealogists, Have you ever used the Internet to learn about genealogy methods and resources? Taken a genealogy course online? Read some 'how to' articles? Then I would like to hear from you. I am an Australian Ph.D. student who is currently writing a book chapter for an academic Virtual Learning Environment publication - my chapter is about using the Internet for genealogical education. I would therefore love to hear from you, fellow genealogists, about any Internet-based content you've used for genealogy education. This includes online courses (free or fee), how-to's, articles/columns, newsgroups, BBS, chat, mailing lists, forums, or even personal web pages that publish learning material - anything online that helps you in learning the craft of genealogy. Your comments on the following is of utmost interest: What are your favourite learning outlets on the Internet? How often do you use them? Can or did you find what you needed online? What are your learning successes? What could be better? What do you look for in genealogical learning on the Internet? If you would like to participate, your comments are extremely welcome. Please send your comments to me directly at research@veale.com.au before Saturday 1st May 2004. I thank you in advance for your participation in this academic research. Kylie Veale P.S. Names and email addresses will be protected and are therefore not included in the publication. Copies of the paper will be made available to interested participants on request, after the book has been published. ----------------------------------------------- Kylie J. Veale | Brisbane, Australia GradDipInvEnv, MInetStds(Design) Provisional PhD candidate http://www.veale.com.au/kylie icq: 27938257 msn: kyliej@hotmail.com yahoo: kylie_veale

Hello- Good item. Amazing man, also little known here in eastern Canada at least. cheers Thompson ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sigurd Towrie" <sigurd@orkneyjar.com> To: <ORCADIA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, April 16, 2004 6:59 PM Subject: [<orcadia>] Orkneyjar Update - Dr John Rae > It's taken me long enough to put something online to recognise this great > man, but better late than never. > > A new section added to the Historical Figures section on Dr John Rae - the > discoverer of the Canadian North West passage and finder of the doomed > Franklin Expedition. > > See: http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/historicalfigures/johnrae > > -- > Sigurd Towrie > Blackhall - Kirbister - Stromness - Orkney > Heritage of Orkney: www.orkneyjar.com > Home: sigurd@orkneyjar.com > Work: sigurd.towrie@orcadian.co.uk > > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the word > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com > >

"Klabbyclue about language" or should that be a "language klabbyclue" or ..... In case anyone hasn't listened to the Wednesday evening Radio Orkney show, I think you'll find a new word or two there. Interesting show & fun too. Tschüs Karen

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 20:54:16 -0700, stephen davie wrote: > Thanks Wolfgang. If you could get me the Author/publisher/date of > the Thompson book, I might be able to source it over here. Available at: https://www.orcadian.co.uk/books/acatalog/Orcadian_Bookshop_The_New_History_of_Orkney_223.html Sigurd

>>>Consider the common expat trying to read and comprehend "pays in Scatt butter two pispunds." three cowsworth of udal land" "of scatt malt six meills four and half settings". "4d land1/2-6merk makes the pennyland" Hello! From my own studies I would like to say: It's nearly useless to work with a "simple" dictionary. Look at the different types of land within these few sequences: udal land referes to "denomination of land" vs. King's land, Earl's land with no specific link to a kind of value at all; pennyland referes to "measurements/value" of land in term of taxation only; merk here is an expression of money; but more generally spoken it was a value/measure of land for all other transactions of land exept taxation ... Most of the measures can not be transfered to a modern "vocabualary" of financial terms; you have to look at the historical and econimical context, pic up the sense and then you can start to describe what was ment actually ... it's easier and probably more correct. The more than all "values" for the terms are changing over the time. A great help to me were the definitions as given by Thompson in his "History of Orkney". Within the appendices he gives short definitions (and some some rough ideas up to what amount the "values" changed from mediaeval times until the 19. century) but you have to read the full text (around pp. 120/121 esp.) to find out the details between "butter scat and lispunds" and "malt scat and meils" ... :-( @Sigurd: Is there a section about historic Orkney measures/values of land on your site; sorry, had no look actually :-)) @Stephen: If you don't have the definitions and Thompson's text, let me know and I will scan and send them ... :-) cu Wolfgang

Every year a number of archaeological projects are carried out in Orkney. This is a listing of the work that looks set to take place in 2004. See: http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/arch2004.htm -- Sigurd Towrie Blackhall - Kirbister - Stromness - Orkney Heritage of Orkney: www.orkneyjar.com Home: sigurd@orkneyjar.com Work: sigurd.towrie@orcadian.co.uk

On 21 April 2004 21:04, CorseJG@aol.com wrote: > I am thinking of ones like; Willick an' the Black Black Oil, > And then there > are some on tape also. Gregor Lamb has one or two and there > is a book and tape > by C.M. Costie. Forgot about those. All related and available titles relating to dialect and language can be bought at: https://www.orcadian.co.uk/books/acatalog/Orcadian_Bookshop_Dialect_and_Lang uage_8.html -- Sigurd Towrie Blackhall - Kirbister - Stromness - Orkney Heritage of Orkney: www.orkneyjar.com Home: sigurd@orkneyjar.com Work: sigurd.towrie@orcadian.co.uk

On 21 April 2004 19:56, robert@scarth.net wrote: > amazon.co.uk have a book called > > The Norn Language of Orkney and Shetland by Michael Barnes > its short - only 72 pages - and costs £9.95 from amazon.co.uk and > US$21.89 from amazon.com I've no idea if its any good or not - has > anyone read it? Yes but it deals mainly with the Norn language rather than resultant dialect that developed from it. Worth having though. -- Sigurd Towrie Blackhall - Kirbister - Stromness - Orkney Heritage of Orkney: www.orkneyjar.com Home: sigurd@orkneyjar.com Work: sigurd.towrie@orcadian.co.uk

Thanks Wolfgang. If you could get me the Author/publisher/date of the Thompson book, I might be able to source it over here. Your notes seem to indicate that you have travelled down this same road, with success which eludes me thus far. I intend to get over there, and had hoped to be there by now, but we have a family challenge which has prevented it. Suffice to say that when that time comes, I will be spending some time in the records room in Kirkwall, if it is still there. Thanks Once Again.....Stephen On Wednesday, April 21, 2004, at 03:40 PM, Wolfgang Schlick wrote: >>>> Consider the common expat trying to read and comprehend "pays in >>>> Scatt > butter two pispunds." three cowsworth of udal land" "of scatt malt six > meills four and half settings". "4d land1/2-6merk makes the pennyland" > > Hello! > > From my own studies I would like to say: It's nearly useless to work > with a > "simple" dictionary. Look at the different types of land within these > few > sequences: udal land referes to "denomination of land" vs. King's land, > Earl's land with no specific link to a kind of value at all; pennyland > referes to "measurements/value" of land in term of taxation only; merk > here > is an expression of money; but more generally spoken it was a > value/measure > of land for all other transactions of land exept taxation ... Most of > the > measures can not be transfered to a modern "vocabualary" of financial > terms; > you have to look at the historical and econimical context, pic up the > sense > and then you can start to describe what was ment actually ... it's > easier > and probably more correct. > > The more than all "values" for the terms are changing over the time. A > great > help to me were the definitions as given by Thompson in his "History of > Orkney". Within the appendices he gives short definitions (and some > some > rough ideas up to what amount the "values" changed from mediaeval times > until the 19. century) but you have to read the full text (around pp. > 120/121 esp.) to find out the details between "butter scat and > lispunds" and > "malt scat and meils" ... :-( > > @Sigurd: Is there a section about historic Orkney measures/values of > land on > your site; sorry, had no look actually :-)) > @Stephen: If you don't have the definitions and Thompson's text, let > me know > and I will scan and send them ... :-) > > cu > Wolfgang > > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the > word > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com >

Stephen, Regarding your reference to the Foxfire books there are a number of publications In the Orkney dialect that are not out of print. Sigurd could maybe recommend a list of the ones that are available at the Orcadian. I am thinking of ones like; Willick an' the Black Black Oil, And then there are some on tape also. Gregor Lamb has one or two and there is a book and tape by C.M. Costie. Much material, it is just not all under the one blanket heading like Foxfire. Jim C.