Jill Thanks for your comments on the Clearances. Thanks for taking the time to write. I am constantly trying to find ways through the brickwalls in my family research in Mull, and so when I hit absolutely solid walls - I tend to move from people to events and history. The process seems to fill in gaps and give me clues. One of these days, another person researching our families will appear in the list - I live in hope! So in the meantime ... Best wishes Libby On 03/02/2008, at 9:02 PM, sct-isleofmull-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > > > PLEASE don't reply with the whole digest attached. Remember when > replying to a message, which was received through the digest. You'll > have to change the subject line to reflect which message your > responding to. You'll have to cut and paste the necessary > information into a new message then cc the list and original poster. > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Mull clearances (Jill Dakin) > 2. Clearances and Free Church (Elizabeth McMillan) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2008 14:45:50 +1000 > From: "Jill Dakin" <jedakin@bigpond.net.au> > Subject: Re: [SCT-ISLEOFMULL] Mull clearances > To: <sct-isleofmull@rootsweb.com> > Message-ID: <000b01c866e8$d15b5a50$0100000a@JillDakin> > Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; > reply-type=original > > I always understood that Prebble's history was very black and white > and that > Eric Richards takes a much more balanced view. With noteable > exceptions, > such as Ulva, many of the people who left Mull chose to do so in the > hope of > a better life "far off in sunlit places". That is not to say that > they > weren't miserably homesick, but economic necessity drove many of > them to > join schemes like the HIES and as such they weren't necessarily > cleared in > the dramatic framework of forced evictions suffered in other parts > of the > Highlands. The first to leave were the tacksmen who had the means to > relocate got out early; I think Jo Currie makes this point in > "Mull, the > Island and its People". If you are looking for stories of brutal > landowners who callously destroyed homes and left aged grandmothers > lying in > the heather then you'll find Prebble has plenty of these, but by and > large > many of the lairds of Mull were so poor themselves that they reached > a point > where they could no longer help their people. Prebble and Richards > don't > dwell on Mull simply because the clearances mostly took part in > other parts > of the highlands. > Jill > >