Family Trees Take Root in Thurso

By Katie | Published: 30 September, 2009

The first session of the Caithness Health & Happiness project took place on Friday 25th September at Caithness Horizons in Thurso. Six experts have come along to spend the next few weeks researching their family history and creating visual impressions of their discoveries.

What We Did

  • We spent a little time looking at the type of visual books that artist Joanne B Kaar is planning to develop with us.
  • We talked about what our family trees mean to each of us, and why we fancied getting involved in this project.
  • We shared photos of family members and the stories behind them.
  • We worked through what we already know about our family trees, and wrote down the names, dates, places, occupations and any other details we could pull together.
  • And most importantly of all for the weeks ahead, we thought about what in particular we’d like to find out about our own families and what we’d like to focus on. For each of us this was different, and it’s going to make for some fascinating and diverse histories.

Barbara and Sara Jayne from the Caithness Family History Society seemed confident that from this first session we already had enough information for everybody to be able to make up trees in future sessions, and that we had some good leads for digging out more information that will be new to us.  So roll on next week!

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What’s in a Name? Expressing Our Caithness Roots in English, Gaelic or Norse

By Katie | Published: 6 October, 2009

For the second session of the A’Chraobh project in Thurso, we finally decided on a name of our own.  Highland Homecoming and A’Chraobh are the over-arching banners for the project, but who are we and what are we all about?  We’re investigating who we are, where we come from, our families, our roots, the places that we call home.  At its heart, our project is about ‘belonging.’

Belonging in English.

A’Buntainn in Gaelic.

But, Gaelic heritage can make for a controversial topic in Caithness.  See here for a snippet of the Gaelic-road-signs-in-Caithness saga that’s been unfolding in the Groat over the past year.  Many a Caithness person would claim stronger ties with our old Norse heritage than any Gaelic history, and would argue till blue in the face over it.  Is opting for a gaelic term in a Caithness project asking for a stooshie?  Or is it fair play, Gaelic heritage is a part of many of us as individuals regardless of your view of Caithness’s heritage…

So, what’s ‘belonging’ in Old Norse anyway?  Doesn’t immediately trip off anyone’s tongue…  But, after a lot of research and a lot of networking with learned academics, we’ve got ourselves a translation:  Tilhøre.  So this is our project:

Belonging: A’Buntainn: Tilhøre

The participants round the table had varied views on the languages of our heritage, and what terms we should use for the project.  Some wanted just plain English, nice and easy for all to understand (and say!).  Others wanted the other aspects of our heritage acknowledged.  So we’ve opted for all three.  At least now we have a name.

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Postcards from Caithness

By Sarah | Published: 12 October, 2009

The Caithness Roots project, Belonging | A’ Buntainn | Tilhøre, moved into its second phase last week as artist Joanne B Kaar joined the group to start developing artwork around the family history themes researched by the participants.  A series of postcards is the first output; you can read more about the project here.

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The Paper Trail

By Katie | Published: 26 October, 2009

From careful research to artistic expression, the process of our family tree project in Thurso has found itself very much preoccupied with the paper trail.  Tracking down census documents and parish records, and looking out birth and marriage certificates.  Digging out old family photos, and combing through the photos found in the archives, newspapers and historical books from Caithness’s past – many of which turned out to have unexpected relevancy to the individuals in the group.  Writing up and illustrating our discoveries and the key details that mattered to our own personal sense of belonging.  And then bringing it all together – inspired by the intricate concertina-style books that Joanne B Kaar works with, realised in our own streamlined (but still fairly complex!) versions.   Have a look:

Getting the basics down of a family tree, alongside the folded and bound book that Joanne B Kaar suggested we use as a starting point for inspiration:

More images of the concertina-book that got us started…

Bringing together our own stories and pictures  into booklet form:

A glimpse of the final book… Watch this space for a closer look in days to come.

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Belonging | A’Buntainn | Tilhoere – Just Add Colour

By Katie | Published: 27 October, 2009

Many of our photographic sources are in black and white, but even so it turns out that family research is really quite a colourful process.

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Thurso Family Tree Project Celebration

By Katie | Published: 12 November, 2009

The Thurso family research project, Belonging: A’Buntainn: Tilhøre, came to a close on 30th October with a celebration of everyone’s work and an opportunity to show off the finished pieces to invited guests, family and friends.  The final pieces of work incorporated a wide range of information and sources, including:

  • samples of family tartans
  • family trees
  • birth certificates
  • marriage certificates
  • copies from parish records
  • photos of family members going back several generations
  • photos of places of importance
  • drawings and illustrations of key features in the person’s family history
  • professionally produced and individualised postcards
  • newspaper cuttings
  • DVDs of each person’s work.

The huge range of information that the participants were able to compile in the course of this project was amazing, and the format for pulling it all together ingenious, particularly as it’s designed so that information can be added to it in the future.

Pic 4

Pic 24

Pic 11

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The Belonging Books

By Sarah | Published: 19 November, 2009

The Belonging | A’ Buntainn | Tilhøre project at Caithness Horizons culminated on 30 October with a reception and exhibition of the Belonging Books made by all the participants, under the tutelage of artist Joanne Kaar.  In the film above,  Keith shows off his book.

The project would not have been possible without the help of Caithness Horizons, and particularly te Education and Communities Officer, Christine Russell, who writes:

This small project was significant for Caithness Horizons in several ways, mainly in terms of community relations and partnerships.

Our involvement came out of a request for help from Katie Webster, a case worker for Caithness Health and Happiness, which supports people with learning difficulties, as well as individuals on the autistic spectrum. We had involved her clients in a previous project, and we are keen to sustain this relationship as part of our inclusive Lifelong Learning programme. We agreed Health and Happiness would make the funding application, with Caithness Horizons and the Caithness Family History Society as partners.

CFHS has a presence in our building, offering twice weekly public information sessions led by volunteers. I had tried to involve them before in a community project, but found it difficult to get them on board. This project offered a more successful opportunity to develop this relationship in a creative way without involving them in too great a commitment.

Joanne B. Kaar is an extremely talented and experienced local artist. The project was perfect for her skills, and it is important for Caithness Horizons to forge and maintain good creative relationships with local artists. Of course, this also keeps project costs down, which was important in this instance.

Overall, the project served Caithness Horizons as a strong pilot for more substantial projects in the future. Our relationship with Health and Happiness is now on-going, and we will be better placed to work again with the Caithness Family History Society, now that some of their volunteers have had the experience of working with us on such a heritage project. We are actively discussing a future project with Joanne Kaar, directly as a result of the A’Chraobh project.

And from the A’ Chraobh team, thanks to all the participants for a really inspiring project.

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