Scottish inheritance records

“One might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb,” goes the old proverb. The meaning is simple: if you are going to be punished for a small crime, you may as well commit the bigger one. In the early

Britain is one of the last constitutional monarchies in the world, and the king or queen still plays a ceremonial role in the governance of the state. When Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, she was bur

I enjoyed reading the interesting article by Caitlin Ellis on the rivals for the throne in 1066 (October). In particular, it was fascinating to read about Edgar Ætheling’s claim, which was surely the

Mary Wade stood trial at the Old Bailey in 1789 for stealing a few items of clothing. She was only 10 years old, but London’s central criminal court condemned her to hang. Her sentence was commuted to

Cultural Crusader

Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) has scored a partial victory in a long-running legal battle to publish family history records that are preserved by National Records of Scotland (NRS; nrscotland.gov.uk). On