Author Archives: dgm

This is a sort of retraction, but only a partial of retraction. The whole Moncur Castle/Moncur placename thing has been gnawing away at me and I’ve been doing some more digging, and it turns out there was an aristocratic Moncur … Continue reading →

Yesterday I came across an interesting early twentieth century package … interesting because of the way the design was printed over the corner of the package, unlike most other packaging of the time where the individual faces of the box … Continue reading →

While using the Statistical Account to try and find the locations of farms and properties mention in the servant tax records, I came across the following entry about Inchture from the 1799 appendix: which sort of vaguely supports my guess … Continue reading →

More family history news: The family history legend had been that we had been tenant farmers for a very long time. Obviously not every son got to be a farmer, so some had gone off to do other jobs. So … Continue reading →

Back on the family history front again … A few days ago I received an email from another Moncur – actually a Moncure – who’d found my blog posts and wondered if we might be related. The answer, of course, … Continue reading →

A week or so before Christmas I posted the following tweet: of me looking vaguely Dickensian. At the time it probably looked like a bit of festive fun – which it was. Recently they have restored the Victorian Fountains in … Continue reading →

Earlier today I posted the following tweet: in response to an article on Phys.org that suggested that goosefoot could form an important food source. Well, if you’ve had amaranth in an Indian meal, or eaten quinoa, you’ve eaten Chenopodium. Goosefoot … Continue reading →