By Barbara J. Ball, PhD, QG
Genealogist, Clan Cunningham International
Owner, Copestone Resources, LLC Doctoral student, The University of Strathclyde
Questions were emailed to clans on 21 December 2021 asking simply what tasks the clan genealogist performed. Clans were selected from the rolls of the Council of Scottish Clans and Associations, Inc.
Emails or online web contacts were sent to 58 different clans or family organizations. I received a response from 30 organizations, or just over 50%. Not a bad response rate! Of those who responded, six (20%) reported having no genealogist. About that same number sent only a nominal response, offered little in the way of answering my question, or simply said they were not very active. This means that the information gathered here came from approximately 60% of responders and only 30% of those queried.
Some respondents offered one email in which they described their activities in brief or more completely. Several engaged in a back and forth conversation over email which gave me a greater idea of what they were doing. More than one wondered about the possibility of forming some kind of online ‘clan genealogists’ group.
I have 37 pages of notes gathered from the specific emails sent by respondents. The overwhelming bulk of this information came from only a handful of respondents.