Welcome!
These pages will introduce you to the kinds of genealogical work I do - potentially, l work I’ll do for you
Infornation about myself as the provider is in 'why provide genealogical services’, and services are outlined in the page on ‘what you can expect’. These are based in the expertise gained from working on my own family stories, and in helping others, together with my training and work in social research.
Many years ago when I was a PhD student, I was asked to provide a detailed account of my own family, and write about the society and ways people lived. My family were in Lowland Scotland. This gave me a start - I was hooked.
So, what is offered here is a service to help people who are attempting their own family research - and who may not have access to some of the facilities that they need, or would welcome other ideas and ways to look at this history. And there’s the issues of the ways that older documents are written - like the one below. I can help!
(A transcription is in the side bar.)
Importantly, ‘family history’ IS history. It is particular to your family, and it’s local to where they were, and where they moved to. It connects them - and you today - into the social processes of the times in which they lived. It shows how they have shaped the world in which you live today.
So, here we offer both genealogical tracing, and help in interpreting that and in recognising the contribution that your ancestors may have made.
And the ‘Blain’ name? It comes from Wigtownshire. My great-grandfather was born in Stranraer, and his kin and ancestors were in nearby parishes of Inch, Kirkcolm, Glenluce, Kirkinner, and others in Wigtownshire and South Ayrshire. But he moved, as did his son and grandson, eventually to Dundee… though these are stories for another day or another place.
There is a contact email link on each page, in the sidebar, and also a contact web-form on the ‘what you can expect’ page.