By Rhonda Dille
This project began as an interest in gardening and a mild interest in genealogy.
Three or four years ago when “fairy gardening” became popular, I tried my hand at it with two small beds with 2-3 little wooden birdhouses with Spanish moss roofs and some misc. benches, bridges, and walkways.
A couple of years ago my mother asked me to help her organize my Grandfather Brown’s (her father) extensive genealogical notes. He had spent much of his adult life accumulating family history the “old fashioned way”. As Grandpa had no access to the computerized digital data bases containing vital records that we have today, he would make trips out of state to talk to aged relatives, gathering dates, information, and stories from them first hand. He would then type a page for each relative, listing spouses, children, and other information. In his day, there were no genealogical templates available on the internet either, so these he put together himself. His work was so extensive and complete that the Tennessee State Archives named him as the first Brown Family Genealogist for Jackson County, TN.
When my Grandfather passed, my mother knew that I had minimal interest and experience with researching my Father’s family and requested my help in organizing my Grandfather’s work. This project rekindled my interest in genealogy, especially since it is so much easier now than it used to be with so many records available online.
My Father’s surname was Douglas, which was a large Scottish Clan with a colorful history. As I researched the records, I also began studying Scottish history and culture. This makes genealogy much more interesting than just collecting names and dates. If you know the culture your ancestors lived in and what was happening around them at that time in history, it becomes easier to imagine them as real people.
Castles were the center of many Scottish clans; the Head of the Clan (the “Laird”) lived in the castle with his family along with the clansmen that supported the Castle and Clan functions. (cooks, maids, soldiers, blacksmiths, etc.) Livestock and horses were kept near the castle also to provide food, transportation, etc. Clansmen not associated with the Castle support lived in the nearby villages or on farms.
The more I studied about Clan life, the more challenged I became in seeing if I could construct a “Castle-scape” in my backyard. I worked at it slowly and thoughtfully, trying to make it as historically accurate as I could without investing a lot of money into it. The process took about 6 months. I just added my last piece; it took me a while to find a realistic looking drawbridge, but finally found one on eBay and put it in place this past week.
As a special interest, near the Castle is a “Fairy Hill”. The Scots people believed that Fairies were found in certain areas and they tended to avoid those areas. My “Fairy Hill” has moss covered stones, tree stumps, an owl, some wolves, and a “circle of standing stones” (like Stonehenge, but very small). Scotland has many of these stone circles.
This project has increased my interest in my family heritage and has encouraged me to become more serious about learning more about my family.