Upper Whiteadder Valley, East Lothian

[epfedin]

Came across the website when I was looking at Twitter today

I started my OPS last year, looking at the Upper Whiteadder valley which lies in East Lothian and covers the upland parts of 4 parishes - Innerwick, Spott, Stenton and Whittinghame. There are only a handful of upland farms there but there are older settlements which have been abandoned.

So far I have used census info, the OPR's and the valuation rolls. The National Library of Scotland have a fantastic range of historical maps online which have been really useful and I need to spend some time in the National Archives to see what I can find there. The staff at the local history room in Haddington library have been really helpful and I am looking forward to the opening of their new local history centre next year.

Even if you think you know everything about a place, it's amazing what else you can learn

Elma

[Alex]

Hi Elma

Good to see another Scottish study, and it's interesting to see you have abandoned settlements included in your area. Are you planning to put your study online at any stage?

Regards
Alex
(PS sorry for the delay in releasing your post to the board, it popped up while I was away overseas and for some reason I didn't get notified)

[vivdunstan]

Gosh. I have a distant ancestress possibly from Spott or Stenton. It looks like my 7xg-grandmother Janet Denholm was probably the illegitimate daughter of Margaret Denholm who later married John Deans in 1687, recorded in Dunbar and Spott parishes.

Janet Denholm's first marriage, in 1694, was recorded in Stenton and Coldingham parish registers.

Her second husband, John Greenfield, was probably also from East Lothian. He was living in Spott parish before he married at Coldingham in 1703.

At both of Janet's marriages the cautioner was her "father in law" John Deans i.e. her step-father.

I'm a bit stuck tracing them all further back though ...

[epfedin]

Alex
Thankyou - I'm still at the information gathering stage - have files and bits of paper that need to be put into some sensible order. I would also need to get permission to publish some of the information. Also waiting for some better weather so that I can get out into the hills for more photographs

Elma

[epfedin]

Viv

I've come across the name Denholm quite a lot in East Lothian and Berwickshire - but I think they lived in the more civilised parts of the country. Am waiting for the John Gray Centre to open so that I can get back to the local history room and have a look for more information

Elma