Family
Genealogy
---Heritage & History of Scotland
In about
the last 20 years there has been an upsurge of interest in Family
genealogy and Scottish history and heritage. In stark contrast many
clan
societies, have significantly declined in membership
and have failed to attract younger generations. There are
millions of Scottish descent whose ancestors emigrated in the last 250
years and many at some point in their lives will return to visit their
ancestral roots. These Ancestral Tourists are considered to be a key
factor in the tourist industry and prosperity of today's
Scotland. I paraphrase some recent words of Torquil Ian Campbell,
the 28th MacCailen Mor and the 13th Duke of Argyll.
We in Scotland need to encourage worldwide
members of our
clan to be proud
of their history and heritage if the ideas of clanship are going to be
relevant to younger people in today’s society.
To
become proud of your Heritage & History, first you must have
easy access to information about the history of your ancestors and the
world in which they lived. There has been an irreversible change with
the digitization of the libraries of the world. Formerly one could only
access information through the reading rooms of major libraries, make
notes, obtain copies of individual pages etc. Now through Google
Books and the Gutenberg Project it is possible to download the full
text of over one million books published before about 1925; it is
simple to copyright your research, share with others
and preserve for future generations.
Our
Common Heritage.
We are trying to
build a resource center to
cover our broad Celtic, Irish and Scottish heritage.
We welcome texts on the
experiences of all the Highland Clans. We welcome texts on the
broad
pioneer experiences which our ancestors shared with other groups and
nationalities; we welcome texts of personal & family
memoirs; family histories & genealogy research; stories &
poetry; travel experiences: we welcome texts on the social structure,
literature, religion, dance, piping and song of Highland ancestors
and the experiences of their migration from the Highlands and
in many cases emigration overseas.
We will
continue to seek the participation of members in building up this
collective library. A little bit of effort from many could work wonders
in publishing
Lachlan Editions E
books.. This will be a continuing
effort through the years. If you wish to see how you could help
use the CONTACT facility in the Library and connect to the Publisher. We will
strive to
make this a
"living heritage" to which each generation could make a contribution.
Outline of
Lachlan Library
The library
could be considered as being in six sections.
E Books: taken from the
libraries of the world through sources such as
Google Books and the Gutenberg Project; these are out of copyright and
date from 1750 to 1925. This area is starting with about 150 books
mainly classics in Celtic and Scottish history. This area of the
Library is programmed to increase rapidly. We plan to include all
available Scottish literature and books of general interest from the
period; we will include relevant literature from Australia, Canada, New
Zealand and USA.
These books are in both Epub ( the general publishing standard) and
Mobi(for the Amazon Kindle).; others are in PDF
Clan
History: At present there are about 120 separate E Books
covering
Clan Lachlan history, legends, traditions and family stories. They
include many items of general interest. We have a program to add
Histories of other Clans.
Family Records-- Lachlan
Editions:
If the holder of a Lachlan Library Card (User ID & Password),
supplies text in say Word , we would convert the text into an E Book
and publish as a Lachlan Edition in the Library. Instead of a paper
copy or computer file bequeathed to some family member, you would be
assigned an ISBN number, retain full copyright and have an E book
published and available for future generations.
Members can have multiple Family Records covering the important
families in their family genealogy. We would encourage Members to
produce E Books for Family memoirs, stories, experiences etc. Making a
modest charitable donation could preserve your own family history in a
permanent form.
Future Development.
Library Data Base. (Scheduled for early 2014) In the
Library there are 5,000 names collected
over 30 years in
Your Family History ; from existing records this could reach over
70,000 names. To make this searchable a web based PHP/MySQL data base
is planned. This provides many facilities for members to produce their
family history with photos, videos, memoirs etc.
Future
Development. Lachlan Editions( Commercial):
We plan a Product Section which contains E Books which are selling a
product. This may be a Bed & Breakfast; Craft shop, Gallery etc;
sources of Celtic, Irish and Scottish products, If the holder of a
Lachlan Library Card desires such a commercial E Book listing, we would
offer
this for an additional cost of $25.00 for a basic E Book. We have the
facility of accepting payment by Credit Card, PayPal or cheque for
Products. We would decide on a case by case basis. Lachlan Library
preserving our heritage.
Future
Development. Publish & sale of selected
Lachlan Editions. Once you have
developed an E Book, it generates income for all time and the Library
has
most of the facilities in place.
For
Library Membership.
ProductOrderForm.
Access for
Library Members. See Lachlan
Library Login
