Dixon Scottish Games & Gathering set for September
The sights, sounds, and food of Scotland can be experienced at the fifth annual Dixon Scottish Games & Gathering on Saturday, September 25, from 9 AM to 6 PM at the Dixon Fairgrounds, 655 South First Street, Dixon, California. Dixon is 19 miles southwest of Sacramento, along Interstate 80.
The Dixon Highland gathering was named as the best one-day Scottish festival in the United States which attracted nearly 7,000 visitors last year.
The family activities will include Scottish, Irish, and Celtic folk bands; Scottish Highland and Scottish country dancing; eleven award-winning bagpipe bands; Scottish athletic competitions; crafts, food, and beers of the British Isles; Scottish clan information booths; a rugby tournament, living history and Scottish animal exhibits; and many other events.
A Ceilidh barbecue dinner is scheduled at 6 PM on the Dixon Fairgrounds, immediately after the Scottish games' closing ceremonies.
For more information, contact the Dixon Scottish Cultural Association at 707-678-8814 or visit website http://dixon.scottish-games.com.

A hypermedia archive awaits your inspection
The Valley of the Shadow Project takes two communities, one Northern and one Southern, through the experience of the American Civil War. The project is a hypermedia archive of thousands of sources for the period from John Brown's Raid to the era of reconstruction.
Although the site focuses on Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, the resources include information about the entire United States. The site provides contrasting sources since each county lies on a different side of the Mason Dixon line. Whether or not you have ancestors in the two counties, there will be material here to engage your mind and pen.
The sources include newspapers, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, church records, population censuses, agricultural censuses, and military records. Taking a walking tour of this virtual archive provides a near perfect background for anyone writing a family history that includes the time frame of the Civil War. The database is especially helpful in reconstructing the life stories of women, African Americans, farmers, politicians, soldiers, and families.
Sponsored by the University of Virginia, the website takes the form of a three-story archive, and in each story lie seven types of source rooms through which you can stroll. For instance, if you enter the second-floor room named "Soldiers Records," try searching on the name Snyder from Franklin County. You will receive a page of Snyders from which to choose.
Click on the top Snyder to see a page devoted to Adam J. Snyder of Chamberburg, Pennsylvania. Here are all the records in the National Archives about this person, from home address at enlistment to his military and health records, among many. The page even provides the proper citation to use if you publish any of the information.
For more information, you might wish to visit the website <http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu>.
Our thanks for this article from Whittier Area Genealogical Society's WAGS Newsletter, PO Box 4367, Whittier, CA 90607-4367.

"Lineal?" "Collateral?" "Allied?"
In genealogy, the term "lineal" means either ascending or descending to a direct line. "Collateral" means descended from the same ancestor, but not in a direct line of descent. "Allied" families are families related usually through marriage.
Source: WAGS Newsletter, Whittier Area Genealogical Society, PO Box 4367, Whittier, CA 90607-4367.

Take heed, ladies!
Hints for girls who want to be handsome!
Miss Caroline Smith of Chicago consented to give the rules by which she believes she attained her present physical perfection, and which she believes is for the guidance of those of her sex who would know perfect health and perfect physical development. She says:
* Never wear tight belts or corsets
* Never wear high-heeled shoes
* Don't wear high collars or tight stock ties
* Don't ape (imitate) the kangaroo walk
* Don't worry; be philosophical; cultivate a cheerful disposition
* Diet property
* Eat but two meals a day
* Eat little or no meat
* Fast at frequent intervals, a week at a time is not too long
* Breathe properly, filling the lungs to every cell at each respiration
* Dress simply, have your garments loose
* Sleep eight hours out of every twenty four
* Lastly, give more attention to health than to the shifting, ever changing evanescent thing called "single" or fashion by the modern social world.
Source: Thanks to WAGS Newsletter, Whittier Area Genealogical Society, PO Box 4367, Whittier, CA 90607-4367.

Bruce's yew tree will be better!
An ancient Scottish yew tree where Robert the Bruce rallied his troops is to be saved after experts were brought in to check out the ailing tree located on the banks of Loch Lomond. Bruce had just escaped from a battle with McDonald of Lorne in 1306 and had crossed the Loch in a leaky boat where he rallied his disappointed men. Bruce used the yew as a battle emblem and eight years later won independence from England and was crowned King of Scotland.
The yew tree was old in Bruce's time and is reputed to be close to 2,000 years old. Tree expert, Roddy McGregor gently drove small sensor pins into the old tree that relayed information to a laptop computer. Fifty-eight percent was diagnosed as decayed, while normal growth was gauged at 21%. The rest of the tree was considered to be restorable.
The tree doctor concluded that the main problem was the lack of light getting to the King's tree. When some of the nearby foliage and neighbouring trees are cut back to allow more sunlight on this piece of old Scottish history, things should remarkably improve for the old yew and it should be around for centuries to come.
Thanks to Palmetto & Thistle, Scots-American Society of Brevard, PO Box 3325, Melbourne, FL 32902-3325.

Looking for Cornish folks...all over the US
Susan Witterick came to California from Cornwall just last year. She is completing her Masters Degree in Cornish Studies at the University of Exeter under the tutelage of Philip Payton, known to many of us as a Gathering speaker and as author of Cornwall and The Cornish Overseas. For her dissertation, she is investigating the existence and expression of "Cornish Identity in America in the 21st Century."
She says, "Two specific issues will be covered in this dissertation. Firstly, I propose to investigate whether a 'Cornish' identity persists in the United States in the modern day, over 150 years since the Great Emigration. To this end, my research will attempt to identify the existence of a Cornish identity, what 'being Cornish' means to American citizens who identify as such, people's subject reactions to and feelings about this identity.
"Secondly, I propose to examine the ways in which this identity is expressed, both on a private and public level.
You can see her website about her study and answer her questionnaire on line. It's very short and simple. You'll find it at the website: <www.cornishstudies.com> or you can write to her at Susan Witterick, 3018 Goldsmith Street, Santa Monica, California 90405 or call 310-428-8917 and leave your name and address to receive a printed copy of the questionnaire.
From the Cornish Crier, Cornish Heritage Society East Newsletter, 23 Weldon Road, Lake Hopatcong, NJ 07849.

Los Angeles Central Library features important US documents
A special display of original US documents will be at Central Library in Los Angeles at 5th and Flower until January 4, 2005. Be sure, if you live anywhere close to Los Angeles, to go see this display. It includes the documents of Germany's surrender in World War II and the Louisiana Purchase Treaty.
Check www.lapl.org/americanoriginals for details.
Source: Immigrant Genealogical Society Newsletter, PO Box 7369, Burbank, CA 91510-7369.

Carter Surname DNA Project underway
The surname Carter DNA project is looking for Carter researchers who do not know about the DNA project and who would be interested in joining our project. Many of us are facing brick walls. We are hoping by using DNA we will be able to match with other Carter researchers and find new clues to help us continue with our search. The website is <www.carter-cousins.org/>.
For further information, contact project administrator Vickie Carter Tallent at vickie@carter-cousins.org .
Source: Nuggets from Paradise, Paradise Genealogical Society, Inc., PO Box 460, Paradise, CA 95967-0460.

Nancy Freeman MacLeod of Bristol, Rhode Island died Sunday, May 4, 2003. She was 80 years old and the wife of N. Douglas MacLeod, Jr. . .the surviving member of the group which founded Clan MacLeod, USA in 1954. Known to friends as "Nanny," she was a graduate of Lincoln School and Sarah Lawrence College and lived most of her life in Bristol.
She taught preschool and kindergarten at the Lincoln School for 29 years before retiring, was a volunteer at Womens and Infants Hospital in Providence, a member of the Junior League, the Handicraft Club, and was a test grower for Jackson and Perkins roses.
Comments from her children at her memorial service noted a lady of wit, wisdom, love of family, strength and patience. A sign on her refrigerator door apparently proclaimed her philosophy: "Life is an adventure to be lived, not a problem to be solved."
In addition to her husband, N. Douglas, she is survived by son Norman D. MacLeod III; daughters, Heather and Laurie MacLeod, Bonnie Thompson, and Jeanie Juckett; eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

W. Mullins McLeod of Walterboro, South Carolina died Friday, January 31, 2003 at Medical University Hospital in Charleston after an extended illness. He was 60 years of age.
The son of Walton J. McLeod, Jr. and Rhoda Lane Brown McLeod, he was born in Walterboro and graduated from Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida, Wofford College, and the University of South Carolina School of Law.
McLeod served in the Vietnam War as an Army Intelligence Officer and was awarded the Bronze Star, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Ribbon and the National Defense Service Medal. He served in the US Army Reserve as a captain in the Judge Advocate General's Corp. He served ten years as administrative assistant and district administrator for former Congressman Mendel J. Davis. He was also a chairman of the South Carolina Public Railways Commission and the Democratic nominee for Congress in 1982.
He is survived by son, Charleston attorney W. Mullins McLeod, Jr.; daughter Maxine Walter McLeod Miller of Falls Church, Virginia; and three brothers, State Representative Walton J. McLeod, III of Little Mountain, former State Senator Peden B. McLeod, and Thomas Gordon McLeod, III of Walterboro.