Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah greetings to all -- or in Sir Walter Scott's words-

Here on Prince Edward Island, we are enjoying the holiday season with family and friends.
 
We hope you find HomePort (IanScott.ca) helpful in staying connected. Scott material starts at Scott@HomePort. Please feel free to share these links with others.

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Family History News.
With this the 218th Christmas which family members have celebrated since arrival in North America we will soon see the arrival of 2020 and the 225th wedding anniversary of our founding couple, Sgr. David & Jean (Dalgity) Scott in Forfar Scotland.

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Family Connections & DNA Research
At Easter, I mentioned a new found connection to Skip Fogarty and his family in Oakland who are members of the 2nd Pittsburgh Line founded by Thomas Forester Scott & Martha Taylor. December was an eventful month for Skip's family as they helped him celebrate his 60th birthday (Happy Birthday!) and the completion for his son Will Fogarty, of the California Bar Exam and attending the swearing in ceremony. Congratulations all.

DNA results continue to help confirm the DNA linkage between the two main branches of the family. While connections were lost between these branches and reconnected through written records, the shared DNA among the descendants of the two oldest branches of the family tree shows a clear connection. The branching begins with the original Scott brothers, David Scott Jr. and John Scott, who arrived in Nova Scotia in 1801 with their parents. David Jr.'s descendants formed the Pittsburgh Branch and brother John's the Northern Branch. It was from those initial branches that nine family lines emerged in the next generation, and many of those extend to the tenth generation with members living now in Australia, Canada and throughout the US.

Recently another DNA match was discovered and today I reached Bev Crofford by email. Like Skip, she is also a descendant of Thomas Forester Scott & Martha Taylor. A warm welcome, and Christmas greetings to Bev.

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I also connected with another relative in November and learned that Homeport is of value for school projects when I connected with Nathan Walter Scott, the great great grandson of Dr. Walter Dill Scott. It was nice to see a bright young man in his early teens keen to get his references correct and to be researching his ancestry.  All best wishes to Nathan.

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Whit Scott's continuing ventures in creating unique living spaces in Portland, Oregon through building tiny homes has reached a new height with the conversion of a full size bus into a home. His action packed videos show his creative talents both on the actual build - as well as the shooting and editing of great videos. Congratulations Whit.


A Christmas story worth mentioning goes back to the days of Whit's great-great aunt, Jessie Helen Scott whose own creative talent left a memorable impression on the entire village of Ste Croix, Nova Scotia during an extended visit from Novato, California to her grandparent's farm in Nova Scotia during 1894-95.

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