Not so long ago I spent another day in the Public Records Office, now known as the Scotland’s People Centre. I was investigating my paternal grandmother’s family, trying to connect my ancestors with those of some other possible present day relations. Not an easy job even with it being a fairly unusual name. Way back before the spelling was settled, when ancestors maybe couldn’t write, the name was recorded in about ten different ways. Who is to say that those called Kynman today aren’t distant relations of my Kinmonts.
Anyway, I managed to take a few photos inside the centre, 
including some photos of pictures of the exterior from way back in the 19th century 
This is the building today. 
Beneath that dome in the old picture above, is a circular research room with shelves of books of old records around the walls. 
Through the door along a passage is another circular room, lined with a double thickness of old books of records behind metal grilles. No-one gets to see the actual old books these days as absolutely everything is digitalised. You sit at a desk with a computer monitor in front of you, and everything you look up can be seen onscreen. A day here goes by so quickly! It’s quite amazing! Now I have to assimilate all the info I found, and contact one or two relations!!
A couple of days later the U3A garden group was off on another jaunt, this time along with members of the archaeology group. We were off to Carmichael Mill, near Lanark, where the archaeologists could find out about the mill’s history and we could visit the wild garden round about .
There has been a mill on this site, or nearby, for several centuries. It has gone through various incarnations as a grain mill, a flax mill and also a generator of electricity, 
and at one point there was also a bell pit (left) where the bell was cast for the local church. The current mill building was a ruin till 20 or so years ago when the then new owners started an ambitious programme of renovation. 
Today they have a beautiful home, which they kindly invited us into for tea and wonderful home-baking. The sitting room incorporates at one end some of the mill workings which the couple also restored. 
Outside, they have the old undershot mill wheel back in operation, and to prove it, the sluice gate was opened to allow the water to get to the wheel and turn it. 
A gear or two engaged indoors would enable the cogs in the photo on the right, and start the machinery working, but not that day!
I’m having problems uploading this entry tonight so I think I’ll try and post it in two parts. This is part one, and you have to go back up to the top of the page to get the next part
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