A social history of Scotland through the generations of the Loggie family

The history of famous families is relatively common, sometimes in the perspective of their nation and sometimes related to their role within the socio-economic and political situation of the ruling classes. Occasionally there are individuals that shine in their field having come from nowhere. However there is rarely a history built around the fortunes and misfortunes of a single family through a long timespan.

One of the main reasons for this is a lack of historical records that allow research to link generation to generation with any accuracy. However we have the good fortune, here, to have a family with intact genealogical records from the mid 16th century to the current day with a family name that is sufficiently distinct to allow for easy research.

From a relatively simple genealogical study the next step is to look at the lives and society in which they lived – a social history perspective.

The work examines what factors drove significant changes in family occupations, their location and finds that whilst the majority of family or individual  life decisions were influenced by the prevailing economic, social, and political environment, there are also clearly personal choices that are key  factors.

It is still very much work in progress!

Scotland

Scotland forms a major part of the story told in this social history. The majority of the families lived in Scotland, moving with time from the North East, Dundee and on to Edinburgh. With the clearings both of the 18th and 19th centuries and the subsequent migrations can be seen a pattern that is common to the overall Scots society of their times.

Social History

The project is divided into different periods from the mid 1600’s to the current day. In each section an attempt has been made to address the following general issues:

• Demographics
• Labour History
• Education
• Rural and/or Urban History
• Diet and Health
• Social Mobility
• Religion

Specific issues are addressed where they occur.

Loggie Family

The Loggie family, sometimes Loggy or Logie, formed a compact group with a diverse social interaction with their surroundings and the society in which they formed a part. The change from rural workers through farmers and then on to become city and town dwellers shows the transition from a peasant class to middle class professional family.

There is a full genealogy of this branch of the Loggie Family

Approach

To construct this social history of Scotland a full genealogical study of a branch of the Loggie family and the social history of where they lived has been overlaid depending upon the location and the dates of birth, death and marriage.

It does not pretend to be a social history of the whole of Scotland and not all elements of history have been included. For example witchcraft trials were rife in the 17th century and in Elgin there are a number but in the parishes that now make up the parish of Speymouth none are recorded. Equally the family were not Highlanders although Morayshire, Nairnshire, Aberdeenshire and Banffshire are often historically grouped together with the Highlands however the geography and subsequent living conditions made the counties Lowlands.

While academic literature exists at the generic level of the family in Europe at the macro level and a tremendous interest by individuals that research their own genealogy at the micro level, there are very few works that analyse the history of individual related Scottish families within the context of their contemporary Scottish history. The period of this story sees Scotland transformed from a subsistence agriculturally based economy with extremely little manufacturing, and little if any export of primary products to the invention and global export of high technology goods and services underpinned by an efficient and modern agriculture. The process was accompanied by an increase in population from approximately 500,000 in 1500 to 4.5 million in 1900 and the social ramifications that the change encompassed including massive emigration.

Robert Loggie, born in September 1755 migrated to Blackbrook, Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada and started a large dynasty of Canadian Loggies. Much of the detail of their history is currently outside the scope of this project.