An Aberdeen University professor has created a new online database documenting the lives of those who took part in the Scottish exodus to North America.
Prof Marjory Harper has recorded 21,000 people who set sail for Canada and the USA between 1890 and 1960.
Assisted by Dr Nick Evans, her Scottish Emigration Database records a person’s place of origin, occupation, destination, and the ship they boarded.
The initiative coincides with the upcoming Tartan Week, or Scottish Week, in North America. Running from April 3 to 10, the festivities began in Canada in the 1980s as a means of celebrating the country’s rich Scottish ancestry.
The festivities will culminate on April 6, the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, when Sir Billy Connolly will lead a parade in New York. Organisers are confident that around 30,000 people will attend the event.
Prof Harper said: “As many of the descendants of this Scottish diaspora mark their heritage in the Scottish Week celebrations, it is timely that we consider the factors which led their ancestors to seek a new life.
“The database is a great starting point.”
She will speak at several events during Tartan Week in New York and Chicago, which will focus on the origins and impact of Scots in North America.
Detailing what historical insight the database can offer, she added: “It shows us, for instance, how post-war unemployment in the central belt led to massive disillusionment and a high departure rate, not least among shipyard workers who had been – or feared being – laid off.
“Despondency among Hebrideans that long-standing problems of land hunger had not been resolved was intensified by despair in the aftermath of the Iolaire disaster in 1919.
“More positively, the introduction of the old age pension in 1908 meant younger people had fewer qualms about leaving elderly parents and seeking opportunities overseas.
“Many in this group found their horizons had been opened up by war service, particularly those who had served alongside soldiers from the Commonwealth.
“The introduction of government subsidies in 1922 also helped, as did the persuasive tactics of recruitment agents.”
