The information in the "Dempster Families" comes largely from the records of the church and state - births, marriages, deaths, inheritance, legal proceedings and the like. There are many more scattered references to Dempsters in less official documents, and this section makes a start on listing such records under various appropriate headings.
The style of this section is heavily influenced by the third volume of J.G. Bulloch's magnum opus "The House of Gordon". That volume "Gordons Under Arms" attempted to list all known Gordon soldiers. A task made much easier in that time before the mass conscriptions of world wars one and two.
The Dempster Directories also have a "Dempsters Under Arms" section, but expand to include lawyers, priests, graduates, burgesses & freemen, and "Dempsters Abroad". Following the example of Bulloch, each person will be listed alphabetically by first name (it being assumed that the surname was Dempster) and thereafter by date, so that a John Dempster who fell at Flodden would come before a John from WWI, but a currently serving James would come before both.
Bulloch's work was cross referenced by numbers, to allow family links to be found quickly. In html format, this has been replaced with links to others in the directories section, and, where appropriate, to other parts of the site.
Many of the directories cover professions or occupations which have a specialised vocabulary of their own, so each section is accompanied by a short description of some of the specialised terms it may contain.
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Dempsters Abroad |
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Dempsters in the Church |
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Dempsters Under Arms |
© James Dempster 1998
