By the Author

Like the Bowies, the Stalkers, my paternal great great great grandmother’s family, have deep roots in Clackmannanshire. Most of them lived, worked and died in the county’s main towns of Alloa, Alva, Sauchie, Tillicoultry, and Tullibody, although several members of later generations moved to the Scottish cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling. The Stalkers were a working-class family and many individuals in the earlier generations found employment in the area’s wool-spinning and weaving mills, in which both males and females were employed, and coal-mining. Others worked in domestic service. I have traced the Clackmannanshire Stalkers back to the late 18th century. Although most of my Stalker ancestors appear to have remained in Scotland, online research led me to a website created by Canadian genealogist Robyn J. Williams, which suggests that one family member, Alexander Smart, of whom there is no trace in Scotland after the 1841 Census of Population, may have emigrated to the United States in 1848, where he married and had children.

For more information about Prof. Sir George Bain and his family history, visit his website