SCOTTISH MEET IN HOUSTON AND ARLINGTON
(Please be aware this post was written in 2004 and published at that time in the Houston Chronicle (Houston, Texas) newspaper. Some of the news in this post, therefore, may not be current. Current and future posts on this blog may revisit and update news on this and other posts on this blog. If you have questions and/or suggestions, please send Mic a note using the comment page -Don’t forget to use the orange “subscribe” button to receive new posts-Thanks, Mic)
Over the next several weeks two Celtic Festivals will be held in Texas, one in Houston, the other in Arlington. Both festivals will feature genealogical, history and other educational classes. They both will include world class Scottish Highland athletic, music and dance competitions.
The Houston Highland Games and Celtic Festival will be held during daylight hours at the Houston Farm and Ranch Club on Friday, Saturday and Sunday May 14 through May 16. The HFRC is located at Bear Creek Park on Highway 6 at Patterson Road two miles north of Interstate 10 in West Houston.
Admission to the Houston event is $12 for adults on Saturday, $10 on Sunday and $5 for seniors over age 65 and children accompanied by a parent.
For more information call 281-498-5746 or 713-871-0061 or visit their website at http://houstonhighlandgames.com/ .
The second festival, the Texas Scottish Festival and Highlands Games, will be held Friday June 4 through Sunday June 6 at the University of Texas at Arlington’s Maverick Stadium, in Arlington.
This Highlands games is the largest in Texas and the Southwest. It hosts tents representing nearly seventy different Scottish clan societies and has five large entertainment tents featuring musical entertainers from the United States, Canada and Scotland.
Admission to the Arlington event is $15 for adults on Saturday and $10 on Sunday, $7 on Saturday and $6 on Sunday for teens ages 13-17 and $4 each day for children ages 6-12.
The games and competitions are held during the daylight hours while music and entertainment continue until midnight Friday and Saturday night and until 6 p.m. on Sunday.
SCOTTISH SYMPOSIUM
A daylong Scottish Family History Symposium is held each year in conjunction with the Texas Scottish Festival and Highlands Games in Arlington. This years’ symposium, Researching Your Scottish Ancestors From A Distance, will feature renowned genealogist and historian David W. Webster FSA(Scot) of Scotland.
In his lectures Webster will describe the availability and some efficient research strategies for accessing the increasing number of computerized indexes and databases normally found on CD-ROMs and online.
New this year is a Scottish History Symposium, which will run concurrent to the Family History Symposium. The theme of the History Seminar is Culloden and the ’45: A Tragedy in Three Acts. The presenter is Elizabeth Chennault a popular lecturer on Scottish history.
Both symposiums will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday June 4 at the LaQuinta Conference Center which is located adjacent Six Flags Amusement Park in Arlington. Registration for each is $45 and includes all seminar costs, a syllabus, buffet lunch and break refreshments.
For more information and to make reservations call 800-363-SCOT (7268) or visit the Festival website at http://www.texasscottishfestival.com/.
SHUFFIELD IN LAKE JACKSON
The Brazosport Genealogical Society will host Lynna Kay Shuffield as their May meeting presenter. The meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday May 11 at the Lake Jackson Library.
A frequent lecturer in the Houston area Shuffield is the US GENWEB coordinator for San Jacinto County. In addition she writes a weekly genealogical column that appears in the Taylor Daily Press in Williamson County and the Cameron Herald in Milam County.
Shuffield’s topic will be Locating 20th Century Military Records. This informative talk describes all types of military records such as those pertaining to service, burials, units, ship logs, MIA and POWs and how to locate them. The talk addresses each of the major 20th Century wars including WWI, WWII, Korea and Viet Nam.
Admission to the meeting is free and the public is invited to attend. For further information contact Linda Barney at genealogist@aggies.org or 979-297-9937.
