Our Ancestors In St Kilda, Scotland

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Our Ancestors In St Kilda, Scotland
By K. D.
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Who am I?

• My name is Kylie McQueen
• I live in a suburb called St Kilda, it is in
  Melbourne
• My family came from St Kilda, Scotland
• I am going to find out all about our ancestral
  home for future reference

My house in St Kilda, Melbourne
Scottish flag
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Where Is St Kilda?
St Kilda is the most remote part of the British
Isles. It lies 41 miles (66 kilometres) away from
Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides. It takes 3 hours
to get to by boat (from Benbecular). St Kilda is
a world heritage site. It is a tiny group of
islands in the Atlantic ocean.
Scotland
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Sense Of Place

• There have been people on St Kilda since
  prehistoric times. Although it is not clear when
  the first settlers came to St Kilda some stone
  tools were found from the Bronze Age on the main
  island Hirta.
• A small population of about 180 people rented the
  land from a kind of landlord in Skye, he was
  called the Marquess of Bute, he later sold the
  islands to the National Trust for Scotland . They
  lived in a small Village Bay, depending on the
  sea for food. St Kilda is a sparsely populated
  very windy place where not much can grow but it
  has a long and interesting history.

St Kilda islands
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General Information

• St Kilda is a very isolated island a long way off
  the shores of Scotland. It has lots of stacs
  leading into the sea where many types of birds
  like to nest. The people who used to live on the
  island used to catch and eat them. The climate is
  cold and wet and in summer the midges come in off
  the sea. The island is prised for its mass of
  land and marine life.

great skua - these birds will dive bomb
researchers to protect their territory
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Physical Factors

• St Kilda is very rocky, with lots of steep slopes
  cliffs that the islanders used to climb. Though
  it also has some flat areas by Glean Mor. It has
  lots of stacks leading off into the sea. The
  climate is cold and wet as the island gets a lot
  of relief rainfall. Clouds often hover overhead
  and it can be very rare to see a sunny, warm day.
• In summer the temperature reaches about 10
  degrees Celsius and all the midges come in off
  the sea (Atlantic ocean) if you are a visitor it
  would be wise to cover up!

• St Kilda has one of the most important seabird
  colonies. It has the world's largest colony of
  gannets and fulmars in the British Isles, they
  nest on the many stacs. Two of those are the
  highest sea stacs in Britain. They are also home
  to many puffins.
• Soay sheep, from the island of Soay, are a rare
  breed of sheep that are loved for their wool.
• There were two kinds of mice called the St Kilda
  house mouse and the St Kilda field mouse. They
  used to be found on St Kilda but the house mouse
  became extinct after the islanders left.

Gannets
St Kilda House Mouse
Great Auk
Glean Mor
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plants

• Not many plants can be found on the open parts of
  Hirta as they are too exposed to the wind and
  sheep. But on the cliffs where the sheep cant
  eat them 152 different types of plants can found.
  They are fertilized by the bird droppings.

Plants like this roseroot flourish in
inaccessible places the sheep cannot reach.
Primroses on the lower slopes of Oiseval
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!Splash!

• The healthy, unpolluted marine life, underwater
  caves and clear waters make St Kilda a popular
  diving place. seaweeds, sponges, sea anemones,
  dead man's fingers, snails, sea slugs, crabs,
  starfish, herrings, seals, basking sharks and
  minke whales can all be found in the area.

A grey seal swims in St Kildan waters
Divers coming back From diving round the stacs.
Clear clean waters
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Food Houses

• The islanders main snack was the puffin that the
  men caught off the surrounding rocks. They would
  use every part of the bird, the fat for candles,
  the beak for nails and the feathers for blankets.
  In 1876 it was said that the islanders took
  89,600 puffins for food and feathers.

• All of the houses are made of stone and slabs of
  rock that can be found around the island. Theres
  no wood on the island due to the lack of trees so
  the roofs are covered with turf.

                                               
                                               
puffin
The same street in the past
Old village street
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Travel

• There were no roads on any of the islands due to
  the fact that they had no cars. All the supplies
  and food that they had gathered, had to be
  carried on their backs.

No roads to be seen
Long distance walking to get to the food stores
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Every Day Life

• Every day life was hard on St Kilda, the men had
  the dangerous job of balancing on the stacs
  trying to catch the birds for their family so
  they could eat. The waves were strong and, if you
  lost your grip, you could easily be swept away.
  If the islanders were having a particularly bad
  and stormy winter they might not be able to get
  to the stacs at all, and if that happened they
  would almost starve to death. In times like this
  the St Kildans would be forced to send out a mail
  boat as a distress signal. A letter was sealed in
  a wooden container with a sheep's bladder acting
  as a float, many of these would wash up on the
  beaches and supplies would be sent to the island.
  The islanders each had little enclosures where
  they would try to grow some vegetables. These
  enclosures kept the sheep out.

Posting the mail boat in 1897
An old vegetable enclosure
Rough waves
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Smallpox

• In 1726 one of the islanders visited Harris
  caught smallpox. he died from it when His
  clothes were returned to St Kilda they brought
  the disease with them. Most of the islanders died
  and only one adult and 18 children survived the
  outbreak on Hirta, the main island. but three men
  and eight boys escaped the disease as they had
  been left on a Stac to collect gannets. The
  disease had spread while they were there and
  nobody could go to fetch them. They were
  eventually rescued by the Steward nine months
  later! The owner of St Kilda had to send people
  from Harris to repopulate St Kilda.

smallpox
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Why Leave?
Girls left to live with their fathers

• My family the McQueens left St Kilda In the 1850s
  with 42 other islanders. They emigrated to
  Australia. Many of the people died en-route, but
  a the rest settled in Melbourne, and thats why
  we live in a St Kilda in Melbourne today. I have
  come up with the push and pull factors that I
  think contributed to the McQueens leaving St
  Kilda Scotland.

• Many young men where attracted to the busy life,
  women and jobs in the city.
• The weather and life was hard on the island and
  many thought they would have an easier life on
  the mainland.
• Many men went to war and they saw the outside
  world. They just didnt come back.
• If the islanders left they would leave behind the
  home they had lived on all their life.
• Many women had to stay with their fathers as
  there were no men to marry since they had all
  moved away.

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Final Years

• By the mid 19th century there was more contact
  from St Kilda. There were regular summer cruises
  to St Kilda from people who wanted to see real
  savages. The St Kildans primitive way of life
  got them a good deal of publicity and soon they
  became dependent on money and tourists. Whalers
  and fishing fleets worked in the surrounding
  waters and brought supplies to the islanders. The
  islanders started to produce items for their
  visitors such as sheepskins, tweeds, knitted
  gloves, stockings and scarves. Gradually the St
  Kildans lost their self- sufficiency, relying on
  imports of food, fuel and building materials and
  furnishing for their homes. The islanders felt
  very isolated from the outside world and didnt
  like the lack of regular communication. In 1930
  the remaining 36 islanders requested evacuation
  to the mainland.

                                                
      
A leaflet giving details of the cruises
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Album
Islanders carrying their belongings to the jetty
at the evacuation
St Kilda field mouse
My ancestors
Cambir (a finger of land jutting out towards the
island of Soay)
Food storage
The village bay
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For Future Reference

• This is the story of your ancestors The McQueens.
  They travelled from St Kilda Scotland to St Kilda
  Melbourne and so where ever you live this is your
  past. We are very proud of where we come from and
  hope you will be to.

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Us in St Kilda Melbourne

• By S. W.

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Where I live!

• My name is Kyle McQueen.
• I live in St Kilda Melbourne.
• St Kilda Melbourne is a suburb in the state of
  Victoria.
• It is on Port Phillip Bay and is 6 km south-east
  of Melbourne.

This is a map of Australia and of St Kilda.
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Sense Of Place

• There are roughly 3,000,000 people living in
  Melbourne.
• It is a cheep and cheerful place with lots of
  tourists, especially from other parts of
  Australia.
• In the last census there where 45,481 people
  living in St Kilda

Down Town Melbourne
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Multicultural Melbourne

• St Kilda was first set up by port Phillip bay so
  people could trade with Tasmania. But when gold
  was discovered in 1852, there was a huge rush of
  people from all over the world including Ireland,
  England and China. So you can find many different
  people in St Kilda today.

• Melbourne is has lots leafy parks and gardens.
• These are home to a wide variety of native
  Australian birds and animals.
• Some of these include - red rumped parrots,
  European finches, sparrows and starlings, ducks,
  falcons, hawks and water rats!

A native bird
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landscape

• The landscape in St Kilda Melbourne is very flat.
  The climate is hot and often sunny. Many cafes
  have eat out spaces as the temperature is 22
  degrees all year round. There is no cold winter.
• It is low lying coastal ground.

Flat land
Costal area
Sunny weather
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Work Buildings

• Most of the work in St Kilda comes from the
  tourist industry. These are things like cafes,
  hotels, bed and breakfasts, camp sites an
  amusement centres such as fun fairs and casinos.

• Buildings consist of mainly hotels, theme parks,
  cafes, Gift and souvenir shops, houses, posh
  restaurants, pier side shops and public houses.

Local theme park
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Why Leave?

• My family the McQueens left St Kilda In the 1850s
  with 42 other islanders. They emigrated to
  Australia, and thats why we live in a St Kilda
  in Melbourne today. I have come up with the push
  factors that I think contributed to the McQueens
  leaving St Kilda Scotland.

• Many young men where attracted to the busy life,
  women and jobs in the city of Melbourne.
• The weather and life was hard on the island and
  it was good sunny weather in Melbourne.
• There was the gold rush and people thought there
  was a chance of getting some money for their
  families.
• To have more contact with the outside world.

Australia
Scotland
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A Sporting End

• This is the story of your ancestors The McQueens.
  They travelled from St Kilda Scotland to St Kilda
  Melbourne and so where ever you live this is your
  past. We are very proud of where we come from and
  hope you will be to.

The St Kilda Saints are a sports team. They play
a game that is a cross between football and rugby.