Bill Congdon, Ipswich, Massachusetts: My great-grandfather Edmund D. Lyons, born in Edinburgh in 1851, was an actor and director. His father and mother were actors and theater managers for the Theatre Royal, Dundee. Edmund attended the Edinburgh Academy, where he became friends with Robert Louis Stevenson, who influenced Edmund to become an actor. After enjoying success as a stage actor in the UK, Edmund gained recognition as a Shakesperean actor and director in America.

Michael Hogan, Georges Mills, New Hampshire: My eighth great-grandfather William Munro was born to Robert Munro and his unidentified wife in Aldie, Scotland, about 1625. William was a descendant of Donald Munro, who founded the Munro Clan in 1025. William fought on the losing side of the 1651 Battle of Worcester and was captured and transported to Boston. He was bound into indentured servitude and hired out to a farmer in what was later Lexington. His descendants became proprietors of the famous Munroe Tavern on Lexington Common—although my branch of the family (headed by his son David) had moved to Connecticut by then.

Deryn Avritt, Broomfield, Colorado: My eighth great-grandfather Capt. James MyCall fought in the Battle of Dunbar on September 3, 1650. The Scots were defeated, and James was taken prisoner and marched 100 miles south to Durham, England. He was sold as an indentured servant to the Saugus Ironworks in Lynn, Massachusetts, and arrived on the English prison ship Unity with sixty-one other Scottish POWs in December 1650. His indenture ended in 1658. James married Mary Farr on December 11, 1654, and the couple went on to have twins. Their daughter Rebecca is my ancestor.

Joel Warner, Jacksonville, Florida: Around 1800, my third great-grandfather John Robertson established a farm called the Faulds in beautiful Glenisla Parish. The Faulds was profitable and the farm still stands today. In 1850, John’s son William, my great-great-grandfather, emigrated to the US, bound for Utah. Recently my son, along with my daughter and her family, toured Scotland and found the Faulds. As they got out of the car to look around, a woman came out to greet them. She asked if they were from Utah and said that many people from Utah visit the farm. She graciously showed them around and told them stories of the Faulds.

Pete Steingraber, Highland Beach, Florida: My great-great-grandmother Elizabeth (Stewart) Wheeler was born in 1833 in Kilfinian, County Argyll, Scotland. Her father, John Charles Stewart, was a farmer and her mother, Mary Kerr, came from a family of herring fisherman. In 1836, John and Mary left for America with their daughters Elizabeth (age 3) and Margaret (age 1). John and Mary established a successful farm in Dryden, New York, and had several more children. I have two items the family brought with them from Scotland: a small leather pocket Bible inscribed as a gift to Mary from her sister Janet and a needlepoint sampler made by Mary in 1826.