Current News
New Publications - September 2023
| The Chisholm Letters | by Kim Polley |
The Chisholm Letters reveal the raw story of Colin Chisholm. He was born in Dingwall, in the Scottish Highlands in 1803 and for most of his life he lived in Nairn, near Inverness. The pages lay bare his struggles, worries and friendships as a poor working-class family man whose job placed him at the bottom of the social ladder. Fortunes and misfortunes unravel through letters between Colin and his siblings who relocated to various parts of the globe. Their lives are richly painted through the harsh reality of the social conditions of the time, and are further illustrated with maps, photos, paintings and historic references. After Colin’s death in 1868, through an assortment of notes, the reader follows the lives of Colin’s children and his siblings in the UK, Canada and Australia up to the early 1900s.
Further information on purchase of the book can be found here.| The Chisholms of Lietry | by Michael Cope |
The Chisholms of Lietry are a cadet family of Clan Chisholm that have their origin in in the early seventeenth century in Strathglass in the former county of Inverness-shire.In the early 1700s Colin Chisholm (of the fourth generation) moved his family to Lietry in Glen Cannich and later generations would farm there until the late 1830s before moving to the Aird on the coast of the Beauly Firth and subsequently to Inverness itself and the wider world.The lives of Colin’s descendants can be traced against a background of immense social change in the Highlands of Scotland: upheavals of the Jacobite rebellions; the decline of the clan system and changes in land tenure; land clearances and waves of emigration to North America and Australia; and the emergence of a new mercantile and middle class before the First World War.
‘Overall this work shows the dedication of the author to tell his family’s history in a highly informative manner, and the use of family photographs adds so much more to the story throughout the book’ - Chairman, Highland Family History Society
Further information on purchase of the book can be obtained here.Dr. Hector Munro's Flying Ambulance Corps.
The World War One Historical Association publishes a regular periodical of research articles about the First World War.
The autumn 2022 edition has a lengthy item by researcher Patrick Vanleene on Dr. Hector Munro's Flying Ambulance Corps.
This was the name given to group of nursing volunteers who were recruited to serve at the front in Flanders during the war - amongst them was Miss Mairi Chisholm, the founder of the Clan Chisholm Society.
The front cover of the magazine has a photo of Mairi Chisholm and some of her experiences are described on pages 30-38 of the edition, entitled Women Ambulance Drivers.
The Great War Centenary Project
As part of the World War One Centenary Commemorations, Clan Chisholm Society has prepared a series of booklets in honour of the many clansmen who gave their lives durng the conflict.
The Volume 1 on Flanders has been available since the end of 2017.
Coinciding with ANZAC day 2018, we published Volume 2 on the Middle East conflicts.
Volumes 3 and 4, covering the battles in France from August 1914 to April 1917 were published to coincide with the armistice of 1918.
Volume 5 covering Home Burials and Monuments is also available.
Compiled by Robert Chisholm of Auckland, New Zealand, these memorial booklets record the parts played by clansmen in the Great War.
| Volume 1 | Flanders | (summary) |
| Volume 2 | Middle East | (summary) |
| Volume 3 | France part 1 | (summary) |
| Volume 4 | France part 2 | (summary) |
| Volume 5 | Home Burials and Memorials |
Other commemorative items are:
| The book "Lest We Forget" reemembering New Zealanders who fought in the two world wars. |
| The book "Lest You Forget" about the lives of Highlanders from Stratherrick who fought. |
| Memoirs of T.W.Chisholm of his time a POW Camp in 1918. |
| Commemorative British postage stamps issued in 2018. |
Strathglass Heritage Association
The Strathglass Heritage Association are currently working on a project about The Highland Clearances.
Focused on Strathglass and the surrounding area - the ancestral home of the Clan Chisholm - the project is planned to cover all aspects of the Clearances from the causes through to how people who were cleared managed to resettle and how they fared in their new homes.
Anyone with relevant information such as family stories, documents, records, sketches or photographs is welcome to send them to the organiser Jim McAuley.
For the current schedule of events sponsored by the Strathglass Heritage Association read the details here.
Memoirs of Thomas William Chisholm
The memoirs of Thomas William Chisholm of the Northumberland Fusiliers.
This is an account of his time in a German Prisoner of War Camp from 1918 to 1919.
This book can be obtained through Kindle or Amazon
Book Publication - Photographs of Archie Chisholm
The photographic works of Archie Chisholm have been drawn together capturing images of life and work in the Western Isles during the period 1881 - 1913.
Further details are present on our UK home page
Restoration Appeal - St.Mary's Church, Eskadale, Scotland
This iconic church, steeped in Chisholm history, is badly in need of restoration funds.
Further details and a history of the church are present on our UK home page
The American-Scottish Foundation
The American-Scottish Foundation has pubiished a long list of events in both Scotland and the USA.
Visit their events page here
Book Publication - The Merchant of Sydney
A new book has recently been published in Australia telling the rags-to-riches story of James Chisholm (1772-1837).
The flyer for the book is shown here and further information on purchase of the book can be obtained here.
Proposed Wind-Farm developments near Erchless and Tomich
The proposal for a wind farm on Beinn Mhor near Tomich and Glen Affric was rejected by the Scottish Government on 9th July.
Also an appeal raised by the proposed developers was abandoned later in 2015.
See the UK home page for more details.
Handspunweaves and Highland Handwovens
Norman and Christina Chisholm have developed a range of Chisholm tartans and products.
You can see some of them here.
Monument for Mairi Chisholm
News of the monument for Mairi Chisholm - which was unveiled in November 2014 - can be found here, on the UK branch page.
"The Clan Chisholm Society in Australia 1790-1990"
A copy of the book with this title has been requested by The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Heritage Library but unfortunately the book is now out of print. If any member has a spare copy, it would be most gratefully received by the Library.
Please send details (and an invoice) to
The Community Liaison Librarian,
ACT Heritage Library,
c/o Woden Public Library,
L1, 12 Corinna Street,
Woden ACT 2606,
Australia
See here for a brief overview.
The Artifacts Project
The Clan Chisholm Society needs your help! In our Artifacts Register Project we aim to provide a central storage of information regarding the history of items relevant to the history of the Clan Chisholm. You can view a few of the items so far registered here. For more information, or if have an item you would like to register, please click here.
Project Updates
Quite a bit of progress has been made on some Society projects.
The Chisholm Genealogies International Forum site is worth visiting. This is the Society's FORUM. If you are a CHISHOLM or have any interesting facts on Chisholms join the forum now ! There is no cost involved and the site is open to non-members as well.
Please check out too Clan History, the Genealogy and the DNA Project pages for more information.
Erchless Castle
A link has been added describing Erchless Castle, the ancestral home of the Chisholms in Strathglass.
Clan members are reminded that they should seek approval from the owners before entering the castle grounds. (See further details on the linked article.)
Would you like to know more about the founder of the Society?
The Society has learned of an interesting book about Mairi Chisholm and Elsie Knocker, and their heroic service in Belgium during World War I. Mairi was responsible for the revitalization of the Society in the 1950s. Check out this flyer (PDF) for details. Currently the book is only available in the UK and Europe, but we are looking into how to get the book elsewhere.
Please contact Susan Chisholm if you'd like any more information.
The Culloden Walk
The Society has acquired a stone in the Culloden Walk leading up to the new Visitor Centre at Culloden Moor. This part of the Culloden Walk is another reminder of the Chisholm's place in this part of Scottish history.
New Chisholm Tartan Approved
The US Branch is proud to announce the approval of the Chisholm Colonial Tartan! Congratulations to Kat Moore of Lenexa, Kansas, USA! Check out the US Branch home page for more details.
The DNA Surname Project
*** There is a DNA surname project underway which includes the Scottish name Chisholm! To learn more about the project you can go directly to the Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) Chisholm project page by clicking here (page opens in new window) or you can view/download the latest report, "Blood of the Clan" here. The FTDNA project is administered by an independent group of Society members, and officially supported by the Clan Council. Information is also available in some of the branch newsletters. Many of our members have joined this exciting project on their own. We encourage you to check out this website and to think about joining this project to help unravel the past and protect the future for Chisholms.