News / Hameward bound
A TWO week long celebration of being a Shetlander kicked off in style at Lerwick’s Clickimin Leisure Complex on Monday afternoon.
More than 600 ‘hamefarers’ from around the globe have followed the islands’ invitation to visit the home of their forbears, exactly 50 years after the first ‘hamefarin’ in 1960.
Most of the visitors will be in Shetland for the next fortnight to explore their roots, connect with relatives they did not know they had, revive old friendships and participate in an extensive programme laid on by the local committee.
The Shetland Hamefarin 2010 was opened by council convener Sandy Cluness OBE who underlined the significance of the event by saying that it created a “renewed sense of identity”.
A super group of talented young Shetland musicians brought together by Margaret Scollay entertained everybody with traditional tunes, supported by dialect singers from Nesting and Cunningsburgh primary schools.
The Shetland Hamefarin committee started back in 2006 to prepare for the big day. Instrumental in pulling everything together was Douglas Irvine, the council’s head of business development.
“For Shetland this is huge; one of the biggest events we have ever organised. There are around 600 to 700 people coming to Shetland for this event,” he said.
“There are thousands of people around the world who can trace their roots back here, and we hope that people will say they had been able to re-connect, and will come again.
“It is big from a social point of view because this is about friendship, but it is also good for the Shetland economy.”
There are literally hundreds of stories emigration, struggle, family and homecoming that could be told.
One man who has tried for almost four decades to find his relatives in Shetland is Bob Inkster from Minnesota, USA, whose great grandfather Robert emigrated in 1848.
Thanks to the efforts of many individuals and the local history group, Bob has now met around a dozen of his cousins in the Burra community hall, an experience he described as “overwhelming”.
He added: “My father was immensely sentimental about Shetland. He remembered his grandfather, my great grandfather, who had emigrated. He remembered sitting on the old man’s knees, and infected me with the same love for Shetland. It is a thrill to be here.”
Meanwhile mother and daughter Joan and Janet Clouston have travelled from Wellington, New Zealand, to find out more about their roots.
The 84 year old whose mother came from the Sandness area has never been to Shetland before. Her grandparents left Shetland in 1870.
As proud descendants of ex-pats both Joan and Janet had 80 year old Fair Isle sweaters on that Joan’s father had been wearing while he played golf in the 1930s.
She said she was determined to wear it for the occasion and had to mend “an awful lot of moth holes” to make it more presentable.
“Being here is very moving. I hadn’t realised how exciting it would be. I have been to Stromness where my husband came from, but this is my own land,” she enthused.
During the next few days Joan and Janet will visit Sandness in the hope of establishing where exactly their Shetland roots are.
One of the organisers of Hamefarin 2010, Elizabeth Angus of the Shetland Family History Society, said knowing where they are from means a “great deal” to Shetlanders and even more to ex-pats.
“Over the years we have helped many people to make connections with their Shetland roots. This is why the Hamefarin is so very important.
“I was at the first one in 1960, which was a special event, but things have moved on since then.
“The internet has made tracing your family history so much easier and quicker, but all hamefarers coming back to Shetland seem to feel a special affinity when they get to the little place where their family left from,” she said.
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