This is the report of the talk in November by Colin Dunlop Donald, business editor of the Sunday Herald, and a graduate of Exeter and Cambridge Universities. He has written for newspapers throughout the world, particularly in East Asia where he worked for five years as an associate professor of international relations at Baiko University, Shimonoseki, Japan.
Colin’s interest in family history started in earnest after the death of his father in 2006, also Colin Dunlop Donald (the fifth of that name since 1777) when he and his brother James, guided by their cousin Frank, attempted to make amends for insufficient attention during their father’s lifetime.
Every family history in the world can be shown to be a vivid illustration of some broader historical theme. For better and for worse, our branch of the Donald family has been closely aligned to the changing fortunes of the City of Glasgow for over 250 years.
Having come to family history only recently, the brief overview set out in this paper is a scratching of the surface, but even occasional and unsystematic research suggests that the entanglement has been deep as well as long.