Clan Campbell Society (NA) Genealogist, Clan Campbell DNA Project Genealogist
Jules Anderson, MSc, QG, FSAScot was born in Minnesota and raised in England's beautiful Thames Valley region, Jules spent her school holidays in Argyll with her Scottish grandparents who were an integral part in sparking her passion for both local and generational history. Jules was awarded an MSc with distinction in Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow where she is now a tutor and guest lecturer for the post-graduate degree program. She is a founding partner of a private genealogy company, specializing in Scottish and Swedish research.
Jules’ roots in Argyll run long and deep and she is well versed in the value of estate records from holdings such as the Argyll Papers and the Breadalbane Campbell family papers at the National Records of Scotland. A descendant of Duncan Campbell and Mary McIntyre of Bridge End, Inveraray, through their son Patrick Campbell and his wife Isobella Ferguson, she encourages all Campbell friends and family visiting the Inveraray area to experience not only the splendour of the castles but to take the opportunity to spend an afternoon at the open-air museum of Auchindrain. One can’t help but feel like they have slipped backwards in time as they explore the best-preserved example of a Highland joint tenancy township, some of the old runrig still visible to the experienced eye.
Much to her four adult children’s dismay, who prefer ‘bagging Munros,’ she would describe a perfect day as one spent in Scotland in a dimly lit room surrounded by hushed tones, musty parchment and a research question to tackle. Although, a close second for a day well-spent would be exploring the Argyll Forestry lands along the banks of the many burns searching for evidence of historical illicit distilling. An interest in distilling 'Uisge Beatha' is likely directly attributable as a descendant of Flory Campbell and her husband John Sinclair (Clan Mhic nan Cearda) in Barbreck, Lochawe, near Kilchrenan. Her Lochawe ancestors having been put to the horn at the Mercat cross at Inveraray were described by Duncan Patterson, Procreator Fiscal of Argyll, as being “notorious in the county…in smuggling of whisky and illicit distillation.” High praise indeed given the extent of the active participation in Argyll!
Jules and her husband Andrew currently live between the Intercoastal Waterway and the Cape Fear River of Wilmington, North Carolina, an area rich in Scottish heritage. You will often find her in the garden attempting to establish the feel of a West Coast Highland cottage rockery coaxing plants to ignore the heat and drought conditions while ruminating on the best methodology for solving a current research problem.