Above, images of Scotland for your viewing pleasure

When I started on my quest to find out more about the early Wightons, I found a wealth of information in the ScotlandsPeople database - too much really to handle. I decided to restrict my search to those Wightons who were born prior to 1855. Armed with my Visa, I made myself familiar with the 1553-1854 database and embarked on my pursuit for relatives, distant or otherwise. In total, I found evidence of over 1,500 different Wightons. Over 85% of these had lived in Perthshire and Angus in the Lowlands. An additional 6% were found in Scotland's two major cities - Glasgow and Edinburgh. Almost all of the rest had lived in the parish of Fife which is on the other side of the Tay River just across from Perthshire and Angus.

I was surprised at how many Wightons I had found. In British Columbia, we've become accustomed to having only a few Wighton families living in our community. Although my time frame did span three centuries, finding so many Wightons in such a small geographical space was an indication that the family was actually much bigger than I had realized.

When I looked at how the number of Wighton births increased over time, I found an interesting population surge from the 25 years between 1726-1750 to the next 25 years between 1751 and 1776. During this single generation, the number of Wightons increased about 175%. Fortunately, there is a logical explanation.

Early steam-powered TVs were not all that popular until the introduction in 1745 of the Two Knights Show - so named because the host (Johne McCarson) and his sidekick appeared on stage in knightly armor. (When the sidekick wasn't laughing at Johne's jokes, he had to serve as a percussion instrument for the stage band.) Johne MacCarson became hugely popular with Scottish farmers, especially after Johne began interviewing farm animals dressed as English nobility, and the TVs moved from the kitchen hearth to the bedroom. Husband and wife became accustomed to falling asleep on their turf pallets in front of the TV. However, Johne did one too many bits about the English monarchs and he was given a guest spot on a reality game show named Guess which prison colony you'll be living in? The Wighton population exploded because, with Johne soon in chains in a California labour camp, there really wasn't much for Scottish couples to do in the evenings anymore.

Or, you could believe the outrageous theory that the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions led to increased prosperity that allowed Scottish couples to support larger families. That, along with the large decrease in infant mortality as a result of the rapid adoption of the smallpox vaccine, led to a population surge across all of Scotland.

Sources

Family Search: The Latter Day Saints Database (http://www.familysearch.org)

ScotlandsPeople Database (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/)