Donald Ross was the most outspoken critic of the highland clearances in the 1850s. His most famous publication was The Massacre of the Rosses, which described the women of Greenyards in Ross and Cromarty being brutally beaten by policemen for refusing to accept eviction notices. This pamphlet was reprinted three times. Over the years, historians have commented that very little is known about Donald: noone was sure where was born, though it has been suggested that he may have come from Dornoch in Sutherland.
In 2004 I started investigating my family history, which became easier when I moved to Scotland in 2008 to take up a job as Principal Curator of Invertebrate Palaeobiology at National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh. I was now in close proximity to the National Records of Scotland (NRS) and National Library of Scotland (NLS) and every few months
