While the main focus of my research in the Ewing line has been the brick wall of my 5xg-grandfather James Ewan (aka Ewing), his wife, Helen Clark, has also been stuck at a dead-end for the more than two decades that I've been doing family history.

James and Helen married at Scone in Perthshire on 7 July, 1793. A couple of years ago I made more of an effort to look into Helen, starting - in the absence of anything else - with the fact that a grandchild of hers was named Thomas Clark Ewing (another was Helen Clark Ewing), quite likely named after a relative of Helen's - her father, perhaps, or a brother?

With Helen being 'of Scone' it seemed sensible to investigate any Thomas Clarks in the same locale, and indeed one (and only one) does pop up, namely Thomas Clark who married Margaret Wilson, at Scone, in 1800. He appears on the 1841 census as a merchant in New Scone, aged 65, giving a birthdate of around 1775. Helen was in Dysart, in Fife, at this time, with her age given as 75. Remembering that ages in the 1841 census could be rounded down to the nearest 5 years, this would give Helen a date of around 1765.

Old Scone Church - in New Scone

A search for Helen Clarks (Clarke/Clerk/e) born in Perthshire between the years 1760-1775 gives five candidates. Of these only one family also had a Thomas, these being the children of Adam Clark and Elspet Robertson. Also of interest is the fact that their birthdates fit the 1841 census the closest - with Helen baptised in 1766, and Thomas in 1773.

While I did look into the other families, it is that of Adam and Elspet that keep coming up with stand-out data points. There are five baptisms on record to this couple, the first two at Scone (Innerbuist), and then three in St Martins (Durhamfield). Helen and Robert appear in the record next to each other under "some deseenters children", baptised in 1766 and 1768 respectively. Thomas Clark's 1846 Will gives instruction to leave £10 to the Session of the United Associate Congregation of Scone, the same seceder's denomination under which James Ewan and Helen Clark had a number of their children baptised, in Perth.

James Ewan and Adam Clark appear on the same page of the 1797 Horse Tax Roll of Scone - James at Parkfield of Limepotts, and Adam at Pikestone Hill (now Pictstonhill), neighbouring farms less than a mile and a fifteen-minute walk from each other.

maps showing Limepotts and Pictstonhill farms, 2023 (top) and 1866 (bottom, closer-in)

While there are several factors that point to Helen being the daughter of Adam and Elspet Clark, there is another that throws a spanner in the works. There is another Scone marriage involving a Helen Clark - the 1789 marriage of Helen Clark, of Scone, and Henry Low, of Kinnoull. This Helen could also be a candidate as the daughter of Adam, so how to differentiate?

There are several difficult things about this Clark/Low union. I could find no children for the couple, and no deaths. Henry Low of Kinnoull is a fairly unique identifier, and just such a person can be found, in 1791, marrying a Helen (or Nelly) Hutton in Perth (married by a Burgher dissenting minister, rather than the Anti-Burgher tradition of the Ewans). This marriage had more evidence of a life - children, newspaper mentions, and deaths for Henry and his wife in 1828 and 1837.

So what happened to Helen Clark from the 1789 marriage? A closer look at the record may provide the answer. On page 189 of the Scone Old Parish Register, the Low/Clarke union is listed among fourteen other marriages - every one of those entries mentions that the parties were either "contracted, duly proclaimed and married" or "contracted, proclaimed and married". The exception is Henry Low and Helen Clarke, which states, "November 9 Henry Low in Kinnoul Parish & Helen Clarke in this Parish were contracted and duly proclaimed". This may be a clue that, while the banns was proclaimed, the marriage did not go ahead. So perhaps the same Henry Low would go on to marry Nelly Hutton just over a year later, and the same Helen Clark would go on to marry James Ewan in the same church, almost four years later.

Helen Clark marriage entries 1789 and 1793 - the same Helen?

There are other aspects of which to be careful. Just because there is no record, it doesn't mean there is no person - so while there only seems to be one Scone Helen Clark, there could be another whose baptism does not exist in the records. Also there is a Monumental Inscription recorded for Adam Clark, who died at Scone in 1799, which suggests he had five children who "died in childhood" (though it's not clear from the transcription, this could actually refer to the children of his son, James). One of these children could have been Helen, unrecorded.

While it would be great if Helen had named one of her children with the less common name of Adam, or Adam himself had left a Will with a mention of a married daughter named Helen Ewan (some of his children did leave Wills), on balance, with the other evidence of the names, birthdates, geographical proximity, and religious connection, it seems a very strong likelihood that Helen Clark, who married James Ewan in 1793, was the daughter of Adam Clark and Elspet Robertson. Furthermore, Adam, born in Errol in 1733, was the son of Robert Clark and Elspeth Jackson, taking Helen's probable line back one generation further.

As usual, I invite discussion and further evidence for or against this theory from fellow researchers - please feel free to get in touch.

While consistency can be a problem, depending on my work schedule and other life stuff, I have been able return to drawing The Brambletye Box recently, so head over and read the latest strips if you haven't yet seen them.

The current auction scene is four pages long, so that's three done and one more to go, with the lastest strip seeing the reappearance of Lily Lawrence and her father, Lord Lawrence. Plus a somewhat unsubtle nod to one of my favourite Franco-Belgian creators.

One thing about digital art is it kind of ... doesn't exist! It does, of course, and usually it ends up being printed or, in the case of Curious Expedition 2, the video game I worked on with Maschinen-Mensch, displayed on a screen. But until CE2 I'd worked almost exclusively in print, so to have the art existing exclusively in the digital ether feels a bit strange.

I wanted a decent record of all the work I did, so I've made a one-off art book (through Blurb), a portfolio, just for my own archive. Although there are no other copies (the art remains the copyright of Maschinen-Mensch), I did make a little video of a flip-through the book, so you can have a peek for yourself.

Tony McPhee, guitarist, songwriter, bluesman, one-of-a-kind musical force, has died at the age of 79. He had a stroke in 2009 (after a minor one on stage back in 1993 - he finished the gig before seeking help), and a bad fall last year. But he leaves a body of incredible work, mainly with his band, The Groundhogs, and a legacy as one of the top-flight pioneers of the British blues-rock scene that emerged in the 1960s.

I can't remember how I discovered The Groundhogs for myself. I was heavily into blues, both American artists such as Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and John Lee Hooker, and the British scene - particularly John Mayall, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Rory Gallagher (yes, Irish), Free and Cream. I spied the double-album Groundhogs Best 1969-72 and it blew me away. Then a friend informed me the band were still going and sometimes played locally. Sure enough, just a few months later I think, The Groundhogs appeared at The Shelley Arms, Nutley, a venue I'd played many times with my own band.

It remains the best gig I've ever been to. The Shelley Arms was not a big venue, and I was stood right at the front, with McPhee standing directly in front of me, raised only a little by the tiny stage. It was almost like a private show and the energy was outstanding. I came away in shock.

I saw them several more times, from Brighton to London and in between. I got a job as a conference porter at a local hotel and was shown the ropes by the outgoing porter, Aaron. One day, as we sat down to lunch he asked me who my favourite bands were. "You've probably never heard of them", I said, "but I really love a band called The Groundhogs". He laughed - "Oh, Tony McPhee? He's my uncle!". And it was true - we went up to London together to see Tony play and I got introduced, a thrill (thanks, Aaron!).

Our band covered two Groundhogs songs - 3744 James Road and BDD, the first from the 1972 album Hogwash , and the latter from 1969's Blues Obituary . Both remain terrific classic albums, but even better are Thank Christ For The Bomb (1970) and the incredible Split (1971). Along with 1972's Who Will Save The World? The Mighty Groundhogs (complete with Neal Adams artwork), these five albums are the pinnacle of Tony's work (in my opinion), but he didn't let up, with many more gems on more albums from 1974 right up to the turn of the century and 1999's Muddy Waters Songbook and beyond - not to mention a rich library of official live recordings and solo projects.

Tony McPhee worked incredibly hard, put out strong, quality material, but undoubtedly did not quite have the wider reputation and recognition he deserved (though Paul Freestone's excellent Eccentric Man - A Biography & Discography of Tony (TS) McPhee is a worthy tribute). Maybe if he'd have joined John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in 1965, when he was asked to replace Eric Clapton, things might have been different, but I suspect not - McPhee was too much of an individual who had to do his own thing to thrive. He did that, and maybe with his sad passing some wider recognition will come. But his wonderful work is available, and if you haven't heard it before, now's the time.

A project I worked on at the end of 2022 and into the new year has just gone live over on the Museum of London website. It's a 7-page comic called Deaf Londoners in the 1660s, and it tells the story of three such people, two who we know of from the diaries of Samuel Pepys.

You can read the comic and see the accompanying resources here, including teachers' notes and a BSL-interpreted video of the strip.

The comic was principally researched and written by Dr. Kate Loveman, Associate Professor in English Literature, 1600-1789, at the University of Leicester, and an expert and author on Samuel Pepys, and all done as part of the Reimagining the Restoration project. Also directing the project was the Museum's Learning Manager, James Harrod.

It was great fun to do, with plenty of detail to research - and it was wonderful to have a couple of real experts on hand to advise and provide material and context for the visuals.

Many thanks to both Kate and James for a terrific working experience, and for bringing me into the project.

My work-illustration website has been woefully out of date for a few years now, but I've, at last, spent the past two weeks redesigning and updating it, and now it's live and published.

It should be good for desktops, tablets and phones, so give it a whirl ... and let me know if anything is broken or you spot a typo .... there's always one lurking about somewhere.

Earlier in February I recorded an interview with Paulo Tirre from Eurocomics, which has just been released on their excellent channel today - you can see it here.

Eurocomics comes out to us from Brazil, and while much of their content is in Portuguese and French, my interview is in English. Hope you enjoy it!

I'm currently redesigning and building my work website - after nearly three years of no updates. Anyway, I came across these mole concept drawings I did for Curious Expedition 2 - I don't remember doing them, but I like them, so thought I'd post them here before February vanishes.

This year saw the 50th anniversary of the Festival de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême, just known as Angoulême to most comics folk, the town where publishers and creators alike gather annually for one of the largest comics festivals in the world.

I've only been once, a very memorable trip back in 2014, but The Beat has included my brief views as part of their Angoulême Memories piece, including some who have been nearly 40 times (such as Paul Gravett).

For a trip down (my) memory lane you can read my blog report from the time here.

Just in case you haven't checked for a while, there have been a few new Brambletye Box strips put up over Christmas and the new year.

Progress has not exactly been zooming along, but it is being made, even while I'm having a very busy January with other work (I'm doing a lovely project at the moment with the Museum of London - I'll show some when I can).

Don't forget you can help support and encourage such progress by joining my Julius Chancer Patreon page, if you're able to. Thank you!