Notes on Our Genealogy

From " A New Description of the Shyres of Lothian and  Linlitquo ”, by Timothy Pont, circa 1610.   My fourth-great-grandfather Joseph Greenock lived in Linlithgow, the principal town of the county of West Lothian in Scotland. Linlithgow sits between Edinburgh and Glasgow. In the old Celtic language used in Scotland before Gaelic the name means “Lake in the Damp Hollow”. The name refers to the lake that forms the town’s northern border, which today has the reduplicative name Linlithgow Loch. The town itself was originally referred to as just Lithgow, and is the source of that surname. Linlithgow Coat of Arms An alternative story is based on a false Gaelic etymology that gives it the elements “lake black hound”. This goes back to a legend of a man sentenced to starve on an island in the lake. His black greyhound loyally swam to the island daily to bring his master food, so they chained up the dog, too. This legend informs the burgh’s coat of arms, and explains the name of the local