I might use the term Falkirk FC Historian in the title of this blog, but that was because when I started it I did not really think about it for long, and could not come up with a better word for what I do. I look up stuff related to Falkirk Football Club, then I put it in spreadsheets & folders [both real and those on my computer]. I am a [self-glorified] researcher/statistician. Falkirk has an official Club Historian, Michael White, he writes books about the club, he can tell you lots of stuff I do not know, he is available through the club. That is why he occasionally writes things for the Herald when a former player dies while I make a new spreadsheet, and this is why he interviews former players and I trawl through cemeteries. I do not really busy myself with how a player felt, or played, in such and such a match, I like the details.
This is the way I became a bit of an amateur geneologist. Common names often mean I do not know how many matches/goals a player played/scored, so I had to start turning names on a page of the Herald [or Falkirk Mail] into distinct individuals, this has eaten up much of the time I have devoted to exploring the past of Falkirk FC. The difference between the family historian type of geneologist and the football club history type of geneologist is that when [from a rough calculation off the top of my head] I might have thirty [or at a push sixtytwo] direct antecedents since the formation of Falkirk FC this number can be two season's worth of players in football.
The scale of the task has never bothered me, I will do what I am able, others will, or will not, continue what I have started. But this does show the limitation of what I do. This means there are players in the history of the club about whom [without a stroke of amazing luck] I will probably never be able to say anything other than he pulled on the navy blue between X & Y seasons. My best example [other than players who only played one match] is the Falkirk FC Right-Back and Right-Half from the turn of the 19th to the 20th Century with the archetypal common name: John Smith
I have a grainy picture of him, but other than that I only know when he was named in a Falkirk line-up. I would like to give a brief explanation of his life outside of the game, but I simply do not know where to start looking. The 1901 Census should be perfect, but as a professional? [he might have been an amateur] football player he could have lived anywhere within a 25 mile [or more] radius of the town, and that is the majority of the population of Scotland. I am not sure of his other clubs, though I suspect he also played for East Stirlingshire.
Like I said, I don't know where to start, so, here is what I do know.
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John Smith
Debut – Monday January 2nd 1899 v King’s Park (A) Friendly
Positions – Right-Half, Right-Back
Club Honours Central Combination W 1899/00, Falkirk Infirmary Shield RU 1900/01, Stirlingshire Consolation Cup RU 1900/01
Scottish Cup Matches /Goals [1/-]
Scottish Qualifying Cup Matches /Goals [5/-]
Minor League Matches/Goals [27/3]
Minor Cup Matches/Goals [7/-]
Other Matches/Goals [14/]
Total Matches/Goals [54/3]
Known Career – Falkirk Amateurs?, East Stirlingshire?, Falkirk [1898/99-1901/02]
NB - Career: a Smith, or a J.Smith appeared in Falkirk Amateurs or East Stirlingshire line-ups before Falkirk but I have yet to find anything which definitely links the two [or three] players.
This is the way I became a bit of an amateur geneologist. Common names often mean I do not know how many matches/goals a player played/scored, so I had to start turning names on a page of the Herald [or Falkirk Mail] into distinct individuals, this has eaten up much of the time I have devoted to exploring the past of Falkirk FC. The difference between the family historian type of geneologist and the football club history type of geneologist is that when [from a rough calculation off the top of my head] I might have thirty [or at a push sixtytwo] direct antecedents since the formation of Falkirk FC this number can be two season's worth of players in football.
The scale of the task has never bothered me, I will do what I am able, others will, or will not, continue what I have started. But this does show the limitation of what I do. This means there are players in the history of the club about whom [without a stroke of amazing luck] I will probably never be able to say anything other than he pulled on the navy blue between X & Y seasons. My best example [other than players who only played one match] is the Falkirk FC Right-Back and Right-Half from the turn of the 19th to the 20th Century with the archetypal common name: John Smith
I have a grainy picture of him, but other than that I only know when he was named in a Falkirk line-up. I would like to give a brief explanation of his life outside of the game, but I simply do not know where to start looking. The 1901 Census should be perfect, but as a professional? [he might have been an amateur] football player he could have lived anywhere within a 25 mile [or more] radius of the town, and that is the majority of the population of Scotland. I am not sure of his other clubs, though I suspect he also played for East Stirlingshire.
Like I said, I don't know where to start, so, here is what I do know.
John Smith
Debut – Monday January 2nd 1899 v King’s Park (A) Friendly
Positions – Right-Half, Right-Back
Club Honours Central Combination W 1899/00, Falkirk Infirmary Shield RU 1900/01, Stirlingshire Consolation Cup RU 1900/01
Scottish Cup Matches /Goals [1/-]
Scottish Qualifying Cup Matches /Goals [5/-]
Minor League Matches/Goals [27/3]
Minor Cup Matches/Goals [7/-]
Other Matches/Goals [14/]
Total Matches/Goals [54/3]
Known Career – Falkirk Amateurs?, East Stirlingshire?, Falkirk [1898/99-1901/02]
NB - Career: a Smith, or a J.Smith appeared in Falkirk Amateurs or East Stirlingshire line-ups before Falkirk but I have yet to find anything which definitely links the two [or three] players.