Finding Your Scottish Ancestors: Techniques for Solving Genealogy Problems

29/01/2022

February is Scottish Family Month with Family Tree Magazine. I’ll be giving a talk on ‘Tracing Scottish Women’ on 17 February. Tickets and further details, along with information on the other great talks happening as part of this event, are available here:

Family Tree's annual programme of online Scottish family history talks, in partnership with History Scotland, will return in February 2022.

16/02/2021

Tomorrow I’ll be holding a webinar at 7pm (UK time) ‘Solve Your Scottish Genealogy Problems’ in association with Family Tree Magazine (UK) and History Scotland Magazine. There’s still time to sign up: https://www.family-tree.co.uk/how-to-guides/webinars/

01/02/2021

This February History Scotland magazine and Family Tree magazine (UK) are holding a Scottish Family History Month. This includes a series of webinars to help you brush up your research skills. On 17 Feb I'll be delivering a webinar on 'Solve Your Scottish Genealogy Problems'. You are can sign up to the webinars through the links here: https://www.historyscotland.com/virtual-events/online-lectures/

09/01/2021

Every January the ScotlandsPeople website (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) releases records which are no longer subject to privacy restrictions. You can now access over 250,000 birth, death and marriage entries, including births from 1920, marriages from 1945 and deaths from 1970. Happy genealogy searching! 😄

Lyall Stuart Scott, urologist, was amongst those born in 1920.

06/01/2021

Stuck at home and want to improve your skills in reading old handwriting while helping out the genealogy community? Then this is a great project to get involved with! 📜

Volunteer’s Weekend 9/10 January 2021

Stuck at home this weekend and love family history?

If you are looking for something rewarding and interesting to do this weekend you may be interested in our weekend volunteer project.

We want to index more prison registers and we are working on Edinburgh prison records from the 1840s and 1850s right now.

The index that is created will be put online for everyone to access for free.

This is a perfect project if you’ve not done indexing before or have limited time. It’s a collaborative project and there will be support all weekend from experienced volunteers.

In November 2020 the team of volunteers managed to index over 12,000 entries in just one weekend! A highlight of the weekend was when a volunteer found her own ancestor in the records! Who could you discover?

Send us a message if you can volunteer this weekend.
West Lothian Family History Society - WLFHS Edinburgh City Libraries Edinburgh City Archives What's On Edinburgh Lost Edinburgh Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society Scottish Genealogy Borders Family History Society Lanarkshire Family History Society John Gray Centre History Scotland

05/01/2021

The Scottish Association of Family History Societies (SAFHS) has a new page which is a great place to keep track of news from the organisation including the forthcoming online conference

Happy New Year. We would be very grateful to you all if you would share this new page, invite your friends and like minded organisations to join us. Let us know if your society or organisation have any events coming up that we could share.

25/06/2020

I'll be giving a talk on ‘Techniques for Solving Genealogy Problems’ at the next Scottish Indexes Conference on 11 July. Previous conferences have had a great range of talks and I'm looking forward to speaking 😃

We’re looking forward to our next conference on Saturday 11 July 2020.

A highlight of the day will be ‘Techniques for Solving Genealogy Problems’ by Kirsty Wilkison, genealogist and author of Finding Your Scottish Ancestors: Techniques for Solving Genealogy Problems

Do you have a brick wall? Are you struggling to trace your Scottish ancestry? Come along and hear Kirsty’s presentation at the free Scottish Indexes Conference.

To join us on Saturday 11 July 2020, simply join the Scottish Indexes group and you will be able to watch the conference live in the group.

Visit www.scottishindexes.com to find out more about the Scottish Indexes.

04/06/2020

My article on Illegitimacy in Scotland appears in the latest issue of 'British Connections' the official publication of the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History. You can read the full article (as well as articles on illegitimacy in the other countries which make up the British Isles) by becoming a member of the society - see their website for details: https://www.isbgfh.com

30/04/2020

It’s not too late to sign up for the free online Scottish Indexes Conference which is taking place tomorrow. Some great talks planned including me speaking on ‘Sources in Scotland for Tracing Scottish Emigrants’. You can sign up via the page or through www.scottishindexes.com 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

We are looking forward to the Scottish Indexes Conference on 1 May 2020. To register for this free genealogy conference simply join the Scottish Indexes Group to watch the live stream.

Here are the presentations we have to look forward to:

‘Buccleuch Estate Rentals’ - Andrew Armstrong

‘Sources in Scotland for Tracing Scottish Emigrants’ - Kirsty Wilkinson

‘Using Sheriff Court Records for Genealogy Research’ - Emma Maxwell

‘Tracing Living People - especially where adoption is involved’ - Jean Dickson

‘Tracing the Irish in Scotland’ - Chris Paton

‘Scottish Poor Law and its Records’ - Anne Henry

‘...bread & cheese & kisses is not enough…’ - George MacKenzie

‘DNA Testing for Family History’ - Michelle Leonard

‘An Introduction to High Court Records’ - Emma Maxwell

There will be time to ask our panel of genealogists questions throughout the day.

People with Scottish ancestry live around the globe, that’s why we have scheduled each presentation to be shown twice during the day. This should enable you to watch whether you are in Melbourne or Toronto, Aberdeen or San Francisco.

This is a free event. To register for this free conference simply join the Scottish Indexes Group group to watch the live stream.

08/04/2020

The free online Scottish Indexes Conference is being held tomorrow with some talks repeated to suit those in different time zones. A great opportunity to brush up on your knowledge of Scottish Genealogy and get some inspiration for continuing research!

Tomorrow is the first-ever Scottish Indexes Conference!

and trace your family history.

We'll be starting with some presentations perfect for beginners then we'll move on to some more advanced subjects.

We hope that there will be something for everyone who wants to trace their Scottish family history.

www.scottishindexes.com

02/04/2020

Very pleased to see the Scottish Genealogy Society recommending my new book! If you’re stuck at home and need some inspiration for tracing your Scottish Ancestors, now would be a great time to grab a copy 😊

Book information for 'Finding Your Scottish Ancestors - Techniques for Solving Genealogy Problems', 9780719830532

28/03/2020

Some useful resources for searching Glasgow ancestors from the Trades House:

🌳FAMILY TREES 🌳

Are you looking for something to while away the hours?

Now might be a good time to revisit your family tree or even start one. The Trades House Digital Library has excellent resources to make this easier and to discover details about your ancestors: https://www.tradeshouselibrary.org.

For example, 'Pensions and Scholarships ~ 1877 to 1946' reveals the name; address, age; medical condition; number of children and the Incorporation that the applicant was attached to.

If you need additional assistance with researching Glasgow Burgesses, please feel free to contact the Trades House Honorary Archivist at: https://www.tradeshouselibrary.org/contact-us.html

Pass this on to friends or relations who may be interested - there will be more resources posted on here in the coming weeks!