Ancestry
Tracing one's ancestors is a major interest today. The purpose of this page is to give you some help and assistance in doing so,
particularly in relationship to local families and past residents of the Strath. With the digitisation of past records it is becoming easier
to gain access to useful sources of information. Some local archives are held in Inverness. Some useful information may be obtained
at Inverness Library. But, for records such as births, deaths, baptisms and marriages most of these pre-1900 are held in New Register House
in Edinburgh. However, there are internet sites, some, for access to you have to pay, others are free, such as those containing past
census records. This means that if you have a computer and access to the internet much basic research can be done from the comfort of your
own home. There are also several helpful monthly magazines now produced very informative and certainly worth looking at. There is also
computer software which you can purchase such as Family Historian 3 or, RootsMagic, to name but two, which can help you to organise,
store and present your findings as wallcharts, family trees etc. Alternatively, you can even employ someone to do the searching for you but the
deeper you dig the more time consuming and costly the searching is likely to be. It would be good to build a database of local family histories.
Do let me know if you have done any research in this area. There are also several books and guides produced which can help you know
how to go about researching your family history, if you know of any really good ones do let me know, so that we can pass such useful
information on.
Let me give you however some useful sites to begin with and if you know of others please do let me know and I will add them to my list!
Introduction and advice
- www.genuki.org.uk/big.sct
- www.cyndislist.com/scotland
- www.ancestralscotland.com
- www.scotlandgenweb.org
Civil registration- Births, deaths, marriages
- www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
- www.sctbdm.com/
- www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/hlpsrch
- www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/bdm.html
Census returns
- www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
- www.freecen.rootsweb.com
Church Records
- www.genuki.org/big/sct
- www.gro-scotland.gov.uk
- www.familysearch.org
- www.freepages.geneology.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis
- www.catholic-heritage.net/sca
Probate records
- www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
- www.scottishdocuments.com/content/default.asp
Archives, catalogues, manuscripts
- www.scan.org.uk
- www.nas.gov.uk/catalogues
- www.nas.gov.uk/guides
- www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra
- www.archiveshub.ac.uk
- www.nas.gov.uk/nras/register.asp
- www.gashe.ac.uk
- www.nls.uk
- www.familia.org.uk
Local History
- www.scotland-inverness.co.uk
- www.edina.ac.uk/statacc
- www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz
- www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/index.html
- www.maphistory.info/imagebi.html
- www.chartingthenation.lib.ed.ac.uk
Family and Clan Societies
- www.genuki.org.uk/Societies/Scotland.html
- www.scotsgenealogy.com
- www.scotlandscalns.com
- www.scotlandsfamily.com
- en.wikipedia.org/wki/Clan_MacKintosh
- www.myclan.com/clans/MacKintosh_83/default.php
- www.clanchattan.org.uk/associated_clans.html
- members.tripod.com/a2fister2000/id71.htm
Magazines
- www.family-tree.co.uk
- www.ancestorsmagazine.co.uk
There are of course many more more specific sources of infromation that can be sought out, school records, war records,
employment records, immigration or emmigration records, local newspapers etc. as well as the many existing family websites
connected to specific surnames or people. Books also can be a helpful source of information for example I was loaned a
book the other day with was a record of all the local people who fought at the Battle of Culloden, giving their names and where
they had lived and what clan they had fought for. Happy searching!
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