Lloyds Banking Group Edinburgh Archives visit

Debits and credits, numbers, don’t be mistaken, there’s far more to banking archives. We had a great visit to the Lloyds Banking Group Edinburgh Archives on 14 March 2018. Many thanks to the archivists there for their time and enthusiasm. 

Background

Lloyds Banking group includes the Bank of Scotland, HBOS, some TSB Scotland, Scottish Widows and a range of small banks acquired or merged  along the way. Generally, the Bank of Scotland’s own records are the most complete.

The archive is in Sighthill, Edinburgh and is open to the public, 10am to 4pm Monday to Friday, advance bookings are needed. There is no publically available item level catalogue but there are collection level lists. Personnel records, as you would expect, are closed for 100 years and some business records for shorter periods.

The records

People crop up in bank records in three main ways, as customers, shareholders and staff, each with their own records.

Customers

Archie keeping a watchful eye (K.Keter)

In the early days there were no branches, only the main office in Edinburgh. Lending decisions for the first 100 years or so were therefore noted in the Bank of Scotland’s minutes. There is a complete run from 1695 and they are generally very well kept with a margin index. Entries include the name of guarantors too so are potentially very useful. Similarly the bank’s head office ledgers for the earlier years include details of transactions with individuals and companies.  

The branch network began to develop from around the 1770s. Branch ledgers are indexed with name and type of business noted. Unfortunately they survive for only the early years of each branch. 

From the insurance side there are policy ledgers from 1824-1940s. Health issues are noted but not the beneficiaries. 

Shareholders

The Bank of Scotland was founded by an act of the Scottish Parliament in 1695 and the original lists of subscribers, signed at inns in Edinburgh and London, both survive. There are printed lists of shareholders/subscribers from 1697-1950 and it is possible to track sales and purchases of shares.

Staff

Most complete for the Bank of Scotland, partial for other businesses, but generally very good. They go back to the 1730s but tail off by the 1920s/30s. To use these records you need to know the branch at which the ancestor was employed as that then gives access to information on their role, salary (from the 1830s) and any transfers, so it could be possible to work forward or backward. You may also be fortunate enough to find a staff report: “writes a fair hand” and “well qualified for manager of a country branch” were some of those we saw. These reports were for staff below the level of agent (manager) and occasionally contain rather controversial information!

The agent was responsible for entries in the branch procedure books, a log of the branch activity, detailing hiring and firing, repairs, new furniture and the like. Not all survive but they can include information on customers and loans made to them.

The Widows Fund (Bank of Scotland only) records, 1821 to 1883 could be a good source for pre-1855 births.  It was a contributory scheme so as well as employees’ details, names of wives’, date of marriage, names and birth dates of children were also listed.

Where do we start?? (J. Russell)

In general

For ancestors with bank accounts or an insurance policy (does the inventory after they died mention one?), or, even better, who worked in a bank, there is probably lots to discover here. Armed with dates and places and perhaps time to do detailed searches, you could discover gold (sorry couldn't resist that pun). Find out more

“You know what I am going to say. I love you.”

“You know what I am going to say. I love you.” This, I believe was, the feeling of our entire group for the Special Collections Centre of the Sir Duncan Rice Library when we finished our visit last Friday.

Architecturally stunning, the Sir Duncan Rice Library stands out amongst the university buildings. Once inside the scale of the library can be truly appreciated. Standing in the atrium you can look up and see 7 floors above you. On the ground floor is a Welcome Desk, gallery, café and other amenities. The upper floors contain the university library and offer generous study space.

We were met by Andrew Macgregor, the Deputy Archivist, who combined a tour of the Special Collections Centre and a tour of the collections. Andrew began by showing us the Gallery which will soon be proudly displaying their set of first edition Dickens novels. You may recognise my opening quote as being that of Bradley Headstone in ‘Our Mutual Friend’. Once downstairs in one of the archive’s seven store rooms we were shown all the volumes which were ready and waiting to go on display. Rather than being sourced from a single collection, they have come from a variety of collections found in castles and private homes which have been acquired over the years: only recently has it become apparent that there is a complete set of first editions (perhaps if I look in my library I will find that I happen to have a complete set of first editions!). This is a small insight into the way that the material has been collected over the last 531 years; they now have well over a million items!

As a group of genealogists, we were keen to hear what they hold that was of special interest to family historians and how we can access it. Andrew covered the major collections that the Special Collections Centre at the Sir Duncan Rice Library. In this blog I will focus on those of particular interest to genealogists. To get a complete overview of their holdings I would suggest spending some time going through the catalogue and reading their fact sheets.

Highlights of their holdings are estate records, union records, business records, local solicitor’s records, the Scottish Catholic Archive, NHS Grampian archive, oral histories, the George Washington Wilson photographic collection and the Aberdeen Harbour Board photographic collection.

After being given an introduction to the archive by Andrew, he took us past the reading room along a corridor to the store rooms. For genealogists this is usually our favourite part of a tour, going behind the scenes and being surrounded by all the wonderful records and books. It has to be said that this archive did not disappoint and on every shelf there was something to interest us.

‘Register of Operations’

We were joined at this point by Fiona Musk, who is the archivist of the NHS Grampian Archive. Fiona took us to their section in one of the store rooms and showed us some of the amazing records that they hold. The archive includes the records of the hospitals of the north east that were taken over by the NHS in 1948; including the records such as those of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, the Royal Cornhill Hospital as well as many other hospitals and institutions in the wider area. Some of the information that they hold, particularly the 20th century material, is very sensitive and laws on Data Protection need to be followed carefully. Fiona is keen, though, to help users access records wherever appropriate. My eye was drawn to a set of volumes entitled ‘Register of Operations’. Fiona allowed us to look at an old volume. As you can see in the image (names have been obscured) the volume tells us the ‘disease’ of each individual and the nature of the operation, fascinating information which could not be found in any other record. There are patient registers for many hospitals. Whilst some work has been done to index these records, as the records are so extensive if your ancestor (or client’s ancestor) died in a hospital in the Grampian region, it would be well worth checking the catalogue to see if any records survive.

Conservation 

As we moved through the store rooms Andrew pulled out treasure after treasure, some of which you can see in the photos. The next stop on our tour was the conservation department, a beautiful large space where repairs are made on ancient books and documents, enabling most of the collection to continue to be available for consultation by readers.

Treasures from the Archive

The archive was now closing for the day and all the readers had left the reading room, so we now headed into that large airy space. The archive has a large collection of books on the open shelves, which is very useful as it speeds up access for research. As you can see from the photographs, it has been designed to be a light, pleasant environment. As always I had to ask the question, “Do you allow users to photograph your records?” As we have come to expect from all modern archives, yes they do. You do need to check with staff to ensure each item is suitable and obtain permission before publication, but these are standard requirements.

Even if you were not present for our visit of the Special Collections Centre of the Sir Duncan Rice Library, I’m sure you can now understand why I began this report in the way I did. We can only wish that more archives across Scotland could have such excellent facilities!

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Special Collections Centre

The National Trust for Scotland's Archive

The Scottish Genealogy Network were warmly welcomed at the Edinburgh headquarters of the National Trust for Scotland on Monday. When you think about the National Trust for Scotland you may think first about some of the beautiful and historically important properties they manage such as Haddo House and New Hailes. As well as these wonderful buildings the trust owns and manages land including islands such as St. Kilda off the far North West of Scotland. Besides these treasures the Trust has a vast archive.

On our visit to the archive on Monday the archivist, Ian Riches, explained that archive material held by the Trust falls into two categories: historic papers they have received along with a property, and more modern records that have been created by the Trust itself.

Around 45 NTS properties have some historic archive material. These records vary from estate papers to family papers and personal papers.

Amongst the material the Trust has created are records of the running of their properties, which can include information on previous employees.

Work is ongoing to deliver greater access to this material, hopefully this will include an online catalogue. For the time being a basic catalogue is available through the Scottish Archive Network Catalogue.

If you believe the NTS hold documents which could be useful to you get in touch with the archivist who will help you access the documents you need.

Huge thanks to the National Trust for Scotland for allowing us to peer into their amazing archive. If you would like to read more about the NTS archive see the archives section on their website.

Sex, rock and roll and maybe we just missed the drugs!

Stirling University Archives Premises

Actually, such a ‘red top’ title is not needed. Archives are wonderful places as this visit to the University of Stirling Archives and Stirling Council Archives on 27 March proved. For all eleven of us, it was great to have the chance to find out more about the breadth of an archive’s collection rather than to consult a specific set of records.

Stirling University is fairly new as far as Scottish universities go, founded in 1967, but recent acquisitions have put it firmly on the genealogy trail. The key interest is the records of the Stirling District Asylum, from 1869, and the Royal Scottish National Hospital (RSNH), from 1862, both formerly in Larbert. The Asylum

Stirling University Archives
Checking RSNH Registers

catered for people from central Scotland mainly but the RSNH cared for children with learning difficulties from the whole country and beyond. Admissions registers and case records make for fascinating reading with many of the Asylum records also containing photographs. The Victorian language is rather shocking in places: at one time the RSNH was ‘for the education of imbeciles’. Children’s records are closed for 100 years and those of adults for 75 years. Unlike those two NHS collections, the records of the Musicians Union, starting in the 1890s, are still being added to on a regular basis. They include branch membership records, local and national minutes and newsletters which detail new members, changes of address and members removed for not paying their dues. Karl Magee, University archivist, highlighted sets of minutes and journals detailing the impact of the new-fangled ‘talkies’ on musicians’ employment: the view was that they wouldn’t last!

Stirling Council Archives
Slum Housing Replacement Plans

Stirling Council Archives
1360 charter & Kings Seal

Stirling Council Archives were established in 1975 as Central Region Archives but the collections go back much further, almost to the establishment of Stirling as a burgh with the earliest charter dated 1360. We were shown a letter from Charles, Prince of Wales, to the town council of Stirling. Not one of those covered by the very recent Freedom of Information request, this one was dated January 1746 and basically said give me the key to the town or you will suffer for it! Council records of many sorts (town, police burgh, county, Central Region) form the core of the collection but there are also militia records, church records, mainly Church of Scotland (Stirlingshire and Clackmannanshire) but also some Episcopal, Methodist and Baptist, estate records with rich collection of letters and a range of other personal deposits. Bear in mind that that coverage is generally the current Stirling Council area so places like Dunblane and Doune, in Perthshire, are included. Pam McNicol, Council Archivist, had a very wide range of very interesting documents on show for us including some beautiful hand drawn estate plans and a set of records from Whinwell Children’s Home, following a child through to emigration to Canada.

Our title? A rather explicit description of a visit by the Devil in a witchcraft trial of 1658 (Stirling Presbytery Minutes) provided the sex. And who joined the Musicians Union on 1 August 1962? Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon and Peter Best (Ringo was later) of course. That’s the rock and roll. Drugs? Probably listed in the very detailed stores inventories in the Asylum annual reports.

Many thanks to Karl and Pam for hosting us and for your enthusiasm for and knowledge of the collections in your care. We had a great day!

The Scottish Genealogy Network's Visit to the Hawick Heritage Hub

On Saturday 26 July the Hawick Heritage Hub opened up its doors to the Scottish Genealogy Network. Juline Baird, assistant archivist, began by telling us about the Heart of Hawick, the regeneration project for Hawick. The Heart of Hawick includes the Heritage Hub (which we visited), Borders Textile Towerhouse, Tower Mill Café Bar and the open air Civic Space.

The Heritage Hub is the main archive for the Scottish Borders, although it should also be noted that some local museums also hold documents for their area so it’s worth getting to know what each museum has.

Opened in 2007, the Hub is certainly a modern, bright and comfortable place to work. There are large desks ideal for research, a number of computer desks and some more comfortable chairs around the windows which look like an ideal place to sit and read one of the archive’s excellent collection of reference books.

Juline explained to us that whilst there is now an online catalogue it is still being updated so sometimes it may still be necessary to consult the paper catalogue in the archive. If you are researching from a distance you can of course email the archive and ask for assistance.

Juline then showed to us a most fascinating volume from within the archive’s collection, concerning accidents and unexplained deaths in Roxburghshire, created by the Roxburghshire County Police in the late 19th century. This is of those records that allows us to peel back the layers and look into people’s private lives at some of their darkest moments. There is no denying this is a heart touching volume.

Here is an entry which touched me, and without this volume we may never have learnt about:

August 1886

Cart Accident - Not Fatal

Charles Blyth

This boy aged 5 years son of and residing with Alice Blyth a Hawker Kirk Yetholm got his left leg broken in two places above the knee and sustained other bruises by hanging on to the hind board of a cart which was being driven though Kirk Yetholm by James Martin son of James Martin Farmer residing there and throwing up his leg trying to get into the cart, in so doing his leg was caught in the wheel & he was carried twice round before the cart stopped.

Dr Forbes Yetholm attended this boy and set his leg & states that it is impossible at present to estimate the extent of injury sustained but says that he seems to be very badly hurt. Robert Service Pig dealer and William Stenhouse Farmer both residing in Kirk Yetholm saw the accident.

After looking at this very interesting volume we were taken on a tour of the archive, including behind the scenes. We even climbed to the very top of the building to see the inside of the turret!

First we were shown the small room used as a library. This is not self service: staff will bring the books you need directly to you. They have a large collection of printed genealogies and various local reference books which are invaluable when researching. What they also have is a collection of envelopes, organised by parish which hold some basic information for that parish. If you are unfamiliar with an area I would definitely recommend these as a starting point as they give you an overview of that parish.

Upstairs Juline showed us into one of the archive’s main storage rooms: there are 1.5 miles of modern shelving. This is excellent for a local archive, as it means everything they hold is on-site, meaning that if your research takes you in a new direction on the day you can look at whatever you need on site.

Another way this archive excels is that it not only has access to the Scotland’s People Centre for just £15 a day, but also access to much of the ‘Virtual Volumes’ system generally only available at the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh. When you add to this the fact that this innovative archive has been gradually digitising their own records, you come to the conclusion that by sitting down at a computer in the Hawick Heritage Hub you would certainly be able to do a lot of your family tree!

All in all this is a five star archive, possibly one of the best in Scotland and well worth a visit by any genealogist, professional or amateur!

Visit to St. Andrews

It was a glorious day when a group of enthusiastic genealogists met in St. Andrews on June 27th. First we visited the Parish Church, which has an item of particular interest to a group of genealogists. You may have heard of the Kirk Session records, almost always packed with minutes of the church’s enquiries into cases of fornication and adultery. The Session would question the woman, trying to discover the name of the child’s father. Once guilt was established the offenders would be disciplined by sitting on a stool placed at the front of the church, and rebuked in the presence the congregation. The specific discipline practices varied from place to place but below you can see a photograph of the stool once used in St. Andrews.

After this we went for some lunch and a catch-up followed by a walk around the beautiful streets, stopping at the Cathedral for a group photo.

Members of the SGN in St. Andrews

We then made our way to the University Archive which is in a refurbished church. The University have created this modern facility, suitable for use as a study space and a research centre. It not only performs these functions admirably but also looks beautiful! It was a real privilege to be shown round this amazing space.

We were then taken through to a room with a great array of treasures from the Archive which had been selected by archivist Norman Reid. Norman explained some of the history of the University and outlined what type of records they hold. Because it is such a long-established university people have been depositing records and books with them for centuries, this has enabled them to build up a truly unique collection.

For the family historian some of the key records they hold are local Kirk Session and council records as well as family papers, such as those of the Playfair and Anstruther families. If you are researching a family from the St. Andrews area I would definitely recommend finding out what the University has in its collection.

You can search their catalogue here, but one thing to note is that due to space constraints, items are held off site. This means they at least a day’s notice is required so that items can be brought in for you to view, so good planning is essential. Let the archive know what you would like to see and when, so that it will be available when you arrive.

A visit to the Scottish Genealogy Society

On Friday, 31 January 2014, the Scottish Genealogy Network (SGN) visited the Scottish Genealogy Society (SGS) in Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh. Their premises are centrally located, not far from the railway station, the National Library of Scotland and Edinburgh Central Library. We were all made very welcome in their warm, newly refurbished building.

The visit began with us seated around their study tables where we were given a short history of the Society and told a little about their library. The Society was founded in 1953, which was before other local Family History Societies got going in Scotland. The SGS has therefore always had the goal of helping people trace their family tree all over Scotland, not just in the Edinburgh area.

The SGS has 3 public computers where you can access subscription websites such as ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk for free. These computers are also where you can access other internet sites of genealogical interest and digital resources such as some monument transcriptions (MIs).

Today we may automatically turn to Scotland’s People to look for an OPR birth, but as it is a pay-per-view website most of us are on the lookout for ways to reduce our costs. The SGS has two ways to help. Firstly you can buy reduced cost credits for them which you can either use on the premises or take home. Secondly, you can view the records for free in their building, by looking at the OPRs on microfilm. They have a  complete set covering every parish in Scotland! This could be particularly useful if you are working on a common name within one parish.

The SGS also has a vast collection of MIs, covering not just Scotland but also some for Cumbria which I thought was very useful. They have handy reference folders, known as the “Black Book”, so you can easily see what they have for the area you are interested in. The SGS has also made the “Black Book” available online. The Black Book contains details of all the Scottish Genealogy Society's holdings relating to Scottish deaths and burials.

After our initial introduction we split into two groups and took a tour of the library, eager eyes looking at the labels on filing cabinets to see what we could use in our own research. Every now and again a member of the group would say, “oh, that’s useful!”.

We were taken up a few steps and round into an aladdin's cave of history books and genealogical resources. In rolls stacked up to the ceiling they have a collection of family histories donated by current and past members, who having carefully researched their family history have now donated a copy to help others of the family who follow. Again an index to these is available in the library and online.

I could go on and on about the amount of resources they have but perhaps the best thing is to stop now and let you look at their website or visit in person if you are able to.

Take a look at their membership page to see member benefits and join online, membership starts from just £20!

The next meeting of the SGN will be in London as many of us will be attending the Who Do You Think You Are? Live event. In March we are looking forward to visiting the John Gray Centre, Haddington. If you work as a professional genealogist in Scotland and wish to join our group, e-mail our secretary, Emma Maxwell, for more information: scotsgenenet @gmail.com