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

Scottish Genealogy Network November 2017 Meeting

New Register House - Edinburgh

On Friday 17 November we held our CPD day in Edinburgh. The background and experience of our members varies greatly: some work in archives, while others lecture at university. Some members have been helping clients research their family tree for many years and others are planning to start their business soon. This diversity made for a great day and wonderful networking opportunities.

Our meeting on Friday was held in the Dome Room of New Register House. This impressive space was created to house the birth, marriage and death records of the Scottish people. You can see the volumes in the photographs; red for births, green for marriages and black for deaths.

For many years now, users have accessed digital images of the records. That is certainly a lot more convenient and preserves the books, but as a group of genealogists, there was something special about sitting in a room surrounded by such a wealth of history.

Our secretary, Emma Maxwell, introduced our first speaker, Jack Davis. Jack spoke to us on the intriguing theme, “Hidden Hospitals”. He was not referring to camouflaged buildings but rather the policy of substituting the name of institutions on certificates with a simple street address. Jack gave us a list of Glasgow hospital addresses, such as 2154 Gartloch Road and 253 Duke Street. When researching it’s a good tip to research the address given on a birth or death certificate.

The Dome - New Register House

Michelle Leonard continued the morning session by answering questions related to using DNA in family history research. This fascinating quick-fire session covered a lot of topics. An interesting point that stood out was the need to think through ‘cousin matching’. This useful tool can aid family history research but as DNA does reveal the truth, you could discover something unexpected. Most genealogists may be excited about that prospect, but it’s always best to think it through before you take the plunge.

Jane Barton rounded off the first part of the day with a report from the Cumbrian Family History Society conference which she had attended recently. Cumbria has a border with the counties of Dumfriesshire and Roxburghshire in Scotland and there has always been a lot of movement of people across the Border. Jane gave a helpful overview of the administrative history of what is now called Cumbria, where to find records and why people may have moved to places like Carlisle.

A large part of the day was now given over to a treasure hunt. Rather than simply sitting and listening to talks it was time to get the grey matter working. We split into teams and tried to solve genealogy puzzles based on real client enquires. The most successful teams drew on the knowledge of the group and researched well using the catalogue of the National Records of Scotland (NRS).

Getting Ready for ‘Two Minute Mayhem' 

After lunch genealogists Graham and Emma Maxwell, from Scottish Indexes, presented the answers, demonstrating the importance of using the excellent NRS catalogue well and not giving up when something is not in an index. For example, not all surviving Scottish wills are to be found on the ScotlandsPeople indexes. If you think the person would have had a will, remember to use other sources such as the Register of Deeds and local Sheriff Court Registers of Deeds.

Next Emma Maxwell revealed the results of the SGN survey. Only 11% of those surveyed want a genealogist to present the results in the format of a report or a chart. Over 30% want help to access specific records.

When asked, “If you were to hire a genealogist, what would you look for?”, only 11% said “Someone who has studied genealogy at university”, while over 50% said “I would want to discuss my needs with them and judge for myself if they are the person I need.”

After looking at the results of the survey in detail we split into workshops to discuss how we can best provide the services clients want. To finish the day we had a ‘Two Minute Mayhem' session where members spoke on a subject of their choice for two minutes!

If you feel like you have missed out, and want to join the SGN and take part future meetings get in touch with our secretary for details of joining.

Third Scottish Genealogy Network CPD Day

On Saturday 10 May 2014 around 25 genealogists met at the Highland Archive Centre in Inverness for the Scottish Genealogy Network’s Continual Professional Development (CPD) day. The Archive Centre was a perfect venue and the hospitality shown by the Highland Archive Centre was the icing (literally!) on the cake.

Built just a few years ago, this state of the art archive is a mere dream for most archivists. We were invited to tour the building on Friday and had a behind the scenes look at the extensive storage facilities and the excellent conservation room.

The CPD day began with an interesting talk by Michael Tobias of JewishGen, who explained to us how we can optimise genealogy searches and collate and organise our data. If we can learn to do this more efficiently we can more quickly and clearly identify individuals we are looking for, especially in larger projects such as one-name studies. Michael demonstrated how we can minimise loss of search results due to indexing errors, reminding us the useful ‘fuzzy search’ feature on the Scotland’s People website. It is a shame that for some reason that the ‘fuzzy search’ feature is not currently available in the Scotland’s People centre.

The next talk, ‘Making the Best Use of Sheriff Court Records’, was given by Graham Maxwell of Maxwell Ancestry, who spoke about one particular type of case useful to genealogists: ‘affiliation and aliment’ actions in cases of illegitimacy. He explained how to locate both extracted decrees and court processes which could hold vital genealogical information as well as give an insight into the lives of ancestors. Initial research has shown that around 10% of illegitimate births in the 1850s may have resulted in an extracted decree, and an additional 5% of such births resulted in other cases which can be found among the processes of the Sheriff Courts.

After a short break (which involved some more cupcakes), we enjoyed listening to Kirsty Wilkinson of My Ain Folk’s talk ‘Edinburgh Army Attestation Registers’. This exciting resource, held by Edinburgh City Archives, does not just contain records of men from Edinburgh. Kirsty’s detailed research has revealed that men from all over Scotland are recorded as attesting, and even more surprisingly, men from across Ireland, England and Wales also appear. The regiments they joined were also unexpectedly diverse. Not only did the talk help us to understand this valuable resource, it also reminded us of the importance of not neglecting local records when we’re researching. The details held within these registers could provide the vital piece of information we need to get over our ‘brick wall’ and continue with our research. 

The last talk before lunch was given by Lorna Kinnaird, of DunEdin Links Genealogy. Lorna has been working hard as a volunteer in her local school over the last few months, teaching Primary 7 pupils about the First World War in a manner that they could easily engage with. She has  arranged for historians to come into the school with WWI artefacts (which the children really enjoyed) and also arranged a trip to the National Records of Scotland (NRS). Lorna is really passionate about history, especially genealogy, and wanted the children to have the opportunity to visit the NRS themselves and be able to do some of their own research. Many of the children were able to research someone connected to their family and some were able to trace their tree back a number of generations in that one visit. Hopefully this taster will encourage the children to continue learning about history. 

After lunch we eagerly took our seats to listen to Ali Macdonald, of Family Tree DNA, talk about some current Scottish DNA projects and help us better understand the rapidly developing subject of DNA testing for genealogy purposes. The talk was fascinating as DNA research has become such an important tool for genealogists. Ali reminded us how important it is to understand how to interpret the results correctly, making the most of the possibilities of DNA testing in conjunction with evidence from written sources. Exciting discoveries are being made frequently as the Clans, Families and Surnames of Scotland are being unraveled. Despite having the same modern-day surname, DNA analysis has shown that we can separate those with the same surname into different families with different migration patterns. Ali gave us a handout which included some very useful Scottish DNA websites:

• DNA Interest Group Scotland
• International Society for Genetic genealogy
• Scottish DNA Project

Next up was Jean Dickson, who spoke about social bookmarking and Excel tips. It’s all too easy to read a blog or visit a website, finding a great resource but promptly forgetting about it when we continue browsing! Jean uses Delicious to store and tag websites she wants to come back to later. One of the great advantages of this is that she can access these from any computer and share them with fellow researchers. A helpful tip Jean gave us was to be consistent in tagging. For example, if you were to tag one website ‘prison’, but another similar site ‘prisoner’, when you search your links a year later using the term ‘prison’, the site with ‘prisoner’ tag will not appear. This talk reminded us of the importance of being an organised genealogist.

After a short break, we had the final talk of the day, which was given by Judith Russell, a genealogist based in Glasgow. The title was entitled ‘Glasgow Families in WWI: Lord Provosts and Red Clydesiders’. Judith has carefully researched some of the key characters in this important and dramatic period of Glasgow’s history, using a wide variety of sources, and brought the subject to life in an informative and well-illustrated talk. I believe Judith will be giving a similar talk to this in August at Who Do You Think You Are? Live in Glasgow: tickets should be on sale for that event in a day or two!

All in all, it was a great day where everybody benefited from the talks and conversations throughout the programme. If you are a professional genealogist working in Scotland and would like to be at our next CPD day, or come to one of our monthly meetings, please contact the group's secretary, Emma Maxwell, for further details at scotsgenenet @ gmail.com

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

Matheson Dome closure at ScotlandsPeople Centre

From Monday December 3rd the ScotlandsPeople Centre's Matheson Dome is to be closed permanently to public access. The centre's website (www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk) states that "All access to the Search Rooms in General Register House from the archivist's garden will be via the ramped west side entrance".

(With thanks to Chris Halliday @Scotsgen)

Beyond 2011: Alternatives to the Census

The Beyond 2011: Alternatives to the Census initiative was mentioned at our meeting in Largs yesterday. Essentially the Government has already signalled that it believes the traditional method for gathering the census has reached its natural end, citing the high costs for carrying out a decennial census. It is now looking for alternatives across the UK for the forthcoming exercise for 2021. A general page on this is for the situation across the UK is available on the NRS's GRO page at http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/beyond-2011/background/across-the-uk.html.

The ONS in England has cited eight possible examples of what might replace the current set up down south, which it has outlined at www.ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/what-we-do/programmes---projects/beyond-2011/what-are-the-options-/index.html. In summary:

Census options
Option 1: Full Census
Option 2: Short and Long Form Census
Option 3: Short Form Census plus continuous survey
Option 4: Rolling Census

Survey options
Option 5: Address register plus survey

Administrative data options
Option 6: Administrative data - aggregate
Option 7: Administrative data - full linkage
Option 8: Administrative data - partial linkage

There's a Scottish event for genealogists to provide an input on the morning of November 8th 2012 at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh - full details at www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/beyond-2011/consultations-events/events.html. Applicants were asked to register by October 19th if they wished to attend, but God loves a trier - if you are interested in joining in, it might be worth trying to register late!