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.

CPD Event - Our First Webinar

Screenshot from our Webinar

The Scottish Genealogy Network was formed to give a framework for genealogists across Scotland to meet together and learn from each other. We learn genealogy skills from one another and it is a good environment to discuss different business strategies and pick up tips on social media.

The aim is to exchange experience and develop as genealogists who can provide a better service to our clients.

Last month we took a brave step of hosting our first webinar. This event was for SGN members only, but hopefully the experience will enable individual SGN members to host these for the public at some point in the future.

This first webinar looked at the basics of social media, encouraging members to write blogs, tweet more and create business facebook pages. This CPD event was a prelude to a social media training day which will hopefully be held by the SGN early next year.

If you are working as a professional genealogist (or in a related field) we encourage you to join our group. Email our secretary (Emma Maxwell) who will be happy to provide details for you: secretary@scottishgenealogynetwork.co.uk

A History of Working-Class Marriage

When I began tracing my family tree, I was surprised to discover the high rate of children born outside marriage, particularly in the Victorian era. I was also confused by the fact that many marriages didn’t take place in a church but in the manse or the bride's parent’s home. As I researched further it became clear that my view of how my Victorian ancestors lived was nowhere near the reality.

Our Traditional View of Family Life

Having now been researching for over ten years, and having looked into so many different families, a better picture has built up in my mind of what life was really like. There are still many questions, though, that I have not yet found an answer to. This is why I was delighted to hear that a team at Glasgow University have undertaken the project ‘A History of Working-Class Marriage’. The project looks across Scotland from 1855 to 1976. The results of this project will be useful and interesting to anybody tracing their Scottish family, which is why the Scottish Genealogy Network attended their workshop in Dumfries yesterday.

Poor Mary died in childbirth only two years
into her marriage. Death remains the main reason for
the end of a marriage.

The project

In the words of their website, “we want to get beyond public discourses and official policy to understand what people are actually thinking and experiencing of marriage and cohabitation; and how that experience relates to broader social and political understandings. To do this, we are asking for your help!" As a group of professional genealogists, the Scottish Genealogy Network took this on board and headed down to Dumfries to meet the team and hear a talk on the subject.

Specifics of the project

The team are gathering information throughout Scotland, and want to hear from you wherever you are. They are looking at different family forms: regular marriages, irregular marriages, marriage by declaration and marriage by habit and repute. They are interested in different cultural backgrounds. They are examining all types of families, not just families in their traditional form. The project is broken into the following sections: Life course of a marriage Love and courtship Expectations and experience of a marriage End of a marriage: divorce, death informal separation and divorce Parenting, influence of having children

William Beattie and Christina Scott Heatlie
on their wedding day
19 Febuary 1875

Findings so far

Dr Jeff Meek, a member of the team, has been looking at five diverse geographic areas of Scotland and has sampled 1000 families in each area for the census years 1861, 1881 and 1901. Looking at the samples in all all five areas across Scotland, the team has discovered that around 50% of families were traditional or nuclear families; parents and children. There are regional variations. An example is Perthshire, where in the 1881 census 43% of families we ‘traditional families’ and 33% were single parent families. I found it really interesting to learn that the statistic of 50% of families being traditional or nuclear families is much the same as it is today. In the 1960s and 1970s however, the figure was much higher. This perhaps explains why we may have preconceived ideas about the family structures of our ancestors.

Jim Maxwell and Isobel Sommerville
on their wedding day in 1941

The team needs your help

The team are now almost half way through their four year project and they really need your help. They are looking to hear from anyone with experience of family (that’s everyone) prior to 1976. This means that the baby boomers of the post war generation are perfect, and also anybody older than that. Even if, like me, you’re a little too young to give your experiences you can help by submitting ephemera. Do you have pre-1976 wedding photos, love letters and stories? If you’re not sure that what you have would be valuable to the team, why not contact them and let them decide? This is just a brief overview of what the team are doing, visit their website and follow them on twitter to learn more and follow their progress.

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