My top 10 resources for Family History

Scotlands people can be accessed either online or at the Scotlands People Centre, Edinburgh. It can also be accessed at many of the local archives centres around the country. Scotlands. It offers digital copies of church records (birth, baptisms, banns marriages and burial records), statutory records (BMD certificates), census returns, valuation rolls, military appeals, coats of arms, wills, and testaments. You can pay to view and keep digitalized copies of the original records. If you need help - I can search for you.

The NRS catalogue lists all the documents held in the archives around Scotland. Also check out the Scottish Archive Network catalogue and the National Register of Archives for Scotland catalogue . It is definitely worth puting in the names of your ancestors, where the lived or who they worked for and checking out the results. These sites can also be used to find out if parish church records have survived and where you can view them. If you need help - I can search for you.

National Library of Scotland – The map section on this website is second to none . It is another very useful free service. As well as all ordnance survey maps, there are old county maps, estate maps, military maps and many more . Its also has a page dedicated to family history with links to useful documents such as old post office directories. If you need help - I can search for you

4. Scottish Indexes – The Maxwells run Scottish Indexes and over the years they have transcribed a lot of old documents. They have a good searchable database with a clear description of the records on hold and they are free to search. You can request the full record which is chargeable. I can search and contact them for you.

5. Borders Family History Society – A must when you are wanting to get more information, and support. It holds a host of old local history information, access to Scotlands People, Ancestry.co.uk and Find my Past, census transcriptions 1841, 1851,1861 (Graham Maxwell Ancestry) monumental inscriptions, burial records, mortcloth records and many newly published books and surprisingly useful transcriptions of miscellaneous records. They also have family trees and family histories that have been donated to them in the past. They are manned by volunteers, who are there to assist. The volunteers are keen genealogists and family historians who know the area very well. Because of their own personal knowledge and family history experience in the Borders they are a great resource to tap into. They are dependent on donations from visitors. See their website for details.

If you need help to do this - Borders Family History society has a contact page and they can provide lots of support. But if you want help to contact them - I can help you here too

The Heritage Hub holds the archives for the Scottish Borders. It also holds seats for Scotlands People’s online website, charged at a daily rate instead as pay as you go. It means you can look at as many records as you like on Scotlands people, but only need to pay for the ones you wish to keep or copy. The hub also has access to digitalised copies of kirk Sessions, school log books, poor law records as well as much more. Indeed I would suggest you search their online catalogue called (HUBCAT). It is one of the better ones. They have good descriptions of the records, which often includes names of farms or people. If you need help - I can search and get documents for you.

If you can learn to search the Newspaper database efficiently then it is a great source of information. It takes time but here are some helpful hints. The British Newspaper Library’s search engine is one of the better. Remember to search names and addresses together or separately. Filter out your results by knowing the local papers. In the Scottish Borders, there are the Southern Reporter, Berwickshire News and General Advertiser, Peeblesshire News, Jedburgh Gazette, Kelso Chronicle, Hawick Advertiser, Hawick News and Border Chronicle, Hawick Express. Most of the newspapers began printing around the mid 1800’s. Although the Scotsman and the Caledonian Mercury can record some events and sales in the Scottish Borders too. BMD announcements as well as Court reports can be of particular interest to family history detectives. If you need help to do this - I can search for you.

Gravestones are a must for any family history detective. Whilst some are online. Most of the gravestones in the borders have been listed by organisations such as the Borders Family History Society. They have an office in Overhaugh Street in Galashiels (Summer opening days are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 10-4pm). The website address is http://www.bordersfhs.org.uk/ . They have books and CD’s of most of the graveyards. For a thorough search of MI’s in the Scottish Borders I recommend either them or Heritage Hub in Hawick. There is also a growing trend for war memorials to be placed on line Coldstream History Society has an excellent page, covering Berwickshire War memorials . If you need help to do this - I can search for you and take images for you.

Scotlands places is ideal for getting to know an area in the past. It has images and transcriptions of the Ordnance Survey Name Book written in the mid 1800s, which lists and describes all the landmarks and habitats named on the OS maps. It lists the spelling variants of places which is useful and its a great resource when it appears a landmark has disappeared from modern day maps. Scotlands places have expanded over the years, and now includes, maps, plans, old tax rolls and many other documents.

If you need help to do this - I can search for you as well as take images of locations for you

There are lots of old Scottish Borders groups on social media. Lost Scottish Borders, Bygone Selkirk, Bygone Lauder, Nostalgic Newtown, Melrose in time, Bygone Galashiels Auld Peebles Eyemouth Past. Coldstream History society and Duns History society. As well as lovely fun videos from Mark Nicol on Discover Borders If you need help to do this - I can search these sites for you.

Local history books and journals about the Scottish Borders digitalised and free to access on the internet

Get to know the area your ancestors lived in. I really enjoy reading books written in the 1700 – 1900’s. I find the writers thoughts and attitudes towards the community, its people and traditions fascinating. These books can be found for free on the internet. Many old books written over a century ago have been scanned and put online. To start here are some books I’ve found which I found on https://archive.org See what you can find.

Scottish Record Society Books - On my last visit to archive.org There was the Commissariat of Lauder, Register of Testaments 1561 - 1800, this covers the lauder area, The Session Book of Bunkle and Preston and Melrose Parish Registers.

Selection from the Records of the Regality of Melrose – Three Volumes published by the Scottish History Society in 1914 which have transcribed a selection of the records from about 1547 - 1706. Its online and makes a fascinating read. It covers areas such as Newtown St Boswells, Eildon village, Newstead, Abbotsford, Appletreeleaves (North of Galashiels), Buckholm, Ladhope, Drygrange, Redpath Village, Earlston and many farms between. It describes the disputes, between people and the court decision. But for a Family and Local History it names people, their location and often their spouses and families. Volume 3 has the index for all volumes. https://archive.org

The Records of the Baron Court of Stitchill – Published by the Scottish History Society in 1905. This book records of the court (1655 – 1807) transcribed by the Rev Gunn, minister of Stichill (1605 – 1807) Again it provides lots of information about some of the local disputes in Stichill, with a records of names of people and their occupations. https://archive.org

Diary of George Ridpath – Published by the Scottish History Society in 1922. The Rev George Redpath was the minister of Stichill. His diary (from 1755- 1761) was transcribed and published and it makes for good local history reading.

Fasti ecclesiæ scoticanæ; the succession of Ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation – Volume II covering the Synods of the Merse and Teviotdale, Dumfries and Galloway. Written by Hew Scott DD and published in 1917. Volume II covers Duns, Chirnside, Kelso, Jedburgh, Earlston, Selkirk. Volume I, Synods of Lothian and Tweedale, covers the Peebles area. In these books you find out a little about the minister of the parish your ancestors lived in as well as it he had any published works.

Memoir of the Late Rev John Baird Minister of Yetholm, Roxburghshire; With an account of his labours in reforming the Gipsy population of that parish.- Written by W Baird in 1862. Having ancestors from this area I was fascinated by this book especially with regards to Johns Baird’s attitude. As a descendant of the people he wrote about I found it a hard read, but sadly a reflection of the time.

Rulewater and its people an account of the Valley of the Rule and its Inhabitants - Written by George Tancred of Weens and published in 1907. The area it covers follows the Rule valley including places like Bedrule, Bonchester Bridge, Southdean.

The Scott Country – written by Rev W.S. Crockett 1905. One of my favourites WS Crocket keeps popping up in books. If he hasn’t written them, his writing can be seen in prefaces for others, in the local papers. He made many after dinner/concert speeches around the district and was a member of the Berwickshire Naturalist Club. He as born in Earlston and worked in Tweedsmuir. He is a good storyteller

Old Berwickshire Town - 1905 a book about the history of the town of Greenlaw

Hawick old Memories - A book on the memories of Hawick, recounting names and places and records.

Covenanters of Teviotdale- about the history of the covenanters in Teviotdale, with mention of names and places.

These are just a few books on archive.org and there are other companies which also digitalised old out of print books. But if you have a location of interest pop the name into one of these databases and see whether you can find a book to read and time travel back to your ancestors day.

The Berwickshire Naturalist Club 1834 – present. – the club generally studied the geology, flora and fauna and history of Berwickshire. The centenary volume in 1933 holds the index for 1834 – 1933.There is indexes for places and names etc. It’s interesting the number of small villages and farms that are mentioned. Every copy can be found at the Biodiversity Heritage Library at https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org