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USEFUL WEBSITES
Before you make your visit to Scotland, make use of the various online resources for Scottish genealogy currently on offer. These will help to familiarize you with the Scottish system and thus save a considerable amount of your precious vacation time in Dundee/Angus, by ensuring that you are armed with as much information as possible.
Some of these sites offer access to the primary sources currently available online and others provide useful information about family history research in Scotland, including the Dundee/Angus area.
“Routes to your Roots” is an overview of the resources available to the family and local historian through Dundee City Council:
Dundee Genealogy
Unit - Created and operated by the City Registrar, the Unit
provides access to the Statutory Records of births, deaths and marriages for
Dundee (1855-present) and Angus (births 1855-1899, marriages and deaths 1855-1939)
plus Census returns and Old Parish Registers for the whole area. Scotland-wide
indexes to Statutory births, deaths and marriages, census returns, Old Parish
Registers and Scottish Divorces 1984-present can also be consulted.
E-mail and postal applications are welcome. registrars@dundeecity.gov.uk See
Needing Assistance.
Local History Department, Dundee Central Library – houses extensive collections of primary sources of interest to the family historian: maps, directories, photographs, newspapers, Census returns and Old Parish Registers on microfilm for the Dundee area.
Dundee City Archives – custodian of a wide range of material relating to Dundee: civic, maritime and business records, church and school records, private papers of notable local families, burial records, Dundee Burgh Register of Sasines,.
Leisure & Communities Department – holds the records of those burial grounds still in use in Dundee.
Tay Valley Family History Society
Founded in 1980, the TVFHS, which boasts 1700 members world-wide, aims to promote the study of family history throughout the Tay Valley area, which encompasses the former counties of Angus, Fife, Kinross and Perthshire. A visit to the TVFHS web-site is a must for anyone planning to visit the Dundee/Angus area to research family history. The Society has an ever-expanding library of genealogical resources not only for the Tay Valley area, but also for other parts of Scotland and its catalogue can be viewed on the web-site. New members are always welcome and while members are encouraged to visit the Society's Research Centre to conduct their research, there are also limited research services available to those who are unable to attend in person.
General Register Office for Scotland
The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) is the official Government source of the 3 main types of genealogical records in Scotland. Scotland On Line, in association with GROS, provides on-line access to these records on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk Click on each type of record to find out more about them.
The database contains fully searchable indexes of:
- Statutory Registers of Births (1855 - 1902), Marriages (1855 - 1927) and Deaths (1855 - 1952)
- Old Parochial Registers of births/baptisms and marriages (earliest 1553 - 1855)
- Census 1881, 1891and 1901
In addition, Scotlandspeople now offers access to actual images of many original documents, which can then be saved and printed at your leisure.
This service operates on a pay-per-view basis via a system of credits. Current charges are GBP6 to download up to 30 pages of index information, over a 48-hour period. Each page holds a maximum of 25 records. Viewing an image costs 5 credits. Extracts (legally admissible copies) of the original information can be ordered on site for a fee of GBP10, and are then processed by GROS and sent by post. Access is restricted to information over 100 years old on births and census material, 75 years on marriages and 50 years on deaths.
The mechanics of the service are fully explained before you pay and there is also a free place-name index to assist you in your search.
National Archives of Scotland - Family History
Although records of births, marriage and death ("vital records") are kept by the Registrar General, the National Archives of Scotland hold public records that include wills and court decisions.
Run by the Genealogy Society of Utah, this site allows you to search, amongst other records, the International Genealogical Index (IGI), compiled from parish registers and other sources of births/ baptisms and marriages. Deaths/burials are not included. The site contains a useful research guidance feature for the uninitiated and links to a number of other genealogical sites.
If you have access to a Latter Day Saints Family History Centre in your area, pay a visit. Most world-wide records are available on order through your local Centre.
This site is a valuable resource, containing a wealth of practical information
on UK and Irish genealogy. It includes a useful "getting started" section
and how to research from abroad (mainly North America). Of particular
interest to anyone with genealogical links to Dundee and Angus are the
GENUKI
ANGUS pages and the Surname
List for Angus. The latter will provide a link to people with similar
research interests, while the former give detailed information on genealogy
sources in the County of Angus.
Statistical Accounts of Scotland
Consult the Statistical Accounts for Scotland and put some flesh on the bones of your genealogy. Written by the incumbent Ministers of the day (1791-99 and 1845), accounts exist for each of the 938 parishes in Scotland. Although they vary in the amount of detail, they all give a fascinating, contemporary insight into how your ancestors lived and worked, and start to bring them alive in a way that the genealogy alone cannot do. The Accounts can be accessed online, but are also available in local libraries during your visit.
The first detailed maps were produced by Ordnance Survey. Originally set up in 1791 to produce official maps of England and Wales, the survey was extended in the 1840's and 1850's. This site offers online access to the largest digital historic map archive in the UK, with images of the first edition Ordnance Survey (6 inches to 1 mile) maps of Scotland, England and Wales. The database is searchable by place-name and by address, with a county gazetteer to assist in identifying a specific location. Please note that the county of Angus was formerly called Forfarshire. Angus and Dundee Libraries also hold their own collections of maps pertaining to their area.
The Roll of Honour records the men and women, born or domiciled in the City of Dundee, who died in the service of their country during World War Two. Some of the entries include photographs. The newspapers from which many of the entries derive their information can be viewed in the Local Studies Department of Dundee Central Library. For further information on what was known locally as “Dundee’s own” regiment, the Black Watch, many of whom perished in both World Wars see www.theblackwatch.co.uk/museum.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Debt of Honour Register on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
site provides details of Commonwealth forces lost in the First and Second
World Wars, with information on burial sites and sometimes with names
and addresses of next-of-kin listed. See also the Dundee
Roll of Honour World War II.
Find out more about how your ancestors lived by looking at the Lamb Collection. Housed in Dundee Central Library's Local Studies Department, the Lamb Collection comprises over 450 boxes of ephemera covering a wide range of subjects and providing a unique insight into life in 19th Century Dundee. Compiled by Dundee businessman Alexander Lamb (1843-1897), the Collection was donated to the city after his death.
Selected items from the Lamb Collection are now available to view on-line at www.dundeecity.gov.uk/lamb
SCAN provides an electronic network and search room linking the resources of a number of Scottish archives and making them more readily available to the public. SCAN also operates www.scottishdocuments.com, which provides a complete index to all the registers to Scottish wills (1550 - 1875) free of charge. Digital images of the wills are to be made available for purchase in a rolling programme due for completion in 2003. The site also includes comprehensive guidance on how to interpret wills, under Research Tools, e.g. hints on handwriting and deciphering unusual words.
Established by a consortium of the major UK repositories, this site aims to generate easy access to information and provide links to the main UK family history sites on the web. It can be useful if you discover ancestors not only in Scotland, but also in other areas of the UK.
Scran is a searchable online resource offering access to a library of historical and cultural items in various forms (text, images, movies, sounds and virtual reality), derived from archives, museums, galleries and the media.
TAMH: Tayside A Maritime History
Tayside on the east coast of Scotland, has, over the centuries, traded with many countries around the world. The TAMH site has trading port information, historical background on people, places and events from Tayside's history, an image archive and online tours.
Palaeography – How to read old Scottish handwriting
Online practical tuition in palaeography for genealogists who have problems reading records written in Scotland from 1500 to 1750.