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LOCAL SITES
OK, so you have found the names of your ancestors. You have the dates of important events in their lives and you also know where they lived and what they did for a living. Now imagine how much more enriched your genealogy will be if you can walk in their footsteps.
Progress may have made this difficult in many cases - old buildings are demolished to make way for the new, old industries die out and are replaced by modern hi-tech ones. However, thanks to the diligence and care of people with a passion for their heritage, we are still able to view the past and learn about the lives of our forebears.
So visit some of the many sites around Dundee and Angus, which can bring your genealogy to life. Here are just a few suggestions:
You find your ancestor on the 1881 Census, and her occupation is shown as "jute spinner". She is a mill-girl, and there are many like her. Her father is a power loom beamer, and her little brother is a half-timer, and you want to find out more.
At Verdant Works you can relive their working day, and appreciate the conditions and hardships they endured. Walk through a fully restored jute mill, complete with original working machinery, discover what each job entailed and eavesdrop on the workforce. Follow the jute from its beginnings in India to the finished product. Visit the works office with its original furniture and the schoolroom where the half-timers were given their lessons, find out about the conditions your ancestors lived in and their state of health and compare their lifestyle with that of the mill-owner and his family.
To find out more about this award-winning attraction look at www.verdantworks.com. You can view a promotional video for Verdant Works/Discovery Point - Low Quality (886kb) or High Quality (5mb). (These videos require Windows Media Player 7 or better)
Discovery Point & RRS Discovery
Step on board Captain Scott's famous ship Discovery. One of the last wooden 3-masted ships built in Britain and the first to be constructed specifically for scientific research. Built in Dundee on the strength of the city's reputation for constructing whaling vessels, Discovery has now come home to Dundee and is the star attraction of an award-winning visitor centre.
Visit the Discovery exhibition and learn about her launch, the preparations for Scott's Antarctic expedition of 1901, and the expedition itself through intriguing interactive displays and film shows. Now step on board ship and see conditions as they would have been for the members of the expedition - where they slept, what they ate and how they passed their time.
For anyone with a maritime or shipbuilding ancestry, a visit to Discovery Point is a must - www.rrsdiscovery.com.
Reputed to be the best preserved wooden warship still afloat, the Frigate
Unicorn, which was launched in 1824 but never saw active service, has been
berthed in Dundee since 1873. Visit the Unicorn and see firsthand how your
naval ancesors might have gone to war.
Visit the Victorian Gothic splendour of the McManus and "discover your past". There are fascinating displays chronicling life and work in Dundee from the heyday of jute. View life in the tenement kitchen, the grocer's shop or even the Public House! Find out about events in Dundee history - perhaps your ancestor was on board the fated 5.20 train from Burntisland, which plunged from the Tay Rail Bridge in the midst of a storm in the winter of 1879. Add to this an impressive collection of art and archaeology and wildlife displays and the McManus Galleries have something for everyone.
The people of Dundee have long been associated with the whaling industry and those who have ancestors in whaling will appreciate the chance to visit Broughty Castle Museum on Castle Green in Broughty Ferry.
Broughty Castle, dating from 1496, occupies a prominent position at the mouth of the River Tay, and houses a number of fascinating displays of local and military history, the seashore and whaling itself.
Whale oil was originally used for lighting and later for softening the course jute fibres in preparation for spinning.
For further details on Broughty Castle Museum www.dundeecity.gov.uk/broughtycastle.
Angus Folk Museum
If you wish to know more about the life and work of your rural ancestors in Angus, visit Angus Folk Museum, a picturesque row of 17th Century cottages in the village of Glamis. One of the finest folk collections in Scotland, it comprises a domestic display within the cottages themselves and an agricultural display in the steading, which includes a forge and a typical farm-workers' bothy. See the Victorian farmhouse parlour, Madge Taylor's kitchen, the schoolhouse, and the 19th Century laundry, and experience rural life in days gone by.
For more information on Angus Folk Museum look at www.angusanddundee.co.uk
Step back in time down a cobbled Forfar street to view life as it used to be for the residents of this Angus town; a handloom weaver hard at work, the shoemaker mending and making shoes, the baker's shop and the sweetie shop. Now witness the darker side of Forfar's history at the height of the witch-hunt of 1661-2, when a number of Forfar women were accused of witchcraft and executed.
Located near the harbour in the old fishing port of Arbroath, the Signal Tower was built in 1813 as the shore station and family quarters servicing the Bell Rock Lighthouse. Today it is home to Arbroath Museum, where visitors can witness the sights and sounds of old Arbroath and see the fishing, maritime and social history of the area brought to life.
Montrose Museum, opened in 1842, was one of the first purpose-built museums in Scotland. The collection details life and work in the burgh of Montrose, and in the Maritime Gallery visitors can learn about the whaling industry, and the Montrose fishing fleets.
Being able to visit the actual gravesite of an ancestor must rank highly on the emotional wish list of any family historian, and, from a more practical point of view, monumental inscriptions can sometimes fill the gaps left in registers. Many have been transcribed by diligent volunteers down the years, and copies can be found in e.g. family history societies and local libraries. An inscription that is now weathered and therefore difficult to read, may have been transcribed at an earlier date and thus yield more information.
For information on cemeteries and graveyards in the Dundee area, and for details of where to find burial records, view our Guide to death/burial records in Dundee & its environs. For information on cemeteries and graveyards in Angus (excluding Dundee) look at www.angus.gov.uk/atoz/buriallist.cfm.
If you wish to visit a specific church graveyard or indeed the church
itself, we would recommend that you contact the incumbent minister/priest.
For details of Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) churches in Dundee and its
environs, look at the Dundee
Presbytery website at www.geocities.com/dundeepresbytery.
Other denominations:
Central Baptist Church, Dundee www.cbcdundee.org.uk
Methodist Church, Dundee http://www.dundeemethodist.org.uk
Episcopalian St. Paul's Cathedral, Dundee www.stpaulscathedraldundee.org
Unitarian Williamson Memorial Church, Dundee www.dundee-unitarians.org.uk
(Angus & Dundee) Episcopalian Diocese of Brechin www.episcopalbrechin.com/
(Angus & Dundee) Roman Catholic Diocese of Dunkeld www.dunkelddiocese.org.uk
Roman Catholic St. Andrews Cathedral, Dundee
www.geocities.com/standrewscathedral
Visit the last working water-powered meal mill in Angus, which finally stopped commercial production in 1982. Barry Mill’s original machinery has now been fully restored to working order, and visitors can experience the sights, sounds and smells of an early 19th Century water mill and learn of the mill’s importance to the community.
For more information see www.aboutbritain.com/barrymill.htm
Restenneth
Library & Restenneth Priory
Built in 1972 to house the Hunter Library and Archive Collection, Restenneth Library is situated 2 miles from Forfar. The Collection includes Hunter family papers and rare books on genealogy, archaeology and Scottish history. It also includes the Inventory of Scottish Church Heritage, which, when completed, will provide a database of all known Church sites in Scotland.
Visit also the ruins of the 13th Century Augustinian Priory, built on the site of an earlier church, possibly dating back to Pictish times.
Situated 3 miles west of Montrose, the Georgian House of Dun was designed and built by William Adam in 1730, for David Erskine, Lord Dun and is now run by the National Trust for Scotland. Besides the collection of family portraits, furniture and porcelain, visit the handloom- weaving workshop in the courtyard.
For further information look at www.nts.org.uk/dun.html
Named after the first recorded owner, John Gardyne, Gardyne’s Land covers
three buildings, which form a courtyard hidden behind the façade of
the High Street in central Dundee. They comprise Gardyne’s four-storey
merchant’s house of about 1560, which is Dundee’s oldest surviving
domestic building, a tenement building dated around 1640 and a Victorian shop
of about 1870. Currently being restored by Tayside Building Preservation Trust,
Gardyne’s Land opens to the public on the first and third Thursday of
each month, 2pm – 4pm. See www.trp.dundee.ac.uk/research/tbpt/tbpt.html