Resources

I am writing here about the on-line (and other) resources that I use in researching family history. I have also added a list of “useful links” to resources, in the right-hand column of this website.

[currently under construction]

This is my attempt on AFamilyHistoryBlog to identify all of the research resources that I use (or might use), for the benefit of anyone who wishes to follow up on my research. I’m sure that this list will be incomplete to begin with! But I’ll review and add to it from time to time, to build up a more complete list. My original blog post about “Resources” is HERE.

mag-glassI believe that it’s important for anyone researching this kind of subject, to be as clear as possible about where our information comes from, so that others can locate the same evidence and see where our conclusions have been drawn from. I will try to include specific references to sites/sources within all relevant posts and pages on AFamilyHistoryBlog.

clipart-internet-icon-smallSome of the sites that I list here, I will have made active use of in my research. Others, I haven’t actively used. But I note here because I think that I may use them in future, or because they may be of use to others doing similar research.

I have spent very little time myself visiting archives, etc, to view the original records that they hold first-hand! But where I have done, or where I know of ones that might be of particular interest to visit for my research, I’ll try to list them too, with links to their websites.

This list of resources does not include details of documents held within my family because that is the subject for much of the rest of this site.

So…

General On-line Resources;
Free UK Genealogy projects, including;
Family History Societies;

For the most part here, I want to identify the Family History Societies that most relate to the places of relevance to my family history research.

Gravestone Photos;

I’ve mentioned these sites within the main list, but think its worth saying a bit more about them. I know of 3 sites which set out to collect and share photos and transcriptions of gravestone inscriptions. But their approaches are quite different.

I currently find BillionGraves.com to be much the best. You have to be registered and logged in, but you can then view any image in full. And every image has a GPS location so that if you want to visit a graveyard, it helps you to much more easily locate a particular gravestone.

Of the others; I find it a little difficult/confusing on Find A Grave .com to navigate from the Home page to where I want to get to (e.g. a particular cemetery), while Gravestone Photographic Resource opperates a request system to access full-resolution images of graves, which I don’t find very helpful!

Tools, software, etc;
Physical Resources, Archives, etc;
  • St Andrews University, Fife; OLIPHANTs of Kirkcaldy – Tree compiled by James Hunter MacGregor (genealogist), June 1917, now in the library at St Andrews University, Fife. Commissioned by Mary Christian HUTCHISON, daughter of Robert HUTCHISON and Mary OLIPHANT. Thanks to Roddy OLIPHANT for finding this document and sharing it over the internet with the current descendants of the Kirkcaldy OLIPHANTs. Also to the other relatives, particularly Anne HAENGA and Gordon McCONNELL (both in New Zealand), for their input – correcting some errors in James Hunter’s original work, and adding new details. Several long forum threads between us can be found on the OLIPHANT GenForum at Genealogy.com
  • National Archives of Scotland – http://www.nas.gov.uk
  • Monumental Inscriptions [M.I.] records, at the Scottish Genealogy Society library, Edinburgh.
  • Old Parish Registers (OPR) on microfilm. Particularly no.667 – Kirkliston, and no.678 – Corstorphine. I’ve viewed these (for the most part) at Edinburgh Central Library. I have also used the Scottish Genealogy Society Library in Edinburgh.
  • Corstorphine Heritage Centre – whose archive room I’ve visited once, while visiting Edinburgh and researching my Walker family, in 2008.
  • Scots Genealogy Society, Family History Library – http://www.scotsgenealogy.com
  • WALKER family tombstones in Kirkliston parish churchyard. I have seen these myself. But there are also now several websites where you can obtain transcriptions and photos of these tombstones. Take care with the transcriptions on these websites though! I have a difference of opinion with at least one of them about the reading of an age of death on a very weathered tombstone! The church has a good website; www.kirkliston-parish-church.org.uk/ .with a brief History page, and mention of a History Booklet that is available.

 

Leave a comment