Collins Tracing Your Scottish Family History

Collins Tracing Your Scottish Family History
Anthony Adolph

The authoritative and comprehensive guide to tracing your Scottish ancestryThere's never been a better time to trace your Scottish family history. Vast internet resources and DNA testing, as well as access to censuses, religious records and other archive material make this process easier than ever.Renowned genealogist Anthony Adolph unveils a wide range of tools and information available, specific to discovering your Scottish ancestry - whether you are starting your trail in Scotland or from somewhere else in the world.The text is packed with weblinks to enable you to search the great number of records now available online, as well as providing contact information on other sources, such as archives and libraries.By reading this book you'll also be drawn into the lives your ancestors led, through the examples, compelling stories and fascinating social history which are interwoven within the text. Whether you are at the start of your search for your Scottish ancestry, or are looking for ways to expand on what you have already found, Anthony Adolph’s detailed instruction and guidance, balanced with humorous anecdotes makes for an informative, practical and entertaining read.

Collins Tracing your Scottish family history

Anthony Adolph

Collins

To our very good friend Dean Laurent de Bubier

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#ud5358a22-ea24-53c2-bd57-b736b38287b5)

Title Page (#uf301a942-e11d-5066-a309-93e87b8e75c3)

Dedication (#u9c2b0ce7-78c5-5734-8615-7713ce354278)

Introduction (#uc721d564-5fb5-581d-bbe2-363cea08f520)

Part 1: Getting started (#udb3e0e92-2cd2-5c94-af6a-c8d0d4563583)

Chapter 1: How to start your family tree (#u4c6ffb37-292e-56cb-9332-38be6ca7df90)

Chapter 2: Archives and organizations (#u60a77828-dd96-5b5c-9883-d4a0b598ab25)

Chapter 3: Scotland’s names (#u59419042-efcb-51b2-b9f7-c2740ff8c96f)

Chapter 4: Know your parish (#u3e5aa219-e01e-5742-b405-40c020fd93cd)

Part 2: The main records (#u6f97686b-0941-5ced-8826-804e2729081d)

Chapter 5: General Registration (#u4b9fdb4c-95a1-54ef-be15-96a6a9788352)

Chapter 6: Censuses (#u452a74e8-3a59-5dce-9239-3d3a4eb0e790)

Chapter 7: Church registers (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8: Religious denominations (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9: Testaments, deeds and other useful records (#litres_trial_promo)

Part 3: How they lived (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10: What people did (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11: The burghs (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12: Landholders (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13: Farmers and crofters (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14: Clans and tartans (#litres_trial_promo)

Part 4: Comings and goings (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15: Emigration (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16: The origins of Scotland’s people (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17: Genetic evidence (#litres_trial_promo)

Useful Addresses (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

Picture Credits (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Introduction (#ulink_32c0bce3-f819-5b22-a3a5-0a60c5a7855a)

This book was written to mark the 250th anniversary in 2009 of the birth of Robert Burns, the Ploughman Poet, whose words captured the spirit of the Scottish nation. His anniversary year has been declared Scotland’s Homecoming Year, which aims to encourage Scots all over the world to come back to visit, and to assure them of a warm welcome when they do.

To come home you need to know where you come from. Underpinning Homecoming Year is genealogy, the study of family trees or pedigrees, and its associated discipline of family history, the study of the stories behind the pedigrees. In many countries, computerization of records has rocketed genealogy from a minority interest into an immensely popular obsession. But in Scotland, knowing your roots is nothing new. Right back in the sixteenth century, the French joked of any Scotsman they encountered ‘that man is the cousin of the king of the Scots’, for that was what he would surely claim. A rather more cynical view was penned in the mid-eighteenth century by Charles Churchill (1731-64), in his ‘Prophecy of Famine’: ‘Two boys, whose birth beyond all question springs From great and glorious, tho’ forgotten kings, Shepherds of Scottish lineage, born and bred On the same bleak and barren mountain’s head…’

With a population of just over five million, there are many parts of Scotland where the ubiquitous sheep are more easily found than people.

Sarcastic, yes, but accurate, for many of the widespread Lowland families and Highland clans were indeed founded by scions of Scotland’s ruling dynasties, be they in origin Pict, Briton, Gael, Viking or Norman. And such knowledge was not lost, especially in the Gaelic-speaking parts, when ancestors’ names were remembered through the sloinneadh, the patronymic or pedigree, in which two or more – often many – generations of ancestors’ names were recited, and which was a natural part of everyone’s sense of identity.

Such essential knowledge was threatened, diluted, and sometimes lost by migration, whether to other parts of Scotland or over the seas in the white-sailed ships. Nonetheless, it results today in many people all over the world being able to point at a particular spot on the map of Scotland and say, ‘that is home’.

This book is for those who can’t, but want to, or who can but want to learn more. I know that many aspects of genealogy such as DNA and nonconformity can seem terribly complicated, and that some specific aspects of Scottish genealogy (such as services of heirs, wadsets and precepts of clare constat) seem to have been designed purposely to intimidate the faint-hearted. And, given the great amount of contradictory information flying about, does your Scottish surname actually indicate that you belong to a clan, or may wear a tartan, or doesn’t it?

I hope this book will help guide you through these issues, to develop a much fuller understanding of your Scottish family history, and to find your own way back, so to speak, to your Scottish home.

Abbreviations

Future meets past: old Ally Alistair MacLeod was a Highland crofter, descended from Viking chieftains. His tiny granddaughter Moira Hooks was born after her mother (whose sister is shown here) had moved away to Glasgow. Now she and her descendants all live in England. This picture captures the only time they ever met (courtesy of the MacLeod Family Collection).

Old family photographs provide the perfect backdrop to your research, helping bring the past to life.

PART 1 Getting started (#ulink_da5acbd4-14f1-5f74-bbce-d462e5dce840)