Books & Digital Picks
A Guide For Family Historians
This month’s family history inspiration
‘The final chapter explores websites with information on the wider diaspora’
Chris Paton Pen & Sword, 184 pages, £14.99
Covid-19 has had an enormous impact on the practicalities of visiting archives and libraries for the foreseeable future, and highlighted internet research as a very useful and important resource. Now regular Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine contributor Chris Paton’s comprehensive guide takes the family historian through the many Scottish records available online, while reminding us that some records are still only available in physical archives.
The initial chapter details Scottish government websites offering access to the most important national records, online information from local archives, libraries, family history societies,
and many other online resources.
The next chapter explains the invaluable pay-per-view scotlands people.gov.uk website, covering statutory registers, church registers, censuses, valuation rolls and legal records.
Later chapters consider other UK records, such as burials and memorial inscriptions, newspapers, directories and maps, which can add flesh to the bones of any family history. Occupational records are identified in Chapter Four, from farming and crafts and trades right through to the military, clergy and teachers, in addition to merchant seamen.
Chapter Five gives invaluable county-by- county listings of
online resources for each of the old Scottish counties, and identifies smaller websites and databases giving more local detail than can be found on larger commercial sites – so useful for creating an overall picture of any Scottish family.
The final chapter explores websites containing information on the wider Scottish diaspora,
which can be useful for tracking down the many Scots who left their homes to find a different, sometimes better, life.
A book’s index is always a good indication of its calibre, and should be the first pages looked at. Fortunately, in this case the index is excellent.
This title is recommended for every researcher’s library.