The Borders Online
BEST WEBSITES TO AID YOUR RESEARCH
The Scottish Borders website is a good place to start your hunt for ancestors north of the border ( www.liveborders.org.uk/archives), and archivist Paul reports that there are plans to increase content during 2017. He also recommends the Borders Family History Society site ( bordersfhs.org.uk) and pastmap.org, which is a valuable GIS-style site for Scotland. (Anyone interested in maps should also visit the National Library of Scotland’s maps.nls.uk.)
As with all the archives featured this month, there is an online catalogue ( HUBCAT), but remember that material is also on Discovery ( discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk), and some resources including oral histories have been published via SCRAN ( scran. ac.uk).
Berwick is served by the Friends of Berwick & District Museum and Archives volunteer group ( berwickfriends.org.uk). Visit the website to find details of current and completed projects such as the Our Families project ( berwick families.org.uk). Similarly you can explore the indexes produced by members of the Friends of the Archives of Dumfries and Galloway via info.dumgal.gov.uk/ HistoricalIndexes.
Cumbria Archives Service ( cumbria.gov.uk/ archives) has details of the four branch record offices, plus various catalogues and source guides. The Northumberland equivalent ( experiencewoodhorn.com) is also packed with information. I recommend visiting the ‘treasures’ online exhibition at woodhorn exhibitions.com/treasures/index.html.
Findmypast, TheGenealogist and Ancestry have material relating to the region. One notable collection is Ancestry’s Gretna Green Marriage Registers, 1794-1895 ( search.ancestry.co.uk/ search/db.aspx? dbid=1636).
If you’ve just discovered a line in Scotland, the National Records of Scotland research guides are invaluable. This page ( bit.ly/statutory register), for example, covers the Statutory Register of Marriages.
The North East Inheritance Database ( familyrecords.dur.ac.uk/nei/data/intro. php) is a database of pre-1858 probate records from Northumberland and County Durham (document images are on FamilySearch). And look out for free resources such as Cumbria BMD ( www.cumbriabmd.org.uk).