Around Britain
Jonathan Scott surveys some of the unique collections housed across historic Strathclyde
A complete guide to resources in Strathclyde
Modern Strathclyde was one of nine local-government regions of Scotland created in the reorganisation of 1975, only to be abolished in 1996. Today the area includes Glasgow, Ayr, Bute, Dunbarton, Lanark and Renfrew, and small parts of other counties.
Since Strathclyde covers such a vast area, with so many counties, towns, districts and burghs, there are huge number of archives that may preserve material relating to your family. The nationwide resources available through ScotlandsPeople ( scotlandspeople. gov.uk) are likely to be your first stop. But once you’re ready to go deeper, there are all sorts of unique collections scattered across specialist and regional archives, which we hope will soon reopen when the coronavirus lockdown ends in Scotland.
Glasgow’s Main Archive
For example, the Mitchell Library, in Glasgow’s Charing Cross district, was established in Ingram Street in 1877 following a bequest from Stephen Mitchell, a local tobacco manufacturer. The resources held here are made up of records that form part of the Glasgow City Archives, the Registrar’s Service, the library’s own Special Collections department, and the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Archives.
Together these include records of churches, hospitals, courts and militia, plus collections related to individuals, estates and businesses. There are some finding aids online, as well as several more databases that can be accessed in the searchroom, such as church registers and registers of policemen, plus databases detailing architectural plans.
Some genealogical highlights include voters’ rolls, which tell you the voter’s name and occupation; school registers from the late 19th century, which give address, name of parent/guardian, date of birth and previous school; property transactions, which can be traced in sasine registers; and records of the kirk sessions held by elected members and a minister who administered congregations
an estimated ‘Glasgow City Archives has relief’ one million applications for poor
of the Church of Scotland and other Presbyterian churches.
Poor Law records can give an insight into living and working conditions, poverty, crime, drunkenness, illegitimacy, marital breakdown and more. Glasgow City Archives holds an estimated
one million applications for poor relief for the Glasgow parishes, as well as Bute, West Dunbartonshire, South Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire.
Online Access
The best place to start is the dedicated genealogy portal Family History at the Mitchell ( glasgowfamilyhistory.org.uk).
This not only describes what is held here, but also what can be researched remotely. More than 100 years of electoral registers (voters’ rolls) are now available via Ancestry for example ( ancestry. co.uk/search/collections/61020).
Or there’s the Glasgow City Archives collection of councilrun cemeteries and crematoria records. These mainly consist of burial, lair and crematoria registers, and you can download historical maps and plans of cemeteries and burial grounds.
Another highlight is the Evening Times Roll of Honour, a free resource drawn from reports of First World War personnel wounded or missing printed in the local newspaper. These featured service personnel from Glasgow and surrounding areas, and usually included regiment, address, family names, occupation and often a photograph. You can download free date-ranged indexes, which contain name, home, rank, regiment and any notes.
Renfrewshire had a thriving textile industry, particularly in Paisley, where it grew from a cottage industry to become the town’s major employer. By the 1930s the huge Anchor and Ferguslie Mills of J&P Coats, a firm founded by James Coats in the late 1820s, were employing thousands (see paisleypeoples archive.org). Artefacts, ephemera and archives survive at the Paisley Museum, Art Gallery and Coats Observatory – currently closed for redevelopment – and at University of Glasgow Archive Services,
where the J&P Coats collection includes minute books (1880– 1985), registers (1890–1972), ledgers (1890–1933) and salary books (1901–1940).
Meanwhile the university’s Scottish Business Archive has about 130 textile collections, ranging from records of domestic weaving and sewing concerns, to fully mechanised factory production.
For example, records from New Lanark, the mill village set up by Richard Arkwright near the Falls of Clyde in the 18th century, include business archives, visitor books (1795–1962) and a register of births, marriages and deaths (1818–1853).
Other sizeable collections include records of United Turkey Red, “by far the largest firm in the bleaching, finishing, dyeing and printing industry in Scotland”, featuring staff records (1845– 1916); carpetmaker Stoddard International, which was founded in Elderslie, Renfrewshire, in the 1860s; and John Lean & Sons, a muslin and rayon manufacturer of Bridgeton, Glasgow.
The wider Scottish Business Archive has material covering the whole of Scotland documenting banking, shipbuilding, mining, locomotive manufacture, chemical firms and more. There’s also the Scottish Brewing Archive, which features material from Glasgow’s J&R Tennent including photos and records of employment.
Dumbarton, famous for its ancient castle, thrived in the 19th century, becoming a centre for shipbuilding, glassmaking and whisky production. Of the many shipbuilding yards, notable examples include William Denny and Scott & Linton. And Glasgow-based distiller George Ballantine & Son built a large distillery here in the 1930s.
Ayr is also known for fishing, weaving, dyeing and shipbuilding. Ayrshire Archives has many vital collections such as the kirk session records of the Presbytery of Ayr and Irvine. However, the archive closed in March ahead of a move to a new headquarters due to open in 2021.