Happy St Andrew's Day

Illustration by Martin Aitchison from
A First Book of Saints (1963) by
Hilda I. Rostron

Scotland's patron saint, St Andrew, is celebrated on the 30th November. I remember, as a kid, reading a Ladybird book about the patron saints of the different nations of the UK and Ireland, and managed to find a copy of it more recently. The illustration above is taken from the chapter about St Andrew and shows the monks who are supposed to have brought his remains to Scotland.

Just to do my bit to mark this special day, here are some tips for boosting your Scottish family tree.

National Records of Scotland are noting a historical landmark concerning one of Scotland's favourite pastimes. Tickets for the in-person event are sold out, but the event is being live-streamed on the 4th December at 1.30pm (UK time). Book your virtual (and free) ticket here to hear sports historian Andy Mitchell talk about 200 years of football in Edinburgh.

The Scottish Association of Family History Societies has member societies from around the world, not just Scotland. Check out the list on their website and consider joining one (or more!) society that matches your research interests. Many are now providing remote access to their meetings which previously were only available in person.

The National Library of Scotland has some excellent resources for genealogists, including Post Office Directories, Maps, and the Scotsman newspaper digital archive. It also has great guidance on lots of different aspects of Scottish family history. And if you live in Scotland, you can register for free access to many of their other digital collections.

SCAN - The Scottish Archive Network will be archiving its website early in 2025. It's been one of my go-to places to understand more about Scottish records. Learn more about the change on the current site. 

Have a great St Andrew's Day!

Scottish Indexes November 2024 Conference

 

Coming this Saturday, the 23rd November, is the latest online Scottish Indexes Conference, free to all.  The programme features the following:

'On the Boll: agricultural and landholding terminology in Scottish records' by Robert Urquhart

'Housing the Miners' by Kay Williams

'Town and Gown – St Andrews University Archive' by Sarah Rodriguez

‘Historic Scotland in the archives: Using Historic Environment Scotland Archives to explore historic sites around Scotland’ by Joseph Waterfield

'Using the internet & PRONI for Northern Irish research' by Chris Paton

'Beyond ScotlandsPeople: Breaking Down Brick Walls in Scottish Research' by Alison Spring

Scottish Genealogy Q&A hosted by Graham and Emma Maxwell

There will be Q&A sessions after the presentations when you will have the opportunity to submit your questions for the speakers.

Download the international time zone-friendly conference schedule at

https://www.scottishindexes.com/conference.aspx 

Each presentation will be shown twice at difference points throughout the day, and you can dip in and out as you wish, either on Zoom or by joining the Scottish Indexes Facebook Group.  

Visit the Scottish Indexes website to register for the Zoom broadcast and to read more about the conference.

Oh, and do tune in for my presentation for some help with breaking down your family history brick wall!

A bargain, an event, and a website

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Today, for frugal family historians, I’m sharing a bargain, an event, and a website that could help you further your research in one way or another.

Bargain

If you’re thinking of taking a DNA test to discover more about your ancestry, the company MyHeritage is offering a limited-time price of £34 (+ £5 P&P) for their DNA test kits.  This is a pretty reasonable price as these kits tend to be more than double that – in this case, the regular price tag is £79.

No date for the end of the offer appears on the website; at least, not that I could see. You can get more mileage out of the test by uploading your results, free of charge, to the website GEDMatch.

This site has been involved in controversy about privacy and data security, having been used to trace criminals using the DNA database without the consent of the kit owners. You can read about it here. So you’d need to consider this when deciding whether or not to share your DNA test results with GEDMatch.

Event

On a more upbeat note, Scottish Indexes are holding a free virtual genealogy conference on 23rd November. You can watch on Zoom or via the Scottish Indexes Facebook group, and if you wish, join in by submitting questions for the presenters. 

The speaker programme runs twice throughout the day, covering time zones around the world, from Australia and New Zealand to the United States and Canada. About a week before the event, you'll be able to download a conference timetable for the region where you live. Join the event for as much or as little of it as you want. In between the talks are live Q&A sessions on the speakers’ topics, and there are also two general Q&As with the conference hosts.

This time, the presentations are as follows:

'On the Boll: agricultural and landholding terminology in Scottish records' by Robert Urquhart

'Housing the Miners' by Kay Williams

'Town and Gown – St Andrews University Archive' by Sarah Rodriguez

‘Historic Scotland in the archives: Using Historic Environment Scotland Archives to explore historic sites around Scotland’ by Joseph Waterfield

'Using the internet & PRONI for Northern Irish research' by Chris Paton

'Beyond ScotlandsPeople: Breaking Down Brick Walls in Scottish Research' by Alison Spring (yes, that's me).

Website

The Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh is the oldest and largest medical library in Scotland. Founded in 1682, it now hosts a range of digital collections of medical sources. You can explore these and find useful records such as a database of WWI doctors in Scotland, and information on English-speaking medical students in mainland Europe.

Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh Digital Collections