Scottish Genealogy Society

Scottish Genealogy Society
Name	Scottish Genealogy Society
Founded	1930
Headquarters	Edinburgh
Focus	Genealogy, Family History, Archives

Scottish Genealogy Society The Scottish Genealogy Society is a membership organisation dedicated to supporting family history research in Scotland. It provides access to archives, publishes research resources, and runs educational programmes that connect individuals with records from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and other regions. The Society collaborates with national institutions and local groups to conserve parish registers, wills, census substitutes and emigration documentation.

History

Founded in 1930 in Edinburgh during a period of renewed interest in parish research, the Society emerged amid developments involving the National Records of Scotland, the General Register Office for Scotland, and the Scottish Record Office. Early activities intersected with projects associated with the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and the Scottish Council on Archives. Notable contemporaries and influences included figures linked to the Statistical Account of Scotland, the Highland Clearances, and migration movements to Canada, Australia, the United States, and New Zealand. The Society’s archival efforts paralleled initiatives by the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Public Record Office, and municipal archives in Glasgow and Aberdeen. Over decades it engaged with genealogists connected to publications like the Scottish Historical Review, the Scotsman, the Caledonian Mercury, and the Edinburgh Gazette.

Membership and Structure

Membership comprises amateur and professional researchers, librarians, archivists, and volunteers from across Scotland and the Scottish diaspora in Toronto, Boston, Halifax, Melbourne and Auckland. Governance follows a trustee model that has liaised with bodies such as the Charity Commission, Companies House, the Scottish Charity Regulator, and the City of Edinburgh Council. Committees include specialist groups focusing on parish registers, kirk session records, valuation rolls, land tax assessment rolls, and emigration lists tied to ports like Leith and Greenock. Partnerships with university departments at the University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, University of Aberdeen, and the University of St Andrews support academic collaboration and student internships.

Publications and Resources

The Society publishes indexed transcriptions, journals, and guidebooks used alongside resources from the National Records of Scotland, the General Register Office, and the Old Parish Registers. Key publications reference sources such as baptisms, marriages, burials, testaments, and court records including Sheriff Court and Commissary Court documents. Its printed and digital outputs are used in research involving the Scottish Genealogist journal, local history monographs, gazetteers, and county histories like those for Ayrshire, Aberdeenshire, Inverness-shire, and Roxburghshire. These outputs complement holdings at the National Library of Scotland, the British Newspaper Archive, and university special collections such as the Mitchell Library in Glasgow and the John Rylands Library in Manchester.

Records and Collections

The Society’s collections include indexed copies of Old Parish Registers, kirk session minutes, poor law records, and taxation records such as the Valuation Roll and Hearth Tax returns for regions that include the Highlands, Islands, Borders, and Lowlands. Collections relate to maritime records for ports like Leith and Dundee, emigration bundles for Canada and the United States, and facsimiles of wills probated in Edinburgh and Perth. Researchers often cross-reference Society indexes with records at the National Records of Scotland, the British Library, the Public Record Office, and the Registers of Scotland. Specialized holdings have provenance connections to estates, landed families, clan papers for names associated with Campbell, MacDonald, MacLeod, Gordon, and Sinclair, and municipal collections in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and Stirling.

Activities and Education

The Society organises lectures, workshops, and seminars featuring speakers who have worked with archives at the National Library of Scotland, the Bodleian Library, the Royal Archives, and the Public Record Office. Regular events include hands-on sessions addressing parish register transcription, Scottish paleography, kirk session interpretation, and tracing migration to places such as Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Victoria and New South Wales. It runs outreach via conferences linked to the Scottish Local History Forum, the Federation of Family History Societies, the International Congress on Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences, and collaborations with museums such as the National Museum of Scotland and local heritage trusts.

Partnerships and Outreach

The Society partners with national institutions including the National Records of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, and local archives in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Inverness. It collaborates with international organisations and family history societies in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, and with academic units at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow, and the University of St Andrews. Outreach extends to community projects in Highland towns, island communities in Orkney and Shetland, and diaspora networks in Glasgow’s Merchant City, Belfast, Liverpool, and Providence. Joint initiatives have involved the British Association for Local History, the Scottish Council on Archives, and the Records Management sector to promote access to kirk session records, testaments, and valuation records.

Category:Genealogy societies