A new website with the first digitised additions from the archive of Robert Smail's Printing Works in Innerleithen has gone online at www.nts.org.uk/smailsarchive/index.php.
Smail's printing works opened in 1866 and closed in 1986; it has since been taken over and run as a museum by the National Trust for Scotland. Rather uniquely, the firm kept a copy of every single thing they printed in a series of 'Guardbooks', basically large bound volumes of the local newspaper, passenger tickets, ledgers, personal correspondence and more. These are now being digitised and indexed, and contain a wealth of valuable genealogical information from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The first records to be indexed have been those of the Passenger Ticket Archive, now available at www.nts.org.uk/smailsarchive/search.php.
An article on the printing works and museum was published in Ancestors magazine issue 75, November 2008. The museum itself is located at 7-9 High Street, Innerleithen, Tel: 0844 493 2259.
(With thanks to Borders FHS)
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)
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