Ayrshire Archives adds new finding aid for records

Ayrshire Archives (https://www.ayrshirearchives.org.uk) has at long last added a new searchable catalogue to its website, called Epexio, after years of hosting PDF documents showing certain catalogued holdings. Here is its announcement from its Facebook page:

After months of hard work, we are delighted to announce that we have a new online catalogue on our website! For the first time, users are able to search across our catalogued collections 

 

The catalogue has over 36,600 descriptions of records held at our repositories in Ayr and Kilmarnock. Keep an eye out as more descriptions will continue to be added. You can now search our collections by text, reference number or browse the catalogues by category. If you find records you would like to view, please contact us on archives@south-ayrshire.gov.uk to arrange an appointment.

 

Visit the new online catalogue here: https://catalogue.ayrshirearchives.org.uk

 

(Source: https://www.facebook.com/AyrshireArchive) 

Happy hunting!

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

What made the National Archives of Ireland take down its genealogy records platform?

Major news this week from Ireland, in that the National Archives in Dublin has taken down its genealogy records platform for the foreseeable future. This is the message as displayed on the main NAI website at https://nationalarchives.ie:

The National Archives’ microsites are offline due to maintenance on the server. We will provide information in the coming days on how to access these collections, including material available in the Reading Room.  

Explaining the move in further detail at https://nationalarchives.ie/collections/genealogy-website/, the archive notes

The National Archives’ microsites are currently offline due to essential maintenance and redevelopment. They will remain unavailable for some time while we rebuild and update these resources on a new platform.

All records from the microsites are safely backed up. Over the coming days, we will provide information on how to access these collections, including material that can be viewed in the Reading Room.

Dublin based genealogist Claire Bradley has pointed out where to access alternative copies of most of the datasets on her blog at https://cbgenealogy.ie/nai-collections-offline/, although some collections are not as functional as on the NAI site, for example, the wills calendars on FindmyPast and MyHeritage only have brief indexed descriptions, as they were linked to the original records on the NAI platform (and bizarrely, MyHeritage notes the names of 'beneficiaries' on its platform, rather than 'executors'.)

I have been made aware of a story in Ireland concerning a person who has scraped census records to go beyond the NAI daily access limit for an article about 'religious encoding of names', which you can read at https://believethedata.org/the-secret-code-of-irish-names/. I have no idea if this exercise is a contributory factor to the NAI deciding to pull its site down, but the timing is quite a coincidence. 

All of this coincidentally happened a week before my next Pharos course, Progressing Your Irish Research Online, which starts next Monday 27 July. As a consequence, I spent most of Wednesday rewriting substantial parts of the course to cater for the new research environment now online, as I focussed on many of the collections previously available on the NAI records platform. If interested to sign up, please visit https://www.pharostutors.com/progressing-your-irish-research-online - the course lasts 5 weeks, and costs £70.

(With thanks to Claire Bradley and Myko Clelland) 

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

National Records of Scotland prepares to raise ScotlandsPeople fees

The National Records of Scotland has launched a 'consultation' to ask folk if it agrees with its proposed plans to raise fees for seemingly everything connected with ScotlandsPeople. The proposed increases will see records fees go from £1.50 per record (6 credits) to £2.50 per record (10 credits), and to increase the daily research pass from the current £15 to £23. The minimum bundle of ScotlandsPeople credits is also proposed to go from 30 credits (£7.50) to 50 credits (£12.50). The full details of the plans are available at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/registration-services-fees-consultation-paper/, and you are invited to have your say. 

Going on previous consultations, I personally think the decision has already been made, and that this is just an opportunity for folk to express their objections before the plans are implemented, to reduce the shock value. As such, I haven't bothered to fill it in myself, because life is too short, and I know from many years of experience how little the NRS seemingly values its user base. Whilst the fact that the fees have not been raised in ten years may be true, there is a real insensitivity here to the cost of living pressures just now. 

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland adds 190,000 new records

To mark 104 years since the destruction of the Irish Public Record Office, the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland platform (https://virtualtreasury.ie) has just uploaded a further 190,000 records. The following is a summary of the releases, as noted on the site:

June 2026 Releases at a glance:

• over 190,000 new records bring to 544,000 the total number of records available in the VRTI and 340 million words of searchable Irish history.
• Enhanced Knowledge Graph of Irish History: Now with over 15,000 entries, including 5,800 more historical individuals added since last June. More than 3,500 people from the early modern period (1550-1700), over 2,300 of these are women and 2,300 people are from the medieval/Norman period.
• Catholic Emancipation, 1825-1829: This curated collection traces the campaign led by Daniel O’Connell and the Catholic Association, through thousands of digital images of letters, petitions, intelligence reports government correspondence.
• States of Independence, 1776-1783: Curated collection reveals the close, and sometimes surprising, connections between Ireland and the American Revolution.
• The Birth of Local History in Ireland: Curated collection gathers together attempts by early modern local history enthusiasts to document the customs, folklore, history and landscape of their localities.
• State Papers Ireland 1660 – 1715: Over 40 more volumes of State Papers and Signet Office records are being released. These have been interconnected with the Knowledge Graph creating a powerful new tool for researching this tumultuous period of Irish history following Cromwell’s death.
• Deeds of the Guild of St Anne, 1237 – 1778: Gold Seam containing 800 stories of the lives of ordinary men and women in Dublin, from arranging a funeral procession in 1345, or leaving bequests for prisoners in Dublin Castle in 1380, to mapping a property on Merchants Quay in 1739.
• Parchment Conquest (1171-1307): In 8,000 printed summaries of records drawn from a Calendar of Documents Relating to Ireland we encounter Italian tax-collectors in Galway, poachers in Dublin, and women seizing land in Cork
• Medieval Irish Exchequer Rolls (1309-10) : A remarkable record, NAI EX 1/1 is one of only two original medieval memoranda rolls of the Irish exchequer to survive in 1922, containing 56 parchment membranes. Beautifully conserved and digitally imaged, these records can be viewed for the first time in over a century.
• Registers of the Archbishops of Armagh (1361-1542): four fascinating  volumes which capture the workings of church government, its extensive landholding, legal disputes and clerical discipline, as well as the relationships between English and Gaelic communities in medieval Ireland.

For further details, and the relevant links, visit https://virtualtreasury.ie/2026-new-releases

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Friends of Argyll Estates Archive to host 2-day online study event in November

The Friends of Argyll Estate Archives will be hosting a two day event on Tuesday 3 November and Tuesday 10 November, with both sessions starting at 6pm. The following is a brief description:

Finding Your Scottish Family: Argyll Estate Archives and Beyond 

Two communities, two stories - Tiree and Kintyre - revealing insights that resonate across Argyll and beyond. Join us for two fascinating case studies that explore how history, estate ownership and migration have shaped the documentary records family historians and researchers rely on today.

Standard tickets £25, Friends of Argyll Estate Archives £20. 

Keep an eye out for further details at https://argyllestatesarchives.org/.

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

No ScotlandsPeople, no party! Closure for world cup bank holiday.

From ScotlandsPeople and the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk): 

Please note that our buildings will be closed for the public holiday on Monday 15 June. We will be open as normal the following day, Tuesday 16 June. 

As they say here in world cup times, no ScotlandsPeople, no party....!

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

FindmyPast adds historic Irish republican military nominal rolls

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has added the following Irish collection:

Ireland, Defence Forces' Military Archives Nominal Rolls

This new collection from the Military Archives of Ireland contains the names of individuals who served with Irish Volunteers, the Irish Republican Army, Cumann na mBan and Na Fianna Éireann during a transformative chapter in Ireland's history. There are 487,575 records for you to explore. 

For a link, and details of other collections added this week, visit https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new/irish-military-rolls-guernsey-bmds

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Ancestry adds Edinburgh, Scotland, Mortcloth Records for St Cuthbert Burial Grounds, 1780-1854

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added a new Scottish collection:

Edinburgh, Scotland, Mortcloth Records for St Cuthbert Burial Grounds, 1780-1854
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/63248/
Source: "Provided in association with The City of Edinburgh Council"

General collection information

This collection contains mortcloth records dated between 1780 and 1854 for St Cuthbert’s Parish and Burial Ground in Edinburgh, Scotland. A mortcloth was a ceremonial cloth that people would rent and drape over a coffin at a funeral. The records are in the form of registers arranged chronologically.

Records in the collection may include the following information:

• Name
• Age
• Death date
• Burial date
• Purchase date
• Name of spouse
• Names of parents

The information in these records can help you learn more about your ancestor’s life and burial. Mortcloth rental records can be used as a substitute for death records, and these records may be especially useful because they predate the start of civil registration of deaths in Scotland in 1855. Though it’s important to keep in mind that the date of payment may not be the exact date of death.

By browsing the record image you may be able to learn more about your ancestor’s burial or their family’s financial status. Some records include the quadrant and section of the burial location, diseases the person may have had, and the amount paid by the family. You may also be able to use the information from this collection to find more records for your ancestor in Scotland, like birth records, censuses, or electoral rolls.
 

For further details, please visit the link.

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Angus Archives re-opens on appointments basis

Angus Archives (https://angusalive.scot/local-family-history/visit-us/) has reopened this week on an appointments only basis for now. The following is the announcement on its website:

Angus Archives will be reopening on a by-appointment basis starting Tuesday, 6 May 2025! We are now ready to welcome you back to explore our fascinating collections in our new location. This arrangement will be in place to allow us to get back onto our feet following the move from Restenneth, and to accommodate the upcoming refurbishment of Arbroath Library.

We will be accommodating up to 4 visitors at a time, and items from our archives and local history collections will be available by request only.

To schedule your visit or for more information, please contact us on 01241 465563 or email angusarchives@angusalive.scot.

We can’t wait to welcome you back and continue sharing our local heritage with you! Thank you again for your continued support.

(With thanks to Angus Archives)

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

New Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) website launched

The Belfast based Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has at long last launched its new website.

The new website is available at www.proni.gov.uk, a much simpler web address than its predecessor to remember, and if memory serves me right, an address that it used to have many, many years ago.

 

Everything looks slick, but whilst the catalogue is easily accessible from the main home page, one change that is immediately obvious is that you cannot access the digital records from the main home page, as with its predecessor - you instead have to go to the Explore Archives Online tab on the main menu at the top of the screen, and select Family and Local History Archives from the drop-down menu. Each collection's home page has a slight redesign, but it looks like the actual search screens are the same from the previous version of the website. One thing that is nice to see is the hierarchy of links that you go through under the main menu bar, ensuring you know how to get back to the home page or other parts of the trail to the collection of interest.

 

The biggest change is perhaps how the guides are now accessed, and I think this may take a bit of getting used to. I tried to locate the PRONI Guide to Church Records and ended up all over the place, so ended up just typing the name of the guide into the search box, and soon discovered it - but having done so, I still can't identify which collection the guide is contained within, or how to access it other than by the search box, so I think there may be an element of retraining needed here! 

 

Needless to say, all the links on the new site are completely different, so you will need to remark any bookmarks that you have on your PC.

 

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Irish Land Commission's Keane Index cards now online

Something I only discovered tbis week is that the catalogue cards from the Keane Index from 1891-1909 are now available to view via the National Library of Ireland's catalogue at https://catalogue.nli.ie/Collection/vtls000923169?recordID=vtls000929125, thanks to the efforts of the library and the Irish Manuscript Commission.

The Keane Index provides the only current means to identify information held within the records of the Irish Land Commission, which the Irish Government has stubbornly locked away in a warehouse in Portlaoise, where they currently remain out of the reach of researchers. The Land Commission papers details the acquisition of lands by the general public from the landed gentry after the collapse of the landed estates system following An Gorta Mór from 1845-1851. Amongst the papers are deeds, wills, and other extraordinarily useful records for family history purposes. 

The Keane Index comprises of 36,000 cards, that leads to information about properties contained within 35 bound volumes, all at about 400 pages each. The index allows researchers to search by county, estate, or individual name.

You can read more about the partnership with the NLI and IMC at https://www.nli.ie/news-stories/stories/tracing-irelands-land-history-digitisation-keane-index.

And maybe, one day, when the Irish Government wakes up on this, we'll get to see the actual Land Commission records themselves (many for the north after Partition are already accessible at PRONI)... 

** For more on the Irish Land Commission, see my book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, available from Pen and Sword in the UK at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Ancestors-Through-Land-Records-Paperback/p/19283 and the USA via https://www.penandswordbooks.com/9781526780218/tracing-your-irish-ancestors-through-land-records/.

Chris

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

New Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) website to go live on April 30th

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland announced a while back that they were developing a new front of house website, but today they have confirmed on their Fwcebook page when it will go live:

PRONI is delighted to announce that our new website will be launched on Thursday the 30th of April. The redesigned website will offer clearer navigation that makes it easier to explore our collections, plan a visit, and access a wide range of resources! 

This was first raised several months ago at the PRONI Stakeholder forum, where it was confirmed that the new site will mean several new URL addresses for web pages. 

I look forward to seeing the new site!

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

1926 Irish Free State census released by the National Archives of Ireland

The day has come - the 1926 Free State census for Ireland has finally been released after 100 years at https://nationalarchives.ie/collections/search-the-1926-census/. I have already made several searches in this today, uncovering various situations for my family and that of my wife, and it has been a pleasant search experience, with no site crashes, and an excellent presentation of the resources, which are free to view. This is one area where the Republic of Ireland really does trump the UK, in making its public documents available free of charge, as can also be witnessed through its birth, marriage and death records platform at https://www.irishgenealogy.ie. 

 

The equivalent census for Northern Ireland, taken on the same night, has sadly not survived, but something that I learned during the week is that even if it had done so, it may well have not been released. This is because, unlike the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland astonishingly does not have a 100 year census rule for privacy, thanks to an act of the Stormont parliament from 1969. The same fate awaits the 1937 Northern Irish census, which means that unless a specific law is passed for it to be released, it just won't be. If we want to see it, we'll have to start lobbying our politicians to get their acts together! You can read more about this in an interesting blog post from Professor Marie Coleman of Queen's University Belfast at https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/qpol/the-lost-northern-ireland-census-of-1926.

In the meantime, what details are included in the 1926 Free State census? You can find the answers to this at https://nationalarchives.ie/search-the-1926-census-2/census-1926/. It's not quite as detailed as the 1911 census, but it is nevertheless another very useful document for family history research.

Have fun exploring!

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

UPDATED: ScotlandsPeople Centre ceases half-day bookings

From ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk):

Changes to booking options for visitors

We want to let you know about a change to our booking options for visitors to the Scotland's People Centre in Edinburgh.

Current legal regulations mean we are unable to continue offering half-day bookings. We know that this option has been popular, so we’re working to reintroduce it in future.

In the meantime, full-day bookings remain available at £15. We are also introducing a limited number of free two-hour sessions for personal research.

Find out how you can visit us at General Register House https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

(Source: https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/news-and-articles/changes-booking-options-scotlands-people-centre and Facebook)

Comment: 
Where there's a will, there's always a way. 

Update: I messaged ScotlandsPeople to clarify what the issue was, and with which piece of legislation. This was its response:

Hi there: A recent review of the legislation governing our fees indicated that our earlier interpretation should be revised. We’ve now stopped taking bookings for half days while we work to request an update. We’ll highlight here on Facebook and on the Scotland’s People website, if we are able to reinstate our half-day service. You can find the full regulations here  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2006/575/contents?commentary-key-6a0e41cca2699729e0a99d1981758138

(With thanks to ScotlandsPeople)

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Friends of Argyll Estate Archives makes past newsletters available for sale

From the Friends of Argyll Estate Archives via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/friendsofargyllestatesarchives):

NEWSLETTERS

 

The Friends of Argyll Estates Archives Newsletter, now available to non-members! Edited by volunteer and trustee, Duncan Beaton, the Newsletter was established in 2016 to document all the exciting things happening in the archives.

 

Issued twice a year at the traditional Scots term dates of Whitsunday (28 May) and Martinmas (28 November) the Newsletter typically includes an Editor’s note, a list of upcoming seminars, reports on Friends outings and events, articles informed by archival research, a Pen Picture feature and more!

 

Select issues of the Newsletter are now available to purchase for those who are not yet members, but want to learn more about the Friends or read a particular article.

https://argyllestatesarchives.org/shop/

 

PLEASE REMEMBER: existing members can access the full back catalogue of Newsletters by logging-in to the Friends Area!

(With thanks to the Friends)

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Learn with Lorna event in Inverness on May 28th

This who have been following Highland Archives archivist Lorna Steele-McGinn over the last six years with her weekly online Learn With Lorna lectures will perhaps be interested to know that Lorna will be hosting an in-person event in Inverness on 28 May 2026. Here's the blurb from the archive's latest newsletter:

Our series of short online talks about the records held by the Highland Archive Service returned on 22nd January 2026 after a Christmas break.  As advertised in our last newsletter we are looking forward to hosting an in-person Learn with Lorna event at the Highland Archive Centre on 28th May 2026.  A talk on some "Treasures of the Highland Archive Service" will be followed by the chance to see some of the many documents that have featured across the 6 years of the series and to meet some of the other team members who have contributed research over the years.  We are really looking forward to welcoming LWL viewers to the archive centre, celebrating the community that has grown from the series, and saying thank you to all who have helped it grow. The few remaining tickets are available via https://tickets.highlifehighland.com/events/highlifehighland/2057468 or by contacting the Highland Archive Centre direct.

It should be a great event! To watch Lorna's Learn with Lorna series on YouTube, visit https://www.youtube.com/@HighLifeHighlandsocial

(With thanks to Highland Archives) 

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Easter - certificate ordering disruption from ScotlandsPeople

From ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk):

Please note: Certificate Priority Ordering will be unavailable from 1 p.m. on Thursday 2nd April 2026 with all Certificate Ordering unavailable from 4 p.m. on Thursday 2nd April 2026.

All Certificate Ordering will re-commence from 9 a.m. Tuesday 7th April 2026.

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Easter closures for the NRS and PRONI

The National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) and the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh will be closed on Friday 3 April and Monday 6 April for Easter.  

Belfast based PRONI (https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/public-record-office-northern-ireland-proni), however, will be closed on Monday 6 April and Tuesday 7 April for Easter, as well as on Saturday 4 April as part of the Easter holidays. Their extended opening hours will resume with a late-night opening on Thursday 16 April.

 

Please take note, no-one likes to make a long journey only to find the door closed! 

 

 

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Learn with Lorna - 250th lecture

Highland Archive (https://www.highlifehighland.com/archives/highland-archive-centre) has released its 250th Learn with Lorna lecture online on YouTube. This lecture, with archivist Lorna Steele-McGinn, looks at street names, and is all the more remarkable because Lorna is a wee bit unwell, but still persevering with it like a complete hero! 

You can view the lecture at https://youtu.be/c1r4HZMT5_Y?si=RgeGEHjKGCZ9Aevj, or below for convenience.

Well done Lorna, agus cùm a' dol! (And get well soon!)

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Scottish Indexes uploads additional prison records

Scottish Indexes (www.scottishindexes.com) has released a further 100,000 prison records held at the National Records of Scotland, bringing the total to 1 million entries in its Scotland's Criminal Database, with records from 49 prisons included. 

The following are the prisons for which new records have been added: 

• Linlithgow
• Stonehaven
• Ayr
• Greenock
• Cumnock
• Kinross
• Customs & Excise
• Paisley
• Port Glasgow
• Hamilton
• Inveraray
• Kilmarnock
• Duke Street (Glasgow)

To access the database visit https://www.scottishindexes.com/ScotlandsCriminalDatabase.aspx.

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.