The Top Five for Scottish Family History Research

These are my top five lists of books, blogs and websites that can assist you with your family history research in Scotland. Do you have any that you feel should be added? If so please leave a comment.

Books

The Gazetteer of Scotland 1882” by Rev. John Wilson published by Global Heritage Press

Tracing your Scottish Ancestry” by Kathleen B. Cory; revised and updated by Leslie Hodgson; published by Genealogical Publishing Co.

Discover Scottish Church Records” by Chris Paton; published by Unlock the Past Australia

Tracing your Scottish Family History” by Anthony Adolph; published by Firefly Books Ltd.

Scottish Local History: An Introductory Guide” by David Moody; published by Genealogical Publishing Co.

Blogs

Chris Paton: Walking in Eternity

Scottish GENES (GEnealogy News and EventS)

Scottish Genealogist Blog

The Scottish Military Research Group

Brenda Dougall Merriman’s Blog


Websites

ScotlandsPeople

National Library of Scotland – Post Office Directories

Scottish Emigration Database

National Library of Scotland – Maps of Scotland

Statistical Accounts of Scotland

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Ruth’s Recommendations

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

Abigail Rieley wrote a post on the NLI blog entitled “Dancing Angels and Devilish Microfilm” where she describes with great feeling her memories of time spent in the National Library of Ireland. She looks at how it has changed over the years but in many ways still remains the same.

The Professional Descendant blog had a useful posting called “Using LibraryThing for Genealogy” where she goes through the process of putting her large library of genealogy books in the LibraryThing database.

Cassmob of Family History Across the Seas has a post called “The Irish population haemorrhage: mapping 160 years of data” where she describes using the new National Centre for Geocompuation’s Online Atlas Portal which contains 160 years of data on the population of Ireland. One section pertains to the famine comparing census years 1841 and 1851.

She also posted “JSTOR @ NLA: finding the historical context for family history.” This post describes the resource JSTOR and things she has found in JSTOR. The only problem is you need a library card from the National Library of Australia and to get that you need to live in Australia. Check out a major library in your area to see if they provide access to this wonderful resource.

Carole Riley of Genealogy in New South Wales had an interesting post called “How to search for probate files at the State Records NSW.” She describes how to research probate records and where to find the information.

Julie Cahill Tarr of the Genwriter blog has a post called “Find your Research Mojo” which provides motivators to help you rediscover your passion for genealogy.

Chris Paton of Scottish GENES had a post called “Overseas ScotlandsPeople promotion – free credits.” If you live overseas and are not already registered with the site then you are eligible for 30 free credits.

Are there any postings in the last week that you think need to be on this list? Let me know in the comments below.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

The Top Five for Irish Family History Research

These are my top five lists of books, blogs and websites that can assist you with your family history research in Ireland. Do you have any that you feel should be added? If so please leave a comment.

Books

Tracing Your Irish Ancestors” by John Grenham [all three editions recommended]; published by Genealogical Publishing Co.

General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland: Based on the Census of Ireland for the year 1851” published by Genealogical Publishing Co.

Irish Church Records” by James G. Ryan; published by Flyleaf Press

A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland” by Brian Mitchell; published by Genealogical Publishing Co.

The Big Houses and Landed Estates of Ireland: A Research Guide” by Terence Dooley; published by Four Courts Press

Blogs

Pue’s Occurrences

National Library of Ireland blog

Irish Family History

Irish Genealogy News

Findmypast.ie Blog

Websites

National Library of Ireland

Census of Ireland 1901/1911

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives

Find My Past Ireland

The IreAtlas Townland Database

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved