Family and local history

Have you ever wondered what the symbols on old gravestones mean? Or why different styles of burial monuments look the way they do? The library has a number of books in its collections which provide more information on this topic. A general book, which covers graveyards over the whole of the UK, is Trevor Yorke’s ‘Gravestones, Tombs & Memorials’, Newbury, 2010, which discusses the history of burials and the different types of monument that were built.

If you want to know more about Scottish graveyards and their tombstones, then ‘Understanding Scottish Graveyards’ by Betty Willsher, Edinburgh, 2005 and ‘Researching Scottish Graveyards’ by Bruce B. Bishop, Elgin, 2010, can help further your research.

Dane Love’s ‘Scottish Kirkyards’, Stroud, 2010, provides an explanation of the role of the kirkyard within the Scottish community as well as detailing burial customs of Scotland. Hamish Brown’s ‘A Scottish Graveyard Miscellany: Exploring the Folk Art of Scotland’s Gravestones’, Edinburgh, 2008, discusses examples of graveyard art from all over Scotland.

For those that have ancestors from Orkney and Shetland, the following books may be of help with your research. ‘Trace Your Orkney Ancestors’: A Guide to Sources for Orcadian Family and Local History’ by James M Irvine, 2004, is a comprehensive resource that covers a wide variety of records. These include church, court and estate records and a number of census subsitutes, to name a few.

For Shetland two useful booklets are Alan M Beattie’s ‘Shetland: Pre-1855 Parish Sources (Revised) for Family Historians’, 1998 and Alexander Sandison’s ‘Tracing Ancestors in Shetland’, 1985. Although not as wide-ranging as the Orkney publication, they are still a useful starting point for those interested in Shetland genealogy.

Our index of published memorial inscriptions has now been updated to early July 2012. Several new publications received during the last half year have been added. Next update to this list is due in December 2012. You can also check our holdings on our online catalogue, using +monumental +inscriptions +scotland as a keyword search on the simple search screen. This should bring up all of the Library’s holdings.

Three men in working clothes around 1870

If you’re interested in family history then we run a monthly Readers’ Workshop’ called ‘Discovering family history’, where you can find out about the resources we hold to help you with your family research. These include directories, gravestone inscriptions, newspapers and census records, to name just a few of the categories covered in the workshop which are useful for family history research.

The workshop also includes some practical information on using the Library for those that are new to our services. It’s run at a different time each month and you can find out more information, including booking details, at Readers’ Workshops.

Do come along, the workshops are open to everyone and they’re free!