Family and local history

 Ahoy me hearties! Are you interested in the history of Scottish pirates? The library has a number of books in our collections that can provide more information on the subject. These include Eric J Graham’s ‘Seawolves: Pirates & the Scots’, Edinburgh, 2005 and ‘Skull & Saltire: Stories of Scottish Piracy – Ancient & Modern’ by Jim Hewitson, Edinburgh, 2005.

David Ditchburn has contributed an article on ‘Piracy and War at Sea in Late Medieval Scotland’ to T.C. Smout’s ‘Scotland and the Sea’, Edinburgh, 1992, pages 35-58.

John Gow was one of Scotland’s most famous pirates and Stromness Museum in Orkney has produced a facsimile edition of ‘An Account of the Conduct and Proceedings of the Late John Gow’ as ‘The Pirate Gow by Daniel Defoe, 1725′. This tells the tale of an Orkney lad who ran away to sea, came home the master of a ship, romanced a local girl and when his piratical past was revealed, he went raiding in Orkney. After being run aground he was captured and sent to London in chains, where he was executed ten months later.

The library’s Word on the Street collection of online broadsides contains news reports on the activities of pirates as well as descriptions of the executions of those convicted of piracy.

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!