Jul 25th, 2009

Preserving & centralising our family records

I received two CDS of graveyard photos and monumental inscriptions from scots roots. This is a smashing idea from genealogist Helen Grant.  The kirkyards were Pettinain and Dunsyre, both in Lanarkshire. I had high hopes of these, because of all those Somerville families connected with the two villages back in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Sadly, there was precious little of my families.  They were obviously too poor to have afforded headstones. I thought I might spend a little time hunting down lair records.  Because, although I have burial records for a few in the Old Parish Records, there’s precious little information there.  Finding a William Somerville, he could be one of five or six – which Somerville family did he belong to?

Back in the 1980s, I first started looking at my family’s history in a random fashion.  One of the things I did (I had access to a car, which makes all the difference) was to visit graveyards. (more…)