08 004 A Beginner's Course to Researching Your Family's Story and History

Booking will close on Friday 27th September at 12 noon.

Due to limited resources we are UNABLE TO ACCEPT LATE BOOKINGS after this date.

This course will take place in Room 2F02 of the Dalhousie Building, Old Hawkhill, Dundee.

This six-week course tutored by Ken Nisbet, will look at the sources that are available both online and offline that can help you to start researching your family history and, importantly, what additional sources can be found to research their employment, military service, appearance in local newspapers, education etc. He will also explain how to put the acquired information together to give a story to your relatives’ lives.

Week one

What is family history? How do you create one? We will carry out a detailed examination of Scottish Statutory Registration and the records created, looking at birth, marriage and death records 1855 to date and also how the rules regarding what is a legal marriage have changed.

Week two

The census from 1801 to 1911 and reference to what the 1921 census contained. Examples from 1841 1851, 1861, 1871,1881,1891,1901, 1911 & 1921 will be shown and examined. The tutor will also look at what other lists can help us with our family history, such as valuation rolls, voters’ rolls, post office and trade directories.

Week three

Church records and where to find them. We will look at the various kinds of records that exist, parish registers and kirk session records. We will also examine how the Church of Scotland split up and then reunited and the effect this had on its records. We will look at Roman Catholic Church records and what they are.

Week four

Education and employment records. What records can we find on our relatives’ schooling and further education. If they went to university, what employment records can be found online and offline, government employment, railway, shipping, nursing. We will also look at industrial accidents and trade union records.

Week five

Military records from 17th to 20th century. We will look at what records are available and what they can tell us about our relatives’ service. (The Great War course covers the Great War records in detail).

Week six

An introduction to the use of DNA in family history and how, having got the information, you put it together to make a family history.

Tutor : Ken Nisbet

Ken Nisbet has been involved in family history research for over 40 years and is currently Secretary of the Scottish Genealogy Society and the Scottish Association of Family History Societies. He has been a member of the Scotland’s Family History Centre User Group since its inception. He is the resident expert on Scottish Ancestral Records Podcasts and does talks to many of Scotland’s Family History Societies. Through the Scottish Genealogy Society, he has had published a Roll of Honour for Nairnshire 1914-1921, and a History of 2nd Battalion 78th Foot 1804-1816.

Comments from Ken's past courses with LLD.

"Excellent course. Ken very thorough and helpful with any questions we had. Learnt so much.

"Could easily recommend this course to anyone wishing to delve further into their family history".

Enquiries should be sent to: [email protected]

As a volunteer organisation with limited resources we try to respond to queries as quickly as possible. Please bear with us.

Host or Publisher Lifelong Learning Dundee