And The Research Begins

Along with the sightseeing and family get togethers comes the real purpose of our trip - genealogy research.

Tuesday saw us going as a large group to the Scotlands People Centre. Here we were given a family history talk by the Centre Director, Iain Ferguson. He is enlightening and entertaining and we were ready to get tucked into the records after listening to his talk.

There were some computer glitches and the first day was a bit of a learning curve since the system in house is a bit different to the web system.

At the end of a very busy day, it was back to the hotel for some personal time.

On Wednesday, the group was split into two to make the best of the research space at the Scottish Genealoy Society. So first off, half of the group was taken back down to ScotlandsPeople Centre. Some were in the research room downstairs and some made use of the Historical Reading Room and the National Archives upstairs.

Then the other half of the group was taken over to the Scottish Genealogy Society. As we wandered through the Old Town and overlooked the Grassmarket, we were able to learn about the history of some of the buildings along the way to the SGS. Here we were met by Charlie Napier who gave us a short talk on the resources available. This was then followed by a tour of the facilities and then we were able to get down to research.

All too soon, it was time to collect the group from ScotlandsPeople Centre. It turned out to be quite a successful day, with many documents being found. There was lots of laughter as we shared the antics of our forebears.

Then is was a quick walk over to the SGS to gather the group  from there. I met up with most of them who were already walking back. They didn't have quite the same success as the group downtown, but enjoyed the day and the stories of the volunteers at the SGS.

Now it was time to grab a quick bite and refresh before heading out on a Resurrectionist Tour of Greyfriars Kirkyard.