Get to the roots of your family tree

Aug 15 2008 by Our Correspondent, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A SPECIAL day of events next Saturday (August 23) will give PA readers the chance to find out more about family history and tracing ancestors.

Organised by Perth and Kinross Council, Family History Day will offer a range of talks, demonstrations and taster sessions in Perth between 10am and 4pm.

The AK Bell Library will see demonstrations of family history websites ‘Ancestry’ and ‘Scotland's People’ at 10am and 11am. Free tickets are available from the Library Shop.

Exhibitions and displays will be running all day on family and local history, the Perth and Kinross Archive, the Library's Local Studies section and the Registrars' service.

Children's activities will also be provided free of charge with tickets available from the library.

In addition, three hour-long talks will be held at the AK Bell Library Theatre at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm. Genealogical research consultant David Dobson will speak on Scottish emigration to colonial America, Dr Bruce Durie from the University of Strathclyde will give more details about researching your house history, and local historian Miss Rhoda Fothergill will explore some of the prominent contributors to Perth's past. Tickets for the talks are £4 each or £10 for all three, and are also available from the Library Shop.

The Registrars' service will be offering free taster sessions on researching your family tree from their office at 5 High Street, Perth. Searches of statutory birth, death and marriage records as well as old parish records and census returns for the whole of Scotland are available. To book a session, contact the Registration Office on 01738 475121.

Free events at Perth Museum and Art Gallery will cover a range of related topics. Family connections to the First World War can be looked into with Michael Taylor between 10am and 3pm.

Paul Adair, the Museum and Art Gallery's photographic officer, will give a talk 'Shooting the Past' at 10am and again at 11.30am, focusing on the importance of photographs in researching family ties.

At 1pm and again at 2pm, Helen Foster will give a demonstration of SCRAN (Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network), a valuable resource for anyone looking into Scotland's places, people and events.

Information will also be available for anyone looking to find their ancestor's last resting place through computerised burial records at the Registration Office in High Street. The Black Watch Museum at Balhousie Castle can assist those whose relatives served in the regiment.

A special free vintage bus service will run around Perth on Saturday, August 23, travelling a loop between AK Bell Library, Wellshill Cemetery, Balhousie Castle, Perth Museum and Art Gallery and the Registration Office in the High Street. Stagecoach have kindly donated use of the bus for the day.

For more information pick up the special event leaflet or visit the Council website at http://www.pkc.gov.uk