Date :
26/07/2013
A cafe, a public square, a river view, and all in the heart of the textile industry centre of the Borders. There’s plenty more going on at the local authority-backed Hawick Heritage Hub than would-be genealogists unravelling the fine threads of their family tree.
“People sometimes perceive archives as forbidding places,” says Paul Brough, the approachable and helpful Archive Manager.
“In actual fact they are full of colourful resources which can really bring history to life.”
That’s true too at the wholly community-led HebridesPeople project in the Western Isles. Its lead volunteer is busy putting a host of family and parish records into an unique online database.
“Emigration from the islands has been prolific over the centuries,” observes project leader and eminent local genealogist Bill Lawson of Northton Heritage Trust and Seallam Visitor Centre.
“There is huge demand from family historians and ancestral tourists for information about relatives.”
What brings the Outer Hebrides and the Central Borders together is a willingness to embrace digital resourcing.
“By bringing the information together and making it accessible online, we’re aiming to make the process as seamless as possible for researchers,” says Bill.
“By supplementing the records with a history timeline, maps, images and a gazetteer, we’re also hoping to inspire many more visitors to come to the islands to experience the places where their ancestors lived and worked through the centuries.”
The HebridesPeople project even includes detailed records of the emotive St Kilda community, which opens the centre to a much wider audience. That broadening of appeal is evident in the Borders too.
Through ‘The Voyage of the Vampire’, visitors can follow the life and travails of Sir George Henry Scott Douglas, through a series of online blogs. Nothing unusual there, except the blogs, triggered via Twitter, follow George on his ship, The Vampire, between April 1846 and January 1847.
“The Vampire diary is one highlight from a rich collection of diaries and papers from Sir George and the wider family,” says Paul Brough.
“We cover the whole of the Scottish Borders. If people come in with whatever they have, documents, family records, even just notes, we’re all set up to let them examine our local records, self service, and for free.”
Basic information like that is available free at both centres, with fee-paid services for more detailed research. If you’d like to encourage guests to indulge, both Paul and Bill recommend they do a little homework beforehand, and don't forget to bring their notes.
Of course, you could always Tweet them a reminder, and check out plenty more ancestral advice in our guide.