Family History Research at The Salmon Bothy
It is estimated that globally there are between 25 and 100 million people who make up the Scottish Diaspora. The developing interest in discovering your roots is being met by a growing range of resources and facilities and we are proud to have created a further such resource at the Salmon Bothy.
Our team of Bothy volunteers has been given training in helping visitors to explore their roots and the facility includes access to online resources. In addition we have a small collection of hard copy resources specific to the local area. Visiting researchers are most welcome to consult our library of materials and information. Whatever queries or assistance you may need, our volunteers are available to steer you in the right direction.
We have compiled specialist guides to resources of particular help when researching seafarers and rural ancestors.
In association with Aberdeen & North East Scotland Family History Society, volunteers from our team have dedicated countless hours of work to two long-term projects. As a result, family historians with local roots can now access transcriptions of gravestone dedications in Portsoy cemetery and in Fordyce old kirkyard. These immensely useful publications are on sale in our online shop.
Researchers whose relatives are commemorated on Portsoy town war memorial will also find brief biographical details of all those who lost their lives during the First World War.These are arranged in alphabetical order of surname; this personal information has been collated from a variety of reliable sources.
An unexpected and valuable record for Fordyce parish dates back to 1798, when contributions were handed in for a national defence fund at a time when fears of a French invasion were rampant. A note of all the contributors, their names, places of residence and the amount of their contribution, has survived in the registers of Fordyce Kirk Session. Our verbatim transcription uses spellings of personal and place names as they were recorded in the original.
For additional suggestions regarding source material for local and family history research, we can recommend this guide compiled by Banffshire Field Club.
Catalogue of Ancestor Charts
As we build up our resources library, the focus will be on collecting material with specific relevance to the local area, i.e. Portsoy and the parish of Fordyce.
One of the tools we intend to create for genealogical research will be a catalogue of ancestor charts. Anyone with an ancestral link to Portsoy is invited to complete a family tree, so that other researchers sharing the same ancestors can make contact and exchange information of mutual interest
Online Directory of Local Resources
If you’re looking for guidance on researching your ancestry in other areas of North-East Scotland, an excellent starting point would be the online directory of local resources compiled by Aberdeen & North East Scotland Ancestral Tourism Partnership.
Follow Our Blog
Findings we make as part of our research are regularly posted on our dedicated blog page, this may prove a useful resource if you are trying to trace your family history with connections to the local area. Visit the Salmon Bothy blog page