"Settling under the Saltire" - the Irish in Scotland
(c) Irish Geneaography
I gave a talk in Dublin for the Irish Genealogical Research Society's Open Day in Dublin on "Finding the Irish in Scotland", which this page supports. Remember, if you have "mislaid" an ancestor's sibling, don't assume they automatically emigrated across the Atlantic - Scotland was much closer to home and cheaper to get to.
If you do find kin in Scottish records, I promise you, you are blessed as the level of detail recorded is wonderful and may help you to further your research in older Irish records too. As this vexillogical depiction of birthplaces in my family tree illustrates, this Scottish lass had at least 2 branches with Irish ancestry settled in Scotland lurking in her family tree well before her Irish father (of part Scots descent!) made his way to Glasgow. And yes, that is an Indian flag lurking in the middle ... but that's another story! See my page on the Irish in India if you're intrigued.
If you do find kin in Scottish records, I promise you, you are blessed as the level of detail recorded is wonderful and may help you to further your research in older Irish records too. As this vexillogical depiction of birthplaces in my family tree illustrates, this Scottish lass had at least 2 branches with Irish ancestry settled in Scotland lurking in her family tree well before her Irish father (of part Scots descent!) made his way to Glasgow. And yes, that is an Indian flag lurking in the middle ... but that's another story! See my page on the Irish in India if you're intrigued.
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History
The Irish have been both frequent visitors to and permanent settlers into Scotland for hundreds of years. The 18th century saw many seasonal agricultural workers crossing the Irish Sea to earn money during the harvest months before returning home to Ireland. By the later years of this same century and into the early decades of the 19th century, more skilled workers, especially from the Ulster linen and textile working trades, were drawn to similar industries in Scotland's growing towns and cities. Sugar refining, coal mining, tanning and other arduous lines of work also had their employee ranks swelled by Irish immigrants too.
Then came the Great Hunger and the flow of unskilled and desperate Irish into Scotland increased rapidly. As the majority of these were poor Roman Catholic Irish, strongly Presbyterian Scotland proved to be none too welcoming I'm afraid. Victorian industrialists on the other hand thought it a tremendously good idea that the Irish were prepared to work for lower wages or be thrown into the fight against well-organised and unionised indigenous labour. There is also some evidence that skilled Scots decided to try their luck in further flung Empire outposts such as New Zealand in large numbers at this time and thus also created opportunities for Irish workers to take their places.
Much has of course been written on the subject - here are a couple of links to some academic works that I found when researching the subject. I can't swear to the accuracy of the research of course but some good thought provoking fodder;
“A History of the Scottish People Migration: Scotland’s Shifting Population 1840-1940” WW Knox
Out of print document published on the Scottish Archives Network site - see Section 4 in particular for a discussion of Irish immigration into Scotland.
“The Irish Famine in a Scottish Perspective 1845-1851” Geraldine Vaughan
A research paper published in English on a French Canadian site - don't panic, it's not all in French - scroll down for the English text!
There have also been a fair few books written on the subject - one lent to me by a fellow Irish genie entitled "The Irish Diaspora in Britain, 1750-1939" by Donald M. MacRaild (2nd Edn, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) is a comprehensive academic work on the subject.
The Irish have been both frequent visitors to and permanent settlers into Scotland for hundreds of years. The 18th century saw many seasonal agricultural workers crossing the Irish Sea to earn money during the harvest months before returning home to Ireland. By the later years of this same century and into the early decades of the 19th century, more skilled workers, especially from the Ulster linen and textile working trades, were drawn to similar industries in Scotland's growing towns and cities. Sugar refining, coal mining, tanning and other arduous lines of work also had their employee ranks swelled by Irish immigrants too.
Then came the Great Hunger and the flow of unskilled and desperate Irish into Scotland increased rapidly. As the majority of these were poor Roman Catholic Irish, strongly Presbyterian Scotland proved to be none too welcoming I'm afraid. Victorian industrialists on the other hand thought it a tremendously good idea that the Irish were prepared to work for lower wages or be thrown into the fight against well-organised and unionised indigenous labour. There is also some evidence that skilled Scots decided to try their luck in further flung Empire outposts such as New Zealand in large numbers at this time and thus also created opportunities for Irish workers to take their places.
Much has of course been written on the subject - here are a couple of links to some academic works that I found when researching the subject. I can't swear to the accuracy of the research of course but some good thought provoking fodder;
“A History of the Scottish People Migration: Scotland’s Shifting Population 1840-1940” WW Knox
Out of print document published on the Scottish Archives Network site - see Section 4 in particular for a discussion of Irish immigration into Scotland.
“The Irish Famine in a Scottish Perspective 1845-1851” Geraldine Vaughan
A research paper published in English on a French Canadian site - don't panic, it's not all in French - scroll down for the English text!
There have also been a fair few books written on the subject - one lent to me by a fellow Irish genie entitled "The Irish Diaspora in Britain, 1750-1939" by Donald M. MacRaild (2nd Edn, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) is a comprehensive academic work on the subject.
Geography
If everything north of Hadrian's Wall is all a bit "Here be Dragons" to you then have a roam around the following free websites to familiarise yourself, literally, with the lay of the land. You will need this knowledge when you come to search by place on most of the online databases;
If everything north of Hadrian's Wall is all a bit "Here be Dragons" to you then have a roam around the following free websites to familiarise yourself, literally, with the lay of the land. You will need this knowledge when you come to search by place on most of the online databases;
- National Library of Scotland's Digital Maps Collection. Excellent collection of maps at different scales and covering different time periods. In particular, explore the very large scale town maps with every building marked - these will help you find not only places of residence but also work places, churches, cemeteries and poorhouses. Also check out their 6 volumes of the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland.
- Registration Districts of Scotland. This page on the National Records of Scotland website will help you get to grips with Scottish registration districts ... all 1082 of them at their 1910 peak apparently! Why so many? They were based on the original Church of Scotland parishes in 1855 but be reassured they were winnowed down considerably in the 20th century. However, being subject to change over time, this document is invaluable in helping you track down the reference numbers you will need to look out for in the indexes if you are very unfamiliar with the place names.
- GENUKI for Scotland. Volunteer site organised by historic county and populated with a wide range of useful information and links to other websites.
- ScotlandsPlaces. Useful gazetteer to help you find out more about unfamiliar localities. In particular, if you are struggling to identify a place name from a census, say, consult the Ordnance Survey Name Books for the county to learn more - be sure to scroll down from any images to see the transcriptions. The site also has some unusual digital resources, including one of my favourites - Farm Horse Tax records! No joke, these helped me find out more about a (cuckolded!) husband of a Scottish ancestor! Just remember you need to search or browse by place name.
- Places of Worship in Scotland. This is a useful site I stumbled across recently when I was trying to pinpoint exactly where specific churches where located in Kincardineshire. This volunteer run site has some very useful information on dates of construction and every church is pinned to an OS map. Sadly, though there is no information on where any surviving records are located as it is primarily a project focused on the buildings. However, be aware that there could have been many places of worship within any parish in the past because of the many different schisms in the Protestant faith in Scotland - scroll to the bottom of this page for a link to a mind-boggling diagram if you are feeling brave!
- Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Scotland. Published in 1846, this gazetteer of places contains lots of descriptive information on the geography, geology and history of villages, hamlets and towns of early Victorian Scotland. For even the smallest of places, he even lists the numbers of inhabitants. Lewis was also quite scrupulous about recording the ecclesiastical landscape with details of the local church which is going to help you track down records.
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Record Sources
Although the big online players like Ancestry and FindMyPast have some Scottish records if you have a subscription and free FamilySearch also has a good selection, these vary in coverage and format (many are just transcriptions for example, some of them abysmal e.g. censuses on Ancestry in my opinion.) The definitive place to go to search for your kin by vital life events is ScotlandsPeople, where you will find births/baptisms, marriages, deaths/burials, wills and testaments, censuses and valuation rolls. In particular, be sure to plunder the Roman Catholic parish registers they have online as these will no doubt be where you will find many Irish kin who fled to Scotland after the Great Hunger, as well as finding them in Statutory records after state registration was introduced in 1855.
It is a pay-per-view site where you will have to purchase credits (valid for 2 years) to view actual records and it is the only place you can view certain images. However, all the results pages are free and it is very reasonably priced when you compare it to the cost of buying certificates in England and Wales for instance. The query screens give you quite a lot of flexibility when searching - see my Search tips for ScotlandsPeople page for more advice. There are also some great help and information pages which I thoroughly recommend you spend time perusing if you are unfamiliar with Scottish family history. For example, their Glossary should help you decipher any unfamiliar terms you might come across.
You can also visit the ScotlandsPeople Centre at New Register House in Edinburgh and buy a day pass for access to ScotlandsPeople (£15 in MAR 2019) to view as many records as you want too. However, charges apply if you want to print or save anything to your account, which means you might not save much money by visiting in person if you had a lot of records you wanted to buy images for. As far as I'm aware you cannot download any images to a USB either. But you know what, it's worth visiting anyway for the magnificent circular reading room and invaluable if you are trying to untangle lots of cousins in one village (Larkhall Riddell's since you ask) as long as you don't mind doing lots of transcribing.
Although the big online players like Ancestry and FindMyPast have some Scottish records if you have a subscription and free FamilySearch also has a good selection, these vary in coverage and format (many are just transcriptions for example, some of them abysmal e.g. censuses on Ancestry in my opinion.) The definitive place to go to search for your kin by vital life events is ScotlandsPeople, where you will find births/baptisms, marriages, deaths/burials, wills and testaments, censuses and valuation rolls. In particular, be sure to plunder the Roman Catholic parish registers they have online as these will no doubt be where you will find many Irish kin who fled to Scotland after the Great Hunger, as well as finding them in Statutory records after state registration was introduced in 1855.
It is a pay-per-view site where you will have to purchase credits (valid for 2 years) to view actual records and it is the only place you can view certain images. However, all the results pages are free and it is very reasonably priced when you compare it to the cost of buying certificates in England and Wales for instance. The query screens give you quite a lot of flexibility when searching - see my Search tips for ScotlandsPeople page for more advice. There are also some great help and information pages which I thoroughly recommend you spend time perusing if you are unfamiliar with Scottish family history. For example, their Glossary should help you decipher any unfamiliar terms you might come across.
You can also visit the ScotlandsPeople Centre at New Register House in Edinburgh and buy a day pass for access to ScotlandsPeople (£15 in MAR 2019) to view as many records as you want too. However, charges apply if you want to print or save anything to your account, which means you might not save much money by visiting in person if you had a lot of records you wanted to buy images for. As far as I'm aware you cannot download any images to a USB either. But you know what, it's worth visiting anyway for the magnificent circular reading room and invaluable if you are trying to untangle lots of cousins in one village (Larkhall Riddell's since you ask) as long as you don't mind doing lots of transcribing.
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Archives, Resources and Contacts
The National Records of Scotland (NRS) are also located at New Register House, combining what was previously the National Archives of Scotland and the General Register Office of Scotland. This is where you will have to go to research land records in person for example. They also have some excellent research guides online.
"Tracing your Scottish Ancestors - the official guide" by Tristram Clarke details the NRS holdings and can be widely purchased. This is a hugely practical guide that ought to become your constant companion if you are doing a lot of research in this archive. It does get updated regularly so check before purchasing. The 6th edition is currently available but a 7th edition is due out in August 2020.
The Scottish Archive Network site will help you to navigate the collections of 52 national and local archives, where you may well have to hunt for more specialist records that may never make it online. Their Research Tools and Knowledge Base pages are also very informative e.g. see their Poor Registers topic page for information on the content and whereabouts of these key records. However, a word of warning - it doesn't look like this site has been updated in a very long time, so check carefully with the actual archives if you are planning a research trip based on the information you find here.
If you are planning a visit to Glasgow, where many Irish settled, then be sure to take advantage of the excellent Mitchell Library's Family History Centre. There is a guide to their resources online and also a fascinating collection of historic images entitled "Virtual Mitchell".
The University of Glasgow's School of Social and Political Sciences has posted some informative background reading on "The Scottish Way of Birth and Death", which I recommend you read to help you understand the context in which these records have been created.
If your Irish female ancestors married local men and took their name, you might want to delve into George Black's "The Surnames of Scotland - their origin, meaning and history" to find out more about the roots of the paternal branch of your family.
Some of the earliest wills and testaments that survive can be written in a challenging hand. The National Records of Scotland's microsite on Scottish Handwriting should help you get your eye in through online tutorials and coaching. Your task may be made doubly difficult if there are old Scottish dialect words lurking in some of the older documents, so try the Dictionary of the Scots Language site for a translation.
The National Library of Scotland's Internet Archive page has thousands of free digitised resources that are going to happily divert you a rainy afternoon. Of particular note are the huge number of Scottish Directories right up until the 1940's that may reveal business ancestors. None are indexed here but often browsing can reveal valuable contextual information. However, there is an indexed interface to a subset of these directories up to 1911 on the NLS Scottish Post Office Directories page.
Poorhouse records can be some of the most wonderfully rich genealogical fare with which to enrich your family history, as I found when I discovered my Irish 3xgreat grandfather and both of his extended families lurking within the pages of the Paisley registers! You can search a PDF index for these same registers yourself via Paisley Archives Poor Law site. With nearly 9000 mentions of "Ireland", you could be lucky too. You can also learn more about the architecture and history of the various Scottish establishments via Peter Higginbotham's hugely informative Workhouses site.
Once you establish a locale where you think your Irish kin may have settled, it can be worth getting in touch with and even joining the relevant local family history society. Members often venture out to transcribe the rapidly eroding memorial inscriptions of local cemeteries for example or may be prevailed upon to do local record look-ups for you if you cannot travel yourself. The Scottish Association of Family History Societies is the national organisation that can help you get in touch with the right regional society. There is also a useful gazetteer of over 3500 Scottish burial grounds on their site.
There are some commercial sites run by Scottish research companies that could prove to be be invaluable if you are unable to access some very specific original records yourself. You can then either purchase scans or fuller transcripts or perhaps more complete documents. You may get lucky - take a look;
The National Records of Scotland (NRS) are also located at New Register House, combining what was previously the National Archives of Scotland and the General Register Office of Scotland. This is where you will have to go to research land records in person for example. They also have some excellent research guides online.
"Tracing your Scottish Ancestors - the official guide" by Tristram Clarke details the NRS holdings and can be widely purchased. This is a hugely practical guide that ought to become your constant companion if you are doing a lot of research in this archive. It does get updated regularly so check before purchasing. The 6th edition is currently available but a 7th edition is due out in August 2020.
The Scottish Archive Network site will help you to navigate the collections of 52 national and local archives, where you may well have to hunt for more specialist records that may never make it online. Their Research Tools and Knowledge Base pages are also very informative e.g. see their Poor Registers topic page for information on the content and whereabouts of these key records. However, a word of warning - it doesn't look like this site has been updated in a very long time, so check carefully with the actual archives if you are planning a research trip based on the information you find here.
If you are planning a visit to Glasgow, where many Irish settled, then be sure to take advantage of the excellent Mitchell Library's Family History Centre. There is a guide to their resources online and also a fascinating collection of historic images entitled "Virtual Mitchell".
The University of Glasgow's School of Social and Political Sciences has posted some informative background reading on "The Scottish Way of Birth and Death", which I recommend you read to help you understand the context in which these records have been created.
If your Irish female ancestors married local men and took their name, you might want to delve into George Black's "The Surnames of Scotland - their origin, meaning and history" to find out more about the roots of the paternal branch of your family.
Some of the earliest wills and testaments that survive can be written in a challenging hand. The National Records of Scotland's microsite on Scottish Handwriting should help you get your eye in through online tutorials and coaching. Your task may be made doubly difficult if there are old Scottish dialect words lurking in some of the older documents, so try the Dictionary of the Scots Language site for a translation.
The National Library of Scotland's Internet Archive page has thousands of free digitised resources that are going to happily divert you a rainy afternoon. Of particular note are the huge number of Scottish Directories right up until the 1940's that may reveal business ancestors. None are indexed here but often browsing can reveal valuable contextual information. However, there is an indexed interface to a subset of these directories up to 1911 on the NLS Scottish Post Office Directories page.
Poorhouse records can be some of the most wonderfully rich genealogical fare with which to enrich your family history, as I found when I discovered my Irish 3xgreat grandfather and both of his extended families lurking within the pages of the Paisley registers! You can search a PDF index for these same registers yourself via Paisley Archives Poor Law site. With nearly 9000 mentions of "Ireland", you could be lucky too. You can also learn more about the architecture and history of the various Scottish establishments via Peter Higginbotham's hugely informative Workhouses site.
Once you establish a locale where you think your Irish kin may have settled, it can be worth getting in touch with and even joining the relevant local family history society. Members often venture out to transcribe the rapidly eroding memorial inscriptions of local cemeteries for example or may be prevailed upon to do local record look-ups for you if you cannot travel yourself. The Scottish Association of Family History Societies is the national organisation that can help you get in touch with the right regional society. There is also a useful gazetteer of over 3500 Scottish burial grounds on their site.
There are some commercial sites run by Scottish research companies that could prove to be be invaluable if you are unable to access some very specific original records yourself. You can then either purchase scans or fuller transcripts or perhaps more complete documents. You may get lucky - take a look;
- Scottish Indexes has some interesting sources for health, legal and land records. The Learning Zone and Blog are also both worth rummaging through too. They will also undertake research commissions.
- Old Scottish Genealogy & Family History offers a huge index to Scottish asylum records and some specific legal records. The Blog has a very long library of detailed articles but no new entries since late 2018?
Further Reading
If you would like to read up on the Scottish legal system, land tenure, church schisms etc., and find some good practical advice on Scottish researching, there are several good texts that you might want to invest in (Click on any image to go to a more detailed listing);
Bruce Durie, who set up the successful University of Strathclyde postgraduate genealogy course, has published Scottish Genealogy, with lots of practical information, helpful glossaries and bits of historic trivia. Heraldry and DNA are his particular penchants, so there's also some brief diversions into blazoning (the new Sudoku!) and mitochondria etc., if that's your thing too.
If you would like to read up on the Scottish legal system, land tenure, church schisms etc., and find some good practical advice on Scottish researching, there are several good texts that you might want to invest in (Click on any image to go to a more detailed listing);
Bruce Durie, who set up the successful University of Strathclyde postgraduate genealogy course, has published Scottish Genealogy, with lots of practical information, helpful glossaries and bits of historic trivia. Heraldry and DNA are his particular penchants, so there's also some brief diversions into blazoning (the new Sudoku!) and mitochondria etc., if that's your thing too.
Anthony Adolph's Tracing Your Scottish Family History was published in 2008 and as such, some of the links and advice about record locations have undoubtedly have been superseded with much online access developed in the last decade. However, this is a very readable book, well illustrated and with plenty of little "sidebar" stories to illustrate key points and facts.
There are also some illuminating references to the Gaelic language and culture that I'm sure you would find useful if your ancestry is rooted in the Highlands and Islands.
There are also some illuminating references to the Gaelic language and culture that I'm sure you would find useful if your ancestry is rooted in the Highlands and Islands.
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Chris Paton has also written a collection of Scottish books research books, originally published by Unlock the Past under their Discover series - Discover Scottish Civil Registration, Discover Scottish Land Records & Discover Scottish Church Records. His latest title from Pen & Sword looks to be a more general guide, Tracing your Scottish Family History on the Internet, whilst Tracing your Scottish Ancestry through Church and State Records I would imagine details many of the resources referenced in the first 3 books? From what I've seen of the Discover books at family history fairs, these are quite slim volumes which might make the set seem a little pricey. Pen and Sword often exhibit at the major genealogy fairs in the UK and usually offer good deals if you purchase multiple titles. I've found his book on Irish resources to be very practical and stuffed with lots of references on where to find records, both in archives and online, so I would expect these to be the same. Click on any of the images to find out more.
Chris has also generously published the first chapter of his Church Records book online via his Scottish Genes blog. This will give you a good idea of the sometimes farcical splits in the Protestant faith in Scotland (singing versus no singing for instance!) and the implications for hunting ancestors. This Churches of Scotland timeline tries to depict these schisms graphically - good luck working it all out!
Chris has also generously published the first chapter of his Church Records book online via his Scottish Genes blog. This will give you a good idea of the sometimes farcical splits in the Protestant faith in Scotland (singing versus no singing for instance!) and the implications for hunting ancestors. This Churches of Scotland timeline tries to depict these schisms graphically - good luck working it all out!
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2020
