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Home > Visit Angus > Genealogy History Culture > Genealogy Collections
Angus Council hold a wide range of resources, materials and collections, which can be invaluable to the Genealogical researcher, both amateur and professional.
You will get more out of your time at Angus Archives if you plan ahead and it is advised that y
ou read the guidelines - Plan Your Visit to Angus Archives. For family history research you need to
The following are sources are available for you to use in the Angus Archives to discover more about a particular person.
These are a great place to start. They are organised alphabetically by surname, regardless of where they lived or in which town they were born. The files include articles, newspaper cuttings, ephemera, snippets of genealogical information and other items. The files are particularly good in coverage of local worthies, famous Angus people, artists, authors, burgh officials, people who have been involved in extraordinary events etc.
Research files can be used in conjunction with the Image Index, the Local History book catalogue, the archival lists, specialist indexes, standard genealogical sources such as the IGI and the census and the Photographic Collections.
Please ask the archive team for assistance if you have never searched the library catalogue before. They can direct you to use the subject search or the keyword search, as appropriate. Angus libraries have an extensive local history collection (see below), collected over the course of over 100 years. There are many items that will be of you to use in your research. The most useful way to discover appropriate sources is to type in the relevant surname into the subject search facility on the catalogue. The item you find may not be held by the Angus Archives but by another Angus library. The archive team will advise you on access options in this situation.
The archival collection is extensive, covering 800 years of Angus history. The bulk of the collections refer to the 18th century and later, and record the administrative history of the towns. Details of burgh records are held separately.
Rural areas are very poorly covered in the collections. If you are researching a Glen settlement, for example, you may wish to investigate who holds the estate papers covering that area. The exception is the period after the late 19th century, covered by Angus County Council records. These include education and poor relief records, both subject to closure periods.
The miscellaneous collections are those items donated by the public and it includes a little bit of everything: personal papers, letters, legal documents, diaries, minutes of societies, photographs, prints, cash books, accounts and so on.
It is worth noting what Angus Archives do not hold. Classes of records such as kirk session minutes, customs and excise, the military, large estates, taxation records, emigration, Justice of the Peace, Sheriff Court cases, wills and others. These are held in national archives, other regional archives or are in private hands.
Accessing archival collections can be difficult. Until the implementation of the CALM electronic catalogue, access is by archive list, with the help of a rudimentary name and subject index to approximately half of the miscellaneous collection.
If you intend to use original material Angus Archives advise you to set aside sufficient time
