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 to both prepare for your visit and for research while you are in the Angus Archives. It strongly recommend that you contact Angus Archives in advance to check that they have the class of records you wish to use, that it is available immediately (some of the records need to be pre-booked as they are held in an out store) and that it is not held by another archive. If you do this, it may save you considerable time, effort, money and frustration.
An archive holds many records, but it does not hold everything.
Some archival items have been indexed by surname. These include records associated with various trades incorporations, the Image Index or early Town Council minute books. Where these have been complied, you will be able to access specific information very quickly. These projects are ongoing.
Some people can be very elusive and leave little record behind them. You may need to start from scratch and use a variety of genealogical sources to find out a little about them. These include the International Genealogical Index (IGI) available on fiche and online, the census plus various census indexes, monumental inscriptions for Angus and the Arbroath Cemeteries database, Valuation Rolls, trade directories, Calendars of Confirmations, published sasine indexes, newspapers (held in individual libraries - see separate details on newspapers). Please ask the Archive Team or advice on other sources.
The photographic collection is dispersed around the various Angus museums and in the Angus Archives. There is as yet no central catalogue or index. The ALSC has the most geographically comprehensive collection (MS 747). The Arbroath Collection within MS 747 has been subject indexed. Individual portrait photographs have been included for most towns in the Image Index, which primarily indexes images of people from within local history books. The image index is currently only available in the ALSC search room.
Angus Council full time libraries offer the following resources to the historical researcher. The collections can be accessed in each library on the computer catalogue by title, title keyword, author and by subject.
All full time Angus libraries and Angus Archives have the International Genealogical Index (IGI) for Scotland on microfiche. This is an alphabetical surname index of the Old Parish Registers arranged by county. It provides brief details and dates for the births/baptisms and marriages/banns of individuals.
The Old Parish Registers were the birth, death and marriage records kept by the Church of Scotland and are available on microfilm. All libraries, except Monifieth, hold the entire Angus collection. Monifieth only holds the OPR's for the Monifieth area. The original Old Parish Registers are held by the New Register House in Edinburgh. The IGI provides a useful index to this invaluable resource. Please remember that your ancestor may not appear in the OPR's if they were Episcopalian or from another denomination.
The 1841-1891 census for all of the Angus parishes is available on microfilm in each full time library, except Monifieth which only holds its films for its own area. The census lists every house in Angus and the families who lived in them. They are arranged geographically and follow the route taken by the enumerator. A limited number of indexes for the 1851 Census have been published by the Tay Valley Family History Society and more are in the pipeline. Indexes for 1841, 1881 and 1891 are available in the Angus Archives.
Each full time library has an extensive local history collection of books, pamphlets and ephemera covering Angus in general and their own areas in particular. The collection contains burgh, village and parish histories, histories of businesses and societies and descriptions of historic buildings amongst others. The collection can be accessed through the local history catalogue on the OPAC in each library by author, title, title keyword or subject. A bibliography of Angus books can be viewed on this site.
Newspapers are a great source of information on almost every subject. Angus libraries have a good range of newspapers on microfilm for all of its towns. The Montrose Review is the oldest, dating back to 1811. Most Angus newspapers commence around the 1870's. The Arbroath Herald and the Forfar Dispatch have been indexed up to 1985. All other newspapers are unindexed
Each full time library holds a collection of Ordnance Survey and other relevant maps and town plans. Forfar Library has the most extensive central collection of antique and modern maps dating from the 18th to the 20th century.
Major collections of photographs are held by the libraries and museums showing all aspects of life and work in town and country, buildings, shops, people, recreation, industry, fishing agriculture and more. Donations to the collections are always welcome. Angus Archives holds a major collection of gravestone images and the photographic archive of the Montrose Society.
No library, archive or museum can ever provide you with a ready made dossier on every individual. You must come with realistic expectations, have done some homework to get the best from your visit and be prepared to roll up your sleeves to do some detective work. After all, isn't that what it is all about?
