Family History
The popularity of family history research as a recreational pastime is rapidly growing. Researching your family tree is much easier and more rewarding than you might expect. Many resources are available locally and many are free to browse.
Tracing your family history may involve looking through a large number of original documents for the details you need, even if you have started out with web searching. On the following pages we have put together some advice and information on where to find out more about your Scottish ancestors. Advice on your family tree is available from staff, and you can look for information by visiting our archive or by using a professional researcher; sometimes you cannot see the family tree for the family forest!
There is a wealth of information available free of charge within Falkirk Archives to carry out your family history research. Before visiting us you will need to find out more about our archive and the types of materials we actually hold, then come along with as much information as you can on your family. You can check our finding-aids page for guides to our collections.
The main sources available for starting out with your family history research are:
- Old parish registers
- Census returns
- Poor relief records
- Burial records
- Valuation rolls
- Electoral Rolls
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Research Guides 1
