Revised Opening Hours for our Archive and Search Room from 1 November

From 1 November until further notice, our Archive and Search Room at 52 Overhaugh St, Galashiels, won't be open on Fridays, except by prior arrangement.

Our new opening hours will be

• Mondays 6pm - 8pm
• Tuesdays 10am - 4pm 
• Thursdays 10am - 4pm 

If you're unable to come on those days, we may be able to arrange access at other times by reservation at least a week in advance.

Please note that the archive and search room will be closed between 19 December 2015 and 10 January 2016.

For reservations, please make an Archive Appointment Request quoting your email address as well your name, and desired appointment date and time.
Please make sure you have confirmation before assuming the booking is definite.
We would appreciate as much prior notice as possible.
You can phone us on +44 01896 750387 during working hours.
We're sorry but we can't phone you back.

Talk at Melrose on 25 October - 'The pre-1855 Parish Registers of the Roman Catholic Church' cancelled

Unfortunately, tomorrows speaker Donna Maguire will not be able to present her talk on The pre-1855 Parish Registers of the Roman Catholic Church'.   We will still be there, at the Corn Exchange and Ormiston Institute, Market Square, Melrose, TD6 9PN from 2.30pm with other talks, still to be confirmed and to help with your family history queries.

Find us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/BordersFHS
Follow us on twitter @BordersFHS

Next Talk at Melrose on 25 October - 'The pre-1855 Parish Registers of the Roman Catholic Church'

Our next talk is this Sunday, 25 October when Donna Maguire, archivist and records manager to the Bishops Conference of Scotland, is coming to speak to us.

The title of her talk is ‘The pre-1855 Parish Registers of the Roman Catholic Church'. The talk takes place at the Corn Exchange and Ormiston Institute, Market Square, Melrose, TD6 9PN. Map.

I’m eagerly looking forward to this talk. Donna is going to tell us about the Catholic registers for parishes that were founded before 1855, the six Scottish dioceses and the records of the Bishops Conference of Scotland and its agencies.

I warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not.

Doors open at 2pm; the talk begins at 2.30pm.

Knowing how to find Catholic records is vital in family history, even if you think you have no Catholics in your family, you may be wrong, as I was.

I suggest you come early to get a good seat.
We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy, and there’ll be light refreshments (donation expected) available after the talk.
If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it with one of our volunteers.

A Choice of History Events, This Weekend

It's not often you get a choice, but this Saturday you can choose between the Mormons' Family History Fair (or Family Discovery Day) at Edinburgh or the first day of the 300th anniversary of Northumbrian Jacobites capturing Holy Island castle and blowing up part of Castlegate in Berwick.

If you can afford the whole weekend, I suggest going to the Mormons' Family History Fair at Edinburgh on Saturday and the 1715 anniversary on Sunday.

Edinburgh Family History Fair or Family Discovery Day, 10 October

 

 Variously billed as Edinburgh Family History Fair or Edinburgh Family Discovery Day, this event hosted by Edinburgh Family History Centre (also known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Edinburgh) offers talks, workshops and stands by various family history societies.

If you missed the Berwick 900 Family History Festival, here's a chance to follow up on your family history.

The event's address is 30a Colinton Road, Edinburgh but the car park's in Spylaw Road, opposite the Steiner School and that's easier to find.

Registration 8.30-9.30am.

Welcome 9.30-9.45am.

Presentations start 10.00am.

The following will have stands:

Aberdeen & NE Scotland FHS
Edinburgh Libraries
Lanarkshire Family History Society
SAFHS
The Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society
The Lothians Family History Society
The Scottish Genealogy Society
West Lothian Family History Society

Talks and workshops:

plus Roots Tech recordings:

Roots Tech 2015 video recordings (in order of presentation):
Tracing your British and Irish Roots with findmypast (60 mins) Elaine Collins
Finding the Living among the Dead: Using the Internet to Find Your Living Cousins (53 mins) Amy Archibald
Building a Genealogy Research Toolbox (44 mins) Thomas MacEntee
6 Steps to Choreograph Your Research Across the Internet (48 mins) Janet Hovorka   
What I love about family history is that anyone can do it. (45 mins) Donny Osmond

Free Access Weekend to Ancestry UK

Another free access weekend from Ancestry UK but don't sit at home, alone.

Instead, come along to our stand at the Berwick 900 Family History Festival between 11am and 4pm, this weekend (3 and 4 October).

Free access is until midnight British Summer Time.

It's puzzling that the Ancestry page says "UK Records Free Access" but lists only immigration and emigration records.

The records include:

• 19th-Century Emigration from Kreis Simmern (Hunsrueck), Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany to Brazil, England, Russian Poland, and USA
• A List of Emigrants from England to America, 1682-1692 and 1718-1759
• American Migrations 1765-1799
• An Alphabetical Index to Ulster Emigration to Philadelphia, 1803-1850

Please note you'll need to login (and register if you haven't logged in before.