Kirk Session Records: A Practical Guide, by Robin Urquhart
We were delighted to invite Robin Urquhart to talk to us about the Kirk Session Records, a series of books - or volumes - of minutes of meetings, which sometimes acted as accounting records and occasionally - very occasionally - listed some baptisms, marriages, or burials. A report on the meeting, and hopefully a video recording (there were technical difficulties beyond our control), will be available for members shortly.
Now that kirk session records are available online, family historians can use them much more readily than before. Some use them to hunt for information about specific births or marriages which might be missing from Old Parish Registers (OPRs). Others trawl through the records for a specific parish to find any information relating to specific families and to build a picture of everyday life of their ancestors.
Kirk session minute books and accounts are records of a court of law and can appear daunting at first to researchers who are only used to working with indexed and formatted records like census returns, statutory registers and OPRs. But, with a small amount of guidance, kirk session records are among the easiest legal records to understand and use.
Robin Urqhart was also the creator of the Scottish Handwriting website: www.scottishhandwriting.com.
- Date: 20th November 2021
- Saturday, 2.00pm
- Venue: Online via Zoom
- Speaker: Robin Urquhart
- Booking: meeting has ended
- Cost: members - free of charge
- Cost: non-members - £3.00
New Year Social and Quiz
Online via Zoom.
Meeting online, we can start off the New Year with some fun, bring our own coffee and mince pies, and enjoy quizzes hosted by our well-practised quiz-persons (politcal correctness bedevils copyrwriters) who will have spent many hours preparing their question sheets. Will you answer all the questions and win the prize (a round of applause!)?
2022 - the year that we start afresh with a varied offering of in-person meetings at Manchester Central Library and online meetings where we meet people from all over the world. We look forward to meeting you all as soon as possible.
Happy New Year!
- Date: 15th January 2022
- Saturday, 2.00pm
- Venue: Online via Zoom
- Speaker: Social event
- Booking: Eventbrite
- Cost: members - free of charge
- Cost: non-members - £3.00
- Image credit: hh
Banking Records in Scotland, by Sian Yates
Online via Zoom. The image for this talk is of Edinburgh's Museum on the Mound, the purpose-built head office of the Bank of Scotland, which is now also the Scottish headquarters for the Lloyds Banking Group.
Sian Yates is the archivist for the Museum on the Mound and her presentation will centre on the banking records that exist for Lloyds Bank. Other than that, we have to wait to see what Sian will reveal. But whilst we wait, my internet search for information let me to these two websites, which might well give us a flavour of the kind of detail we can expect.
Museum on the Mound
Lloyds Banking Group
- Date: 5th November 2022
- Saturday, 2.00pm
- Venue: Online via Zoom (but please check before booking)
- Speaker: Sian Yates
- Booking: Eventbrite
- Cost: members - free of charge
- Cost: non-members - £3.00
- Image credit: pjt56 at Wikipedia (with permission)
Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors at The National Archives, by Audrey Collins of TNA
Online via Zoom or in-person, to be confirmed.
Have you looked at The National Archives records to find your Scottish Ancestors? If not, you might be in for a surprise because TNA holds far more Scottish records than we might have imagined, and consequently they may hold records of value in your research.
Our speaker, Audrey Collins, in the Records Specialist for Family History at The National Archives, Kew and has many years of experience working this a huge range of records that interest family historians, but it seems that the Scottish records, sometimes misnamed in the past as 'Scotch' are a hidden treasure for most of us. The 'Scotch Rolls' are the Chancery rolls relating to Scottish Affairs and range from Margaret of Norway to licenses for students to study at Oxford and Cambridge.
This is sure to be a very popular talk, and early booking is recommended
- Date: 7th May 2022
- Saturday, 2.00pm
- Venue: Online via Zoom (but please check before booking)
- Speaker: Audrey Collins of TNA
- Booking: Eventbrite
- Cost: members - free of charge
- Cost: non-members - £3.00
- Image credit: Edinburgh, hh.
OUR PLANNED MEETINGS FOR 2021
Our Anglo Scots branch meetings for early 2022 will be held online via Zoom but, as venues reopen, we are planning different styles of meetings including being back at Manchester Central Library. Please check the meeting details on this page and on Eventbrite when booking in case things changes again, as many of our speakers are now able to switch between physical and online meetings if necessary.
Scroll down to see details of our planned meetings or go to where we meet for our physical in-person meetings.
Where we meet
Our Meeting Rooms
Light and airy, purpose built for meetings and events, and ample room to spread out the seating to comply with any restrictions that might be in place when meetings resume. All meeting rooms at Manchester Central Library are easily accessible.
Our Venue
The recently refurbished Manchester Central Library is our usual venue for our monthly meetings. Situated in the cultural heart of Manchester, the Metrolink station is at the front of the building and is the central part of a public transport system supporting the city and its outlying districts.
Important things to know
Meetings
In normal times the Anglo Scots hold meetings every month except August and December, usually on the 3rd Saturday of the month. Other local events and the availability of speakers may cause a change of date.
Covid-19
Meetings will be at Manchester Central Library and will, of course, be in line with any government guidelines that might be in force at the time. It remains possible that our calendar of events might be rescheduled.
Booking
Booking on Eventbrite is essential for meetings with invited speakers. Please follow us here, on Eventbrite and on social media to confirm dates and, for most meetings, check when booking opens on Eventbrite.
Meetings Archive
All of the Society meetings since November 2020, when meetings recommenced online. Where available, speakers notes are kept by each section. The list includes upcoming meetings and therefore provides a good overview of our meetings programme.
MANCHESTER & LANCASHIRE FHS was formed in 1964 and is now one of the largest family history societies in the world. Although the Society is united by a common interest in Genealogy and Family History, members also pursue interests in closely related fields.
