The Society's 2025 workshop programme is designed to help both members and non-members explore their Scottish ancestry in greater depth.
Beyond the Beginners class, these modules offer insights beyond standard birth, marriage, and death records. The cost for these classes is £10 for members and £15 for non-members, with payment required upfront. Please note that booking fees are non-refundable.
To reserve a spot in any of the Society's classes, please book online. Should you have any inquiries about the courses, feel free to email scotsgenpublicity@scotsgenealogy.com or visit us at the Family History Centre at 15 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2JL.
If you book a class and later find you are unable to attend, we kindly request that you inform us as soon as possible, as there is often a waiting list of individuals eager to participate.
A Beginners Course in Researching Your Scottish Family History starting 23rd September 2025
Book Here
This six-week Zoom course, tutored by Ken Nisbet, will look at the sources that are available both online and offline to help you start researching your Scottish family history. Importantly, we will also research other sources such as employment, military service, appearance in local newspapers, education, etc. Ken will also explain how to put the acquired information together to give an account of your relatives’ lives. The course is priced at £50; classes will all take place on Thursdays at 7pm, last for about two hours, and include time for a Q&A session.
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| Week 1: What is family history and how to create one? A detailed examination of Scottish Statutory Registration and the records created; looking at birth, marriage, and death records, 1855 to date; and how the rules about what constitutes a legal marriage have changed. |
| Week 2: Censuses from 1801 to 1911 and what the 1921 census contains Examples from 1841 to 1921 will be examined. We will also look at other lists such as valuation rolls, voters rolls, post office & trade directories which can help with research. |
| Week 3: Church records and where to find them Investigating the various kinds of records that exist – parish registers and kirk sessions, as well as examining how the Church of Scotland split and then reunited, and the effect it had on its records. We will also look at Roman Catholic Church records - what they are and where to find them. |
| Week 4: Education and employment records What records we can find on our ancestors’ schooling and further education; if they went to university; what employment records can be found online/offline; government employment, trade union records, railway, shipping & nursing etc; also a look at how to research industrial accidents. |
| Week 5: Military records from 17 to 20 Century Looking at what records are available and what they can tell us about our relatives’ service history. |
| Week 6: Introduction to the use of DNA in family history Ken will show us how to understand the information and how to put it together to make a family history. |
The full roster of our 2025 classes is viewable on the
Calendar and available to book in our online
Shop.