Aberdeen Family History Society Offers Genealogy Resources & Services

If you are tracking down your Forbes ancestors in Scotland, one great resource is the Aberdeen & North-East Scotland Family History Society. For their members, the Society offers many records at their research center, a number of publications including a quarterly journal, and valuable research assistance for a nominal fee plus expenses.

The Society assists and promotes the study of genealogy and family history based on the North-East corner of Scotland. This area covers the old counties of Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, Kincardineshire and Morayshire. Since its founding in 1978, the Society has attracted more than 21,000 members. Membership of the Society is by annual subscription. Every member receives four issues of the Society’s Journal and full access to its website and its Research Centre in Aberdeen. The Society gathers throughout the year and features topics of interest to family historians. The gatherings are held in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Elgin, Glasgow and in the West Midlands of England. Out-of-area members can request research assistance into N.E. Scotland ancestry by Society volunteers, at a nominal charge plus expenses.

In 1987, the Society opened its Research Centre in the center of Aberdeen. This was the first family history centre in the country. The Centre is open to Society members and members of other Scottish Family History Societies. The general public must pay a fee. The Centre maintains over 5,500 books, plus journals from other societies worldwide, magazines, ancestor charts and maps, microfilm, microfiche and CD resources. In addition to its own publications, the Centre offers a comprehensive range of publications is stocked, including those of other Scottish Societies and the Federation of Family History Societies.

The Society’s most recent publication is The Kirkyards of Forbes, Kearn and Tullynessle with the complete memorial inscriptions for these graveyards. The hilly country to the north-west of Alford originally included four separate parishes: Auchindoir, Forbes, Kearn, and Tullynessle. Due to the decreasing populations, these parishes have undergone various re-configurations. In 1808, they were consolidated into just two: to the northwest, “Auchindoir and Kearn”, and to the southeast, “Tullynessle and Forbes”. This has resulted in some confusion in the written records and more particularly in the memorial inscriptions, since, whatever the “official” position, people continued to use their families’ traditional burial grounds long after the individual kirks were abandoned and their congregations assigned to new parishes.

For more information about this publication, other genealogical resources, Society membership, and research services, please visit https://www.anesfhs.org.uk/guest-home or their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/anesfhs.