Family history resource pack

The Highland Archive Service helps hundreds of people find out about their family history every year. It can be a really interesting and fun thing to learn about. On this page you can watch videos about families in our collections, look at some examples of documents, and find some related activities!

Learn with Lorna videos about family history in the Highland Archive Service collections:

LWL 4: Family History LWL 19: Cameron of Lochiel LWL 25: Elizabeth McDermott, Jamaica LWL 30: The Fraser Tytler collection LWL 31: The Macdonald sisters LWL 74: The Baillie of Dunain collection LWL 99: The Davidson collection LWL 101: The Maclean sisters LWL 123: Cameron Head of Inverailort LWL 134: The Maclean family of Raasay LWL 138: Macleod of Cadboll LWL 145: The Sage Sutherland collection LWL 152: Munro of Novar LWL 159: The MacColl collection LWL 204: The Thom family of Canna

Family Trees

Many of the collections in our archive centres have been given to us by families, and they can be really useful for research, containing photographs, papers, and diaries. Some even include family trees, like the examples below.

A drawing of a plant, coloured brown and green, with names and dates of individuals handwritten onto each stem

Sage family tree male line, 19th C

An orange sheet of paper with a detailed family tree handwritten on it. A heading indicates it depicts the Genealogical Tree of Clan Gunn from the year 690 onwards.

Gunn family tree, 20thC

A large sheet of paper with a hand-drawn family tree. The heading indicates it depicts the genealogies of Clan Cholla/McColl

Genealogies of Clan MacColl, 20thC

Family Photographs

Families often take a lot of photographs! So when their records are given to an archive, there are usually photographs included. The images below show just some of the thousands of family photographs we care for in the Highland Archive Service.

A black and white photograph of a family seated on top of an elephant, which is being held by a man. Pen writing on the photograph indicates it was taken in Patna, India, in 1906

Macpherson of Biallid family in India, 1906

Sepia photograph showing a woman sitting on a chair holding an infant. A toddler stands behind her on the chair and a man is standing at the back.

John and Margaret MacLeod, n.d.

Black and white photograph showing a large group of people in formal dress and hats, sitting and standing in front of a backdrop of trees and bushes

Clan MacColl Society Gathering c1933

Other Records

You can find information about the history of a family in lots of different types of records. The images below show a general register of poor, a valuation roll and a school admission register, all of which can tell us about people who came before us. You can find out more about these types of record by using the links below the pictures.

A typed page with columns of information. The heading of the page reads 'Valuation roll of the county of Ross and Cromarty for the year 1940-1941. Parish of Lochcarron'. The column headings include 'No., Description and situation of subject, Proprietor, Tenant and Occupier'

Valuation roll for Lochcarron parish, 1940-41

A section of a page showing columns with typed headings including 'Date of admission, Name in full, address of parent/guardian'. The columns are completed with handwritten entries

Dochgarroch School Admission Register, 1880s

A page from a General Register of Poor for the parish of Inverness with printed headings including 'Name, Residence, Trade/Occupation'. A large amount of handwritten detail fills each colum/row.

Inverness Burgh General Register of Poor, 1915

Guide to poor relief records Guide to valuation rolls Guide to school records

Family history-related activities

Pick one person in your family (past or present), find out as much as you can about them and write an article about them. Why not include a drawing or a photograph?
Imagine someone is doing your family history 100 years from now. What do you want them to know about you? You could write a letter to be opened in the future or could use the spider diagram template to tell people about yourself. Have a look at Lorna’s for some ideas.
Draw or make a picture of a tree and add in drawings of all the people in your family.
If your surname is linked to a clan, why not try and find out a bit more about them? What was their tartan? Do they have a motto?
Draw a picture of your family outside your house!