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The Armstrong Clan Society One Hundred Thousand Welcomes! |
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The Armstrong Clan Society has been organized to: 1) Seek friendship and unity among Armstrongs and associated families. 2) Provide for the preservation of Armstrong artifacts unique to the family and to maintain a library. 3) Serve as a genealogical and historical recorder of the membership, 4) Provide quarterly news, Armstrong history and genealogy via The Armstrong Chronicles, 5) Establish geographic membership representation.
Membership All Armstrongs, Croziers, Fairbairns, Groziers and Nixons, regardless of spelling, and their descendants, are eligible for full membership in The Society. All others interested in furthering the goals of The Society may become associate members. In the United States and Canada, dues are $25 per year, including two adults and all minor children. In all other countries dues are $35 per year, payable in US dollars click here to download a membership application.
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The Scottish Archive Network A popular web site for Scottish research is the Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) www.scan.org.uk It is maintained by the National Archives of Scotland and offers a wealth of information. New genealogists and researchers should consider make this site first stop.
About 10 years ago,
SCAN started a very large project.
That is to digitize and catalog archives from all of Scotland. On its
own web site and on two other related sites (
www.scottishhandwritting.com
and www.scottishdocuments.com ), one can
find a searchable catalog of thousands of
document collections. The collections are from other Scottish archives.
There are digital copies of over 600,000 Scottish wills and testaments from 1500 to 1901.
A large variety of online reference tools, publications, discussion groups and
web site links
Some
helpful features include: An Online Catalog. This catalog has the content of almost 30,000 collections in over 50 repositories across Scotland in summary form. Included are content from Scottish universities and the National Archives of Scotland. Also included are "focus" organizations like the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre and the Clan Donald Centre Library. All resources can be searched from this site. The "Family History Guide" has online step-by-step ways to plan genealogical research. Included are some key concepts for researching Scottish family history. Also included is how to locate and use civil registers, old parish registers, census returns. The "Knowledge Base" can be used for specific questions or more details on a Scottish research topic.Web site links and sources are arranged by record types. These include broadsides, passenger lists, wills and testaments, and subjects such as burghs, heraldry, poor relief, etc. as well as place names. The "Gazetteer of Scottish Places" contains information on specific towns. One can browse place names to determine how boundaries and jurisdictions have changed through the years. The "Glossary" is very useful when you encounter unfamiliar Scottish words or phrases. One can learn the meaning of words like "abuilyements" and "wadset." The "Scots Currency Converter" will explains about historical money, coinage and banking in Scotland.
The "Weights and Measures Guide"
can help explain old Scots measurements used in inventories and valuation rolls.
One can determine if
an 18th-century Scottish mile was equivalent to an
English mile. Clicking the Research Tools button will expose information that should be useful to both the beginner and seasoned genealogist.
Some tips for efficient searching: Start with a single word
query ( as part of a
topic, name, or place) in the "Any Text" line on the
search screen. If this query yields too many results, go back narrow the search by adding another word
or two. If a search for "Langholm", results in too many references, return to
the search screen and add "court" (be sure to check "and" in the "Options" at the bottom of
the screen). This will locate record descriptions containing both
"Langholm" and "court". This should yield a manageable
number of "hits". When looking for church records, enter the place name in the "Any Text" line, and "CH2" (a standard Scottish archives code for church records) in the "RefNo" line. When searching for a surname, you will need to try several different spellings. Armstrong is spelled over 50 different ways through the years. When searching for a specific individual, check "phrase" in the "Options" field and try different queries.
One can scan the contents at any
participating archive by selecting the repository name on the dropdown
list and clicking "Search."
The
online Directory provides
contact information and "virtual tours" of participating
archives, news about Scottish genealogical publications and links to other
useful Web sites. The Forum is a message board for queries. The Digital Archive is one of the most entertaining and educational parts of this web site. A vast amount of high quality digital images of historical documents, pictures and exhibitions on a wide variety of subjects is available here. One can spend as much viewing time as you want on the Digital Archive, because there is no charge for this service. Recently completed is a four year project for digitizing all wills and testaments registered in Scottish commissary and sheriffs courts from 1500 to 1901. www.scottishdocuments.com now makes these archives available. One can search a free index of more than 600,000 wills and testaments. For a low cost, digital copies can be downloaded. Rev 17 Jan 2011 |
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