Moray is surprisingly rich in ancestral research resources. Researchers have access to a variety of useful sources and the principal ones are described here. Don’t hesitate to contact any of the organizations and ask for advice or assistance.

 

The Moray Registration Service

The Moray Registration Service has premises in Elgin, Forres, Buckie and Keith. As well as its responsibilities for ongoing registration of vital events in Moray, it also offers an ancestry research service for a reasonable fee.

As well as registration information, the Registration offices also have the burial records (lair books) for their areas dating back to 1855 and can therefore often locate the precise burial locations of your ancestors. Access to this information, and in the original record books, is of enormous benefit to ancestral researchers, particularly since only some burials were marked by headstones and not all headstones survive.

Note that the Registration Service can only assist with genealogy queries. For broader ancestral research enquiries customers are referred to the Local Heritage Centre.

Web: www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_39787.html
Email: elgin.registrar@moray.gov.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1343 554600

Moray Council Local Heritage Service

The Moray Council Local Heritage Service is based at East End School in Elgin. Staffed by the local heritage officer and an assistant, the service has access to an extensive collection of material relating to Moray and its people including –

• Ancestral research records including –
  • Old Parish Registers prior to 1855
  • Non-established church records
  • Census records 1841 – 1901
  • Gravestone inscriptions
• Books and pamphlets relating to Moray. Local libraries hold duplicate copies of locally relevant material, where available
• Newspapers
• Photographs (over 20,000 photographs and slides)
• Maps (over 16,000 maps)
  
• Archives dating from the 13th century to the present
• Architects’ Plans. Some parts of this collection are of national importance

A key tool in accessing this collection is LIBINDX, the local heritage index of people, places and subjects. The index can be searched in person at the Local Heritage centre or online via the local heritage service web site1.

The Local Heritage Service offers a research service, for a fee.

Web: www.moray.gov.uk/LocalHeritage/Assets/html_pages/morayheritage.html
Email: heritage@moray.gov.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1343 569011

Aberdeen and North East Scotland Family History Society

The Aberdeen and North East Scotland Family History Society is, with some 6000 members, the biggest in Scotland and has a research centre, bookshop and library in premises in King Street, Aberdeen. Members can use the research centre free of charge; non-members are asked to make a small donation.

The Society’s web site provides information about the society and its resources. One of the society’s major activities is the recording of monumental inscriptions found in burial grounds throughout the area. There is a particularly useful Google Maps-driven tool available2 on the web site, providing information about burial grounds.

Web: www.anesfhs.org.uk
Email: enquiries@anesfhs.org.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1224 646323

Moray Burial Ground Research Group

The work of the Moray Burial Ground Research Group is complementary to that of the family history society. The group is surveying the 140 or so public and private cemeteries in Moray and Banff, locating, conserving and recording tombstones.

The MBGRG web site provides information about the group’s activities and includes two invaluable online surname indices containing around 13,700 names.

Web: www.mbgrg.org
Email: secretary@mbgrg.org

 

Conclusion

Good luck in exploring your Moray ancestry. Don’t forget that walking in your ancestors’ footsteps is as much part of your research as tracing your family tree online.

We look forward to welcoming you home to Moray.

Cameron Taylor,

Ancestral Moray and Author of 'Rooted in Scotland: Getting to the heart of your Scottish heritage' www.rootedinscotland.com