Renfrewshire residents get chance to research their roots

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The event will showcase a new electronic family history search facility, whereby local residents can view digital copies of records dating back to 1855 under guidance from a registrar.

Staff will also take visitors through:

• records of births, deaths and marriages from 1855 to 2006
• old parish records from 1553 to 1854
• Scotland’s census records from 1841 to 1901, and
• most divorce images from 1984 to 2008.

Councillor Allan Noon, convener of Renfrewshire Council's general management policy board, said: "There's a growing interest from people everywhere in tracing family history, and we want to tap into this and encourage local people to make use of the facilities we have here. New information technology means we can create digital copies of more and more of the records we have, and it's so easy now to search these records and find out what you want to know."

"I'd encourage anyone who has ever thought about tracing their family history to come along on Saturday and see what we can offer."

Renfrewshire Council's registration services also offer assisted genealogical searches by appointment on 0141 840 3362.

Many other sources of information can be accessed at the Local Studies Library (LSL) in Paisley Central Library, whilst the Paisley Museum and Art Galleries hold a collection of over 20,000 historic photographs and Renfrewshire Council's cemeteries section has extensive burial records.

Press release: Friday 23 May 2008