Thank you Mitchell Library for removing a roadblock

[stewrat83]

Having made most of the common progress on our family tree, we had a massive roadblock in the form of my maternal grandfather who was generally understood to have been an orphan and boarded out to a highland estate to learn a trade etc.

All we had was a copy of registration of his birth with his birthday, place of birth (22 hope st) and mothers name.

With a common surname (Wilson) and so little to go on, I burned up a lot of credits on scotlandspeople - and some hours in their premises - without making any progress.

Last June I approached the archives at Mitchell Library (from a suggestion here I think but I cannot now find the thread) by email to see if they had any records relating to poor relief etc.

On the downside, it took until last week before they could look at my request, but they always acknowledged my prompts in the interim

On the upside, I received this weekend the most useful package of information from them that has opened doors to a whole area of our family history.

The detail is distressing - a young woman having to find her own way after the death of both parents, falling pregnant and the father disappearing, becoming ill, entering the poorhouse with a young son and dying weeks later.

But the detail in the records allows us to follow lines that were previously closed off, and to add a perspective to our family history that would have been sadly missing otherwise.

Thank you Mitchell Library!

Stewart

[rosie17]

The Mitchell Library is a great source of information we were searching for years for some relations and found all the information there brilliant 

[Janice M]

Thank you for sharing. It gives the rest of us hope, that we too will find our elusive ancestors.

I have also found the people at the Mitchell very helpful. So much so, that when I found a photo of my father in the ARP, I shared it with them, so that others could see it as well, and possibly find one of their relatives.