29 November 2019
|
FindMyPast has announced a new online collection spanning nearly five centuries of Dundee and Angus history and comprising six million records.
Published in association with Leisure and Culture Dundee, University of St Andrews Libraryand DC Thomson, the huge archive of historical documents and original photographs provides researchers worldwide with the opportunity to discover their connections to Dundee for the first time online.
Dundee-based Findmypast has scanned in full colour from paper originals where possible, and created a full name index. The new release brings together millions of complementary records from multiple institutions.
The records give names, dates, residences, occupations and document life events of the people of Dundee and Angus, including photographic records of streets and people - perfect for family history and social history. They contain some of the oldest photographs in existence, taken in the 1840s and showing parts of the city long gone.
Collection highlights
A particular highlight is a set of 50 images of ‘Dundee Old & New’ commissioned by the Dundee Police after the Improvement Act of 1871. This photographic album illustrates the changing landscape of a Victorian burgh in the firm grip of the Industrial Revolution through a unique ‘then and now’ perspective even at that time.
When used alongside tenancy and electoral records of the people who lived in these streets released at the same time and going back to as early as 1823, a detailed picture of the people of Dundee can be seen.
The new records include:
● Fully indexed images of more than 23,600 Obituaries from local Dundee newspapers ranging from 1869-2018, added to a national Scottish collection of over 600,000
● 2 million Valuation Rolls 1823-1938 for the county of Dundee & Angus
● Almost 4 million Dundee & Forfarshire (Angus) Electoral Registers 1857-1939
● Hundreds of thousands of indexed records of baptism, marriage & burial from across Dundee & Angus 1562-1855
● Portrait photographs of 318 male and female employees of DC Thomson who enlisted during the Second World War
● Over 5,000 comprehensively indexed original photographs of Dundee & Angus dating 1844-2010
QUICK LINK: 5 family history hacks to save you time
(images copyright University of St Andrews Library
Content continues after advertisements