** Orkney RESOURCES **

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Some links to Orkney resources to aid research:

To help find things more quickly, resources have been grouped in categories.  The links here have been compiled from topics submitted by RootsChatters. Many thanks to everyone who has contributed   

New Links: If you have any useful links that can be included here, please start a new topic and a moderator will transfer the link to this topic. Broken Links: Occasionally, links change or are no longer available. If you find a link on this page that is no longer available, just click on the 'Report to Moderator' button on the r/h side bottom corner, with a brief description and that link can be modified or changed.


Archives
Orkney Islands Council - http://www.orkney.gov.uk
The Orkney Islands Council website has useful information for the genealogist and links to the library service.

Orkney Library & Archive
http://www.orkneylibrary.org.uk/
Contact: details: http://www.orkneylibrary.org.uk/html/contact.htm


Births, Marriages, Deaths, Burials
Some guides here on RootsChat to help you:
Where to start with Scottish Research? - www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,24468.0.html
Getting the best out of Scotlands People  - www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,562668.0.html
The Scottish Way of Birth and Death...(1855-1939)  www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,578172.0.html

Official website for Scotland(Paysite, free to search) - http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

South Ronaldsay and Burray Civil Registers - http://www.southronaldsay.net

Some Caithness, Orkney and Shetland births and baptisms, and marriages
http://www.cursiter.com/pages/indices.htm  Sept 18 - link reported as broken
Try http://www.cursiter.com/births_and_marriages/


For some more resources enter Orkney genealogy and Orkney family history in your favourite search-engines.

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Census Records
Original Census images(1841-1911)(Paysite) - http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

Transcriptions - https://www.freecen.org.uk/cgi/search.pl
1841 Census(Coverage: 100%)
1851 Census(Coverage: 100%)

1881 Census Residents of St Andrew's and Deerness Poorhouse Orkney
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Orkney/Deerness1881.shtml


Directories


Family History Groups
Orkney Family History Society - http://www.orkneyfhs.co.uk


Land Records and Maps
National Library of Scotland maps - http://maps.nls.uk/
24 Maps of Orkney and the Hebrides from 1564 to 1896
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genmaps/genfiles/COU_Pages/SCO_pages/oki.htm


New Links:If you have any useful links that can be included here, please start a new topic, and a moderator will transfer the link to this topic.

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Miscellaneous
Orkneyjar - The Heritage of the Orkney Islands.
http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/index.html

Orkney Genealogy - Family Heritage of the Orkney Islands of Scotland
http://www.cursiter.com/indexNC.shtml Also including Caithness and the Shetland Isles.
This website began in July 1997 as a personal genealogy page but has evolved into a site focused on the overall genealogy of the Orkney Islands of Scotland.  Its ultimate scope is all Orcadian surnames from all of the islands. All the data can be freely downloaded for non-commercial purposes.

The Hudson Bay Company have archived (in pdf  format) the details of personnel that worked for them in the past.
Hudson's Bay Company Archives - Biographical Sheets
http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/biographical/index.html

Hudson Bay Company and Stromness connection on this link -
http://www.orkneyjar.com/orkney/stromness/hbs.htm

Orkney GENUKI pages
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/OKI/

Orkney familysearch.wiki pages
https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Orkney,_Scotland
https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Category:Orkney

Orkney Wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkney
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Orkney


Newspapers
Some UK libraries give access to this site - http://gale.cengage.co.uk/

Paysite, free to search - http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/


Occupations
http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/


Pictures, Images and Photos
Orkney Image Library - http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/imagelibrary/
The Orkney Image Library contains images and anecdotes about the area. There are 8788 pictures and 13391 comments on the site for you to browse through. Images can be viewed by YEAR, by ALBUM, by GROUP, or by CONTRIBUTOR, or you can use the simple SEARCH at the top of this page.


Schools, Workhouses and other Institutions
Orkney Combination - http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Orkney


New Links:If you have any useful links that can be included here, please start a new topic, and a moderator will transfer the link to this topic.