***LINKS to Renfrewshire Resources***

[RootsChat]

Some links to Renfrewshire 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

Renfrewshire has been divided into three Local Council areas for some time: Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire and Inverclyde. Archives centres and holdings will have some general material available, but also some more specific material more local to that specific Council area. Worth taking some time to see who may have more detailed records if this is what you need for your research.

• Family History – sources in Renfrewshire Coucil area- renfrewshire.gov.uk Libraries Local+and+family+history, Tracing+your+family+history  http://www.rootschat.com/links/01lo2/
  
• Inverclyde Council and family history - https://www.inverclyde.gov.uk/community-life-and-leisure/heritage/family-history
• East Renfrewshire resources for family history - https://www.ercultureandleisure.org/heritage
• Special Collections at the Local Studies Library in Paisley - https://www.renfrewshireleisure.com/paisleymuseum/local-history-collection/
• Resources and material held at the Watt Library in Greenock - https://www.inverclyde.gov.uk/community-life-and-leisure/libraries
• East Renfrewshire’s dedicated site, Portal to the Past - www.portaltothepast.co.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3093

Birth, Marriage and Death Records

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
• The Watt Library index of family history notices. To quote from their site: Intimations is the Watt Library's index of family history notices posted in the local press from 1800 until 1915. The index contains many fascinating details about local births, marriages and deaths as seen in the pages of the Greenock Advertiser, Greenock Telegraph and other local papers - http://www.inverclyde.gov.uk/community-life-and-leisure/libraries/archives-local-history-and-heritage/family-history and the not too long released ‘Intimations 11’ http://www.inverclyde.gov.uk/community-life-and-leisure/libraries/archives-local-history-and-heritage/family-history/intimations-ii

[MonicaL]

Burials and Monumental Inscriptions

• Burial records and war memorials details from Renfrewshire Council site - http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/webcontent/home/services/libraries/local+and+family+history/special+collections/es-sj-cemeteries-lib-altlink 
• Monumental inscriptions and mortcloth records from Renfrewshire Council - www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/webcontent/home/services/libraries/local+and+family+history/special+collections/els-pl-death-and-burial-records
• Mearns Kirkyard Project - www.mearnskirkyardproject.co.uk/index.asp
• Much more recent and current - obituaries from the Greenock Telegraph - www.legacy.com/obituaries/greenocktelegraph-uk/

Census

• Freecen - https://www.freecen.org.uk/cgi/search.pl has now excellent coverage of the earlier censuses.  It currently has 100% coverage of the Renfrewshire area in the 1841 , 1851 , 1861 , and 1871 Census. These are transcripts compiled by volunteers.
  Original images for the 1841 - 1911 censuses are only available from the pay to view site www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
• Researchers often look to what may be available before the start of the censuses as we know them, from 1841. This provides an excellent summary of what is available across the whole of Scotland and locations of archive documents or material - www.myainfolk.com/Resources_files/Scottish_Population_Listings_Pre1841.pdf

Family History Groups

• Renfrewshire Family History Society - www.renfrewshirefhs.co.uk
• The Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society - www.gwsfhs.org.uk/
• Mearns History Group - www.mearnshistory.org.uk/index.html
• Pollokshaws Heritage Group - www.pollokshaws.org.uk/index.asp

History and General information

• Renfrewshire GENUKI pages - www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/RFW
• FamilySearch.wiki pages for Renfrewshire - https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Renfrewshire,_Scotland and also see https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Category:Renfrewshire
• Renfrewshire Wikipedia pages see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renfrewshire  and also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Renfrewshire

Images and Photograph Archives and Collections

• The Geograph Britain and Ireland project has a growing collection of photographs - www.geograph.org.uk
• National Library of Scotland - Scottish Screen Archives – Renfrewshire - http://ssa.nls.uk/search.cfm?search_mode=Browse&sid=03.01&location=34|Renfrewshire
• The George Washington Wilson Collection of Photographs - Renfrewshire www.rootschat.com/links/0o83/   Main index for the Collection for Scotland www.rootschat.com/links/0o7x/

[MonicaL]

Maps

• County maps of Scotland -  www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/
• Parish maps of Renfrewshire - www.scotlandsfamily.com/parish-map-stirling.htm
• National Library of Scotland Town maps - http://maps.nls.uk/towns/index.html  See also www.nls.uk/collections/maps
• A further collection of maps - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genmaps/genfiles/COU_Pages/SCO_pages/rfw.htm
• Great new (modern) mapping site, 'Where's the Path?' - Free Ordnance Survey Mapping side by side with Google Aerial Imagery. Just insert place name on the l/h side box at the top, the select a place http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm Great mapping site for those more remote places! Also covers more populated areas.

Mining

• Great resource for the research into Scottish mining and people - www.scottishmining.co.uk/155.html

Miscellaneous – a number of links by place and some more general information

• Post Office Directories for the Renfrewshire area - www.nls.uk/family-history/directories/post-office/index.cfm?place=Renfrewshire and www.nls.uk/family-history/directories/post-office/index.cfm?place=Greenock  New release of later directories here http://archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Ascottishdirectories&sort=-publicdate
• Paisley Online - www.paisleyonline.co.uk/html/history.html
• Greenock bombing post here on RC - www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,340669.10.html
• A history of Port Glasgow - www.portglasgow4u.co.uk/

Newspapers

• Summary of historical newspaper holdings at the Local Studies Library in Paisley - www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/ilwwcm/publishing.nsf/Content/els-pl-local-newspapers
• New online historical newspapers archives. Pay to view but some general info available first from the free searches  - www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
• Other online sites for historical newspapers, 17th to 19th Century, and with some Scottish coverage include http://gale.cengage.co.uk/  Some UK libraries give access to this site to local Library members.
• A guide to Scottish Newspaper Indexes by the National Library of Scotland www.nls.uk/collections/newspapers/indexes/index.cfm

Workhouses

• Workhouse Locations, Scottish Poorhouses - Renfrewshire. There are five locations included for the Renfrewshire area.

Paisley Poorhouse
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Paisley

Renfrewshire Combination
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Renfrewshire

Abbey, Paisley Poorhouse
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Abbey

Greenock Poorhouse
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Greenock

• A list of poor rolls, registers of poor, volumes of poor relief applications and various other records containing lists of paupers for parishes in Scotland. A great summary of what is actually available by parish and where to look for the records that remain - www.myainfolk.com/Resources_files/Records_of_the_Scottish_Poor.pdf