Bruce Durie – författare

This fully revised and updated fourth edition of Scottish Genealogy is a comprehensive guide to tracing your family history in Scotland.Written by one of the most authoritative figures on the subject, the work is based on established genealogical practice and is designed to exploit the rich resources that Scotland has to offer. After all, this country has possibly the most complete and best-kept set of records and other documents in the world. Addressing the questions of DNA, palaeography and the vexed issues of clans, families and tartans, and with a new chapter on DNA and genetic genealogy, Bruce Durie presents a fascinating insight into discovering Scottish ancestors. He covers both physical and electronic sources, explains how to get beyond the standard ‘births, marriages and deaths plus census’ research, and reminds the reader that there are more tools than just the internet. Comparisons are made with records in England, Ireland and elsewhere, and all of the 28 million people who claim Scottish ancestry worldwide will find something in this book to challenge and stimulate. Informative and entertaining, this new edition is the definitive reader-friendly guide to genealogy and family history in Scotland.

Genealogists and local historians have probably seen every birth, marriage, death and census record available, and are adept at using the internet for research. However, once they have learnt everything they can from them, the next step is reading and understanding older documents. These can be hard to find (not many are online), are often written in challenging handwriting and use legal and other unfamiliar terms. Some will be in Latin, antiquated English or Scots. Readers need to be able to understand the nature and intent of a range of documents as well as the palaeography (the handwriting) and orthography (the ‘shape’ of the contents). In Understanding Documents for Genealogy and Local History, Dr Bruce Durie, the celebrated author of Scottish Genealogy, details how to find and comprehend documents from 1560 to the 1860s – wills, testaments, contracts, indentures and charters, land records (retours, sasines and manorial custumals), personal letters, official records, Church papers, trust dispositions, deeds and others. Also covered are the complexities of dates, numbers, calendars, measurements and money, abbreviations, transcription conventions, letter-forms and glossaries. A Latin primer completes the tool kit the genealogist and family historian will need to further their research.

Glasgow has one of the bloodiest and most tumultuous histories on record, riddled with plagues and pirate attacks, religious divides and reconciliations, bombs, executions, fires and floods. A city of slums and grandeur, of razor gangs and rebels, of sectarian violence and cultural assimilation, here you will find the best of the worst of Scotland’s greatest city.

This fascinating selection of photographs illustrates the extraordinary transformation that has taken place in Dunfermline over the past century. The book offers an insight into the daily lives and living conditions of local people and gives the reader a glimpse of familiar places during a period of unprecedented change. Many aspects of Dunfermline’s recent history are covered, famous occasions and individuals are remembered and the impact of national and international events is witnessed. The book provides a striking account of the changes that have taken place on the streets of the town and records the process of transformation. Drawing on detailed local knowledge of the community, and illustrated with a wealth of black and white photographs, this book recalls what has changed in Dunfermline in terms of buildings, traditions and ways of life. It also acknowledges and celebrates the character and energy of local people from the Victorian age to the twenty-first century.

This is not a guidebook. This little book brings together past and present to offer a taste of Glasgow. Learn about the movers and shakers who shaped this fantastic city. The great and the good; the bad and the ugly. Small wonders, tall stories, TRIUMPH and tragedy. Best places – worst places. Local lingo, architecture, green spaces, events, traditions, fact, fiction. Origins, evolution, future. Written by a local who knows what makes Glasgow tick.

Did you know? Edinburgh was the first city in the world to have its own fire brigade. Edinburgh is UNESCO’s first City of literature and its old and new towns are a World Heritage Site. Edinburgh is reputed to be one of the most haunted places in Europe and is home to the Mackenzie Poltergeist, the violent spirit of a seventeenth-century murderer and torturer Edinburgh has come a long way from its origins as a fort on top of a rock. Home to more festivals than any city could reasonably handle, Edinburgh manages to be at once stylish and raffish, historic and bang up-to-date. There is architecture, history, castles, palaces, museums, art galleries, theatre, great shopping, countryside and beaches… But there is even more to Edinburgh than that. This book tells all!