Scottish Genealogy Books

 

Directory of Scottish Settlers in North America, 1625-1825 Vol. VI 
by David Dobson
This is the sixth volume of Dobson's unique Scottish Settlers series and it contains abstracts of data from the Edinburgh Register of Deeds, which recorded not only deeds but any document thought to be important, such as marriage contracts, powers of attorney, and commercial agreements. The material in this volume relates to Scots living or dying in North America, or having any commercial or legal intercourse with America, for the period 1750-1825. About 600 Scots and their activities are covered.

Epitaphs and Images from Scottish Graveyards
by Betty Willsher
Special Order

The Great Historic Families of Scotland 2nd edition (2 Vols)
by James Taylor
Book Description: One of the great genealogical compendia of Scottish families, Taylor's Historic Families of Scotland has been in constant demand since its original appearance at the end of the 19th century. According to one review, it would be welcome by those who valued high standards of genealogical research and delighted in the romance of history. Equally important, from the genealogist's point of view, is the fact that the fifty or so main families selected for inclusion are thoroughly representative in character and are the progenitors of untold numbers of people living today. As might be expected of such a work, the narrative traces the families from their earliest recorded origins all the way up to the end of the 19th century.
Hardcover: 841 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 2.00 x 8.75 x 5.75
Publisher: Clearfield Co; ; 2nd edition (December )
ISBN: 0806314648

Scots in the Mid-Atlantic Colonies, 1635-1783
by David Dobson
Publisher: Genealogical Publishing Company;

Scots in the Mid-Atlantic States, 1783-1883
by David Dobson

Scottish-American Wills 1650-1900
by David Dobson
Book Description Between the years 1650 and 1900, over 2,000 Scots, resident in North America, chose to have their wills registered and confirmed in Scotland rather than in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, which traditionally had jurisdiction in probate matters affecting British subjects who died overseas. This book is essentially an index to those wills, with supplementary data extracted from a government publication titled Index to Personal Estates of Defuncts, 1846-1866. Information given with each entry includes the name of the testator, his place of residence in North America, his occupation (where known), sometimes his former place of residence in Scotland, and the date of his death or the date the will was registered.

Scottish-American Court Records, 1733-1783
by David Dobson
Book Description The political union of Scotland and England in 1707 led to a rapid expansion of Scottish economic links with the American colonies, especially on the Chesapeake, where in the years prior to the Revolution the tobacco trade was controlled by Glasgow-based merchants and their factors. Evidence of this economic expansion and the subsequent settlement of Scots in America exists in a wide range of documentary sources in Scotland, including the records of the Scottish court system which have been deposited in the Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh. This present work is a digest of such evidence and is based on the minute books of the Court of Session (the highest civil court) and those of the High Court of the Admiralty (which had jurisdiction in all seafaring and maritime cases) for the period 1733-1783. In essence it identifies those people resident in North America who were engaged in litigation in Scotland and whose cases came before the aforementioned courts.

Scots In Georgia and the Deep South, 1733-1845
by David Dobson
During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the area now known as Georgia was a buffer zone between British-governed South Carolina and Spanish-governed Florida. Settlement of the region by the British did not take place until 1732 when James Oglethorpe established the colony of Georgia as a refuge for English debtors, paupers, and discharged prisoners. Scottish immigration to the colony commenced almost at the same time, however, and was made up of two distinct categories of immigrants: Lowlanders and Highlanders. Lowlanders immigrated for purely economic reasons, as farmers and later as merchants; while Highlanders were recruited to the colony for strategic purposes, basically to guard the southern frontier from Spanish incursions.

Somewhat later, at the conclusion of the French and Indian War in 1763, the Spanish withdrew from Florida. The removal of the Spanish threat and the acquisition of new lands by the British led to an influx of settlers, including Scots, into Florida and as far west as Mobile. Many of the earliest settlers in the area were former Scottish soldiers and indentured servants, awarded land on the condition that they develop it and settle other immigrants on the land within a few years.

This new work by the prolific Scottish author David Dobson contains the names of several thousand Scots who immigrated to Georgia and the Deep South, settling in the area sometime between 1735 and 1845. Based on probate records, court records, family papers, newspapers and journals, naturalization papers, church registers, gravestone inscriptions, printed sources, and census returns, the information provided in this book is of a broad and mixed character, generally giving some or all of the following details: name, place and date of birth, occupation, place and date of settlement in Georgia or the Deep South, and names of wives and children.

If you're looking for a Scottish ancestor who hasn't shown up in any of Mr. Dobson's other books, this could be your answer.

Scottish Maritime Records 1600-1850 : A Guide for Family Historians
by David Dobson
The aim of this pamphlet is to provide a Scottish sourcebook for the period 1600-1850 which identifies the range of maritime sources available and where relevant information both published and manuscript can be located within Scotland. The author breaks down the broad range of maritime records into the following seven categories: Royal Navy, Merchant Navy, Fishing, Whaling and Smuggling, Privateers and Pirates, The Slave Trade, and Court Records (including the High Court of Admiralty of Scotland, and the Court of Session). In each case, he provides an historical introduction to a particular record classification, as it impinges on the availability of the records in question. Mr. Dobson then goes on to itemize the key manuscript collections, the repositories where they may be found, and a number of books and articles which promise to shed additional light on each of the record groups.

Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History
by George F. Black
Hardcover: 910 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.75 x 9.00 x 6.25
Publisher: New York Public Library; ; Reprint edition ()
ISBN: 0871041723

Scottish Monuments and Tombstones Volume 1
by Charles Rodgers, Charles Rogers, LL.D Charles Rogers
Book Description: Information from about 250 parishes, grouped by county. While the two volumes do not cover every Scottish parish, "the omissions are not very numerous." Volume 1. The counties covered in this volume are: Ayrshire, Berwickshire, Dumfriesshire, Edinburghshire, Hadding-tonshire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Lanarkshire, Linlithgowshire, Peeblesshire, Renfrewshire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire and Wigtonshire. Tombstones are dated as early as the 13th century.
Paperback: 534 pages
Publisher: Heritage Books Inc; ; Reprint edition
ISBN: 0788406841

Scottish Medical Societies 1731-1939 : Their History and Records
by Jacqueline Jenkinson

Scottish Traveler Tales : Lives Shaped Through Stories
by Donald Braid
Hardcover: 313 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.17 x 9.18 x 6.34
Publisher: Univ Pr of Mississippi; ;
ISBN: 1578064503

American Data from the Records of the High Court of the Admiralty of Scotland, 1675-1800
by David Dobson
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Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada Before Confederation: Volume 1
by Donald Whyte
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Scottish Soldiers in Colonial America : In Two Parts (2 Volumes in 1)
by David Dobson
Scottish soldiers played an important role in defending the American colonies and in settling them. Around the middle of the 18th century, the British government began to dispatch Highland Regiments, such as Fraser's Highlanders, the Black Watch, and Montgomery's Highlanders, to America. The French and Indain War of 1756-1763, in particular, led to significant recruitment in Scotland for service in the American colonies. The experience gained by these soldiers was to influence their decision to settle or emigrate, subsequently, to America. In this regard the allocation of land to former military personnel in the aftermath of that war was a major incentive. Not surprisingly, the massive increase in emigration to America from the Scottish Highlands that occurred in the decade of the French and Indian War resulted to some extent from the influence of returning soldiers. Scottish soldiers and former soldiers fought on both sides of the American Revolution, and following that conflict a number of Scottish Loyalists settled in what were to become Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec.

For this book, Scottish emigration authority David Dobson identified over a thousand Scottish solders in colonial America. The list of soldiers is arranged alphabetically and, while the descriptions vary widely, the researcher will discover some or all of the following information in each one: soldier's name, rank, military unit, date(s) and campaign(s) of service, place of birth, when arrived in North America, civilian occupation, date and place of death, and the source of the information. Because the Highlanders found here offer potential links between the New and Old Worlds, this ground-breaking book will be welcomed by all students of Scottish genealogy.
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Colonists from Scotland: Emigration to North America, 1707-1783
by Ian Charles Cargill Graham
This distinguished monograph, published originally by the Cornell University Press, is a treatise on the causes and character of Scottish emigration to North America prior to the American Revolution. Entire chapters are then devoted to Lowland and Highland emigration, forced transportation of felons and the drafting of Scottish troops to the colonies, rising rents and other factors in the Scottish social structure, and the British government's role in colonization. Three concluding chapters cover the geographical centers of Scottish settlement--especially the Carolinas, the formation of a Scottish merchant class, the role of the Society of Saint Andrews among Scottish-Americans, and the political conservatism or Toryism of many Scottish settlers during the American Revolution.
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The Historical Families of Dumfriesshire and the Border Wars
by George F. Black
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Scottish Quakers and America, 1650-1700
by David Dobson
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Scottish-American Heirs, 1683-1883
by David Dobson
In Scotland on the death of a landowner, the local sheriff held an inquest to establish the credentials of any person claiming to be the true and rightful heir to lands which were in the possession of the deceased at the time of his or her death. The documentary evidence associated with the inquest--taken by the sheriff to determine identities, relationships, and claims to property and known as the Services of Heirs--is a particularly valuable if little known genealogical source. The records of the Services of Heirs, now located at the Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh, provide authentic and reliable confirmation of the relationship between deceased individuals and their heirs. This makes the records an invaluable source for those seeking a trans-Atlantic family connection, as many of the entries link families in North America with Scotland. Indeed, David Dobson, the well-known Scottish authority, has found 2,657 trans-Atlantic links in the records--links providing irrefutable evidence of the relationship between families in America and families in Scotland. Taken directly from the records of the Services of Heirs, his new work contains abstracts of every Scottish-American connection found in the records in the 200 years between 1683 and 1883! As a rule, the abstracts give, for the deceased, his name, occupation, residence in Scotland, date of inquest, and relationship to heirs; for the heirs, name, occupation, place of residence in America, and relationship to the deceased. For convenience the abstracts are arranged alphabetically by the name of the deceased, while all other names mentioned in the abstracts are listed in the index. As far as Scottish genealogy goes, this is so good it's almost cheating!
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Scottish-American Gravestones, 1700-1900
by David Dobson
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Emigrants from Scotland to America 1774-1775
by Viola R. Cameron
Transcribed from old Treasury Papers in the Public Record Office in London, this work lists some 2,000 persons by age, station, occupation, residence in Scotland, destination in America, and reasons for emigrating. Various states along the eastern seaboard are noted as places of embarkation. This work is of great value in bridging the Atlantic during the tumultuous years 1774-1775.
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Scottish Settlers of America. The 17th and 18th Centuries
by Stephen M. Millett
Originally published in thirteen installments of U.S. Scots magazine, Dr. Millett's account of Scottish emigration to colonial America is, arguably, the best introduction to its subject. Based upon a careful reading of the recent secondary literature, the author draws the following conclusions about Scots colonists: (1) The principal motivation for Scottish emigration was self-improvement and economic gain; (2) Scottish settlers were ambitious and self-reliant; (3) Scottish emigrants arrived as families intending to stay; (4) Most Scottish settlers readily assimilated into colonial society; (5) The Scots favored certain parts of the colonies over others; and (6) The principal sources of identity for Scots were surname and family.

Dr. Millett develops these findings in considerable detail, of course, in chapters devoted to the Scottish homeland and its peoples, the push/pull of emigration/immigration, Scottish colonial settlements prior to 1707, and the establishment of the principal 18th-century Scottish communities along the Chesapeake, the Carolinas and Georgia, and throughout the Middle Colonies. In addition, a special chapter treats the role of Scots during the American Revolution, including the part played by Scottish Loyalists. While this is a book that is primarily historical and not genealogical, researchers will nonetheless find in it sketches of famous Scots like John Paul Jones and Hugh Mercer, not to mention invaluable narrative and statistical background information on the Scottish presence in the colonies.
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