What we offer
Lanarkshire Family History Society can offer a range of services including:-
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Resource Centre & Library
The Society research facility at 122-124 Merry Street in Motherwell is open to both members and non-members.
In the Centre, we have access to the following websites some of which are pay per view:-
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Scotland’s People
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Ancestry
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Find my Past
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FamilySearch
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Root’s Ireland.
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We also have an extensive library with over 2000 items.
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It is divided into sections starting with Scotland and arranged alphabetically by County, City or Region.
As the large proportion of stock covers Lanarkshire this is arranged alphabetically by topic for example Census,Trade/Industry, Schools, towns and villages etc.
Another section covers countries within the United Kingdom:-
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Scotland :- history, geography, language, clans and tartans.
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Ireland :- All things Irish including genealogy for the Island of Ireland.
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Britain :- England, Wales and Britain in general
A General section concentrates mainly on Family history where researchers can find an array of books on General Family History Research, some Individual family trees some of which have a Lanarkshire connections, Lists of the fallen from a range of conflicts including World War 1 and World War 2, General Military research including including regimental war diaries, medals and awards
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Our Final Section covers a range of other topics covering European research, maritime, migration, occupations and religion.
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Check out our centre opening hours
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Research Service
If you require some assistance with your research then help is at hand!
Understandably our Researchers are kept busy and as work is undertaken on a voluntary basis, we would ask for your patience.
*Please note that we do not research full family trees or try to find living relatives.
The more information you can provide the more likely the search will be successful though we cannot guarantee that we will find your ancestor.
*Please note that disabled and distant members are allowed 1 free research query which involves a look-up in records held in our Research Centre provided enough information is sent to us to do the research for you.
If you are coming to the centre to get some help with your research, please email us ahead of time to ensure that a researcher is available to assist you on the day.
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Military Groups
The Fallen of Lanarkshire
This is a project we began several years ago to construct a database of the names of those servicemen and women who fell in WW1 and who are recorded on Memorials, Plaques and Rolls of Honour located within Lanarkshire. The database aims to bring together, under a single name, all the locations where the individual is remembered. This includes details of reference books created by military researchers from the Society as well as other written sources which relate to that individual. To date over 10,000 names have been recorded.
The Society has within its membership a significant number of experienced military researchers who, over the years. have compiled many books in respect of the Fallen of Lanarkshire. The books contain detailed pen pictures of the service personnel concerned as well as a wealth of other material that could be useful to the family history researcher. Details of those books can be found in the Publications section of the website
The Lanarkshire Yeomanry
The Society has access to what is probably one of the most extensive collections of materials relating to the story of this Lanarkshire regiment. Formed in 1819, there were Squadrons of Lanarkshire Yeomanry based at Douglas. Lanark, Carnwath and Coatbridge as well as a Squadron based in Dumfries.
Throughout the 19th Century, the Yeomanry were largely used in a civil peacekeeping role as these were the days before organised police forces, although volunteers did serve as part of 17th Company of Imperial Yeomanry during the Boer War.
During WW1 the Regiment, then part of the Territorial Force, saw action at Gallipoli, the Middle East and Europe. The Society has the War Diaries of the Lanarkshire Yeomanry in WW1 which includes a Nominal Roll of all those who served at Gallipoli.
In WW2, the Lanarkshire Yeomanry formed two units of Field Artillery of the Royal Artillery: The 155th [Lanarkshire Yeomanry] Field Regiment RA saw action in the Far East and were taken POW on the Fall of Singapore. The Society has details, photographs and pen pictures of all of those men.
The other unit, the 156th [Lanarkshire Yeomanry] Field Regiment RA fought in Europe and again the Society has details and photographs of many of the men of this unit as well
Graveyard Group
The Graveyard Group has, for many years, been visiting Lanarkshire churchyards and municipal cemeteries and transcribing the inscriptions on the gravestones. Nowadays we also photgraph them
with the idea that the pictures are kept by the Society and made available on request to members.
The inscriptions are made into books which are published by the Society for the benefit of people wishing to research their Lanarkshire forbears. A lot of information is often listed on many of the stones, often including details of family members who are not actually buried there.
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There are future plans to make the inscriptions available as a PDF download and/or made available on a CD. Either of these formats can be purchased.
The group was led for many years by the late Janet Smith, assisted by Dallas Carter, Celia Gilfillan and Jessie Hamilton.
Dallas and Celia are still active and 2 new volunteers, Marjorie Allan and Jean Mitchell have since joined us. We are always looking for new volunteers, so anyone who is interested can contact us via the family history Society.
Our current project is St Patrick’s Cemetery in New Stevenston, which is about two thirds complete, we hope to have it finished this year. We estimate that the cemetery has approximately 5,500 graves.