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Arranging a visit to the Library
or Archive
By appointment only: please give
advance warning to ensure the Curator is available.
For further details, see 'Using
the library'
Records Held in the Museum
Library
The following records and maps are the raw material on which
any research into family and croft history is based. Our collection so far,
includes : -
Census records
Gairloch Parish, 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 in
the form of copies on microfilm. The 1881 British Census and National Index on
CD ROM.
The Old Parochial Register (OPR)
The OPR's for Gairloch, Lochbroom
and Applecross Parishes; again, in the form of copies on microfilm.
These are a list of the Births or Baptisms and Marriages (but not Deaths) in
each parish, and for our area they begin about 1790. They continue until 1855,
when the Statutory Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths superseded them.
These Statutory Registers for the whole of Scotland may be seen at the
Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh. For Ross-shire there is a copy of them at
the Registry Office in Dingwall, which one can make an appointment to consult.
But unfortunately no other copies of these are available, so we have no copies
of the Statutory Register in the museum. The OPR's are only partially
complete, and probably only about half of the births/baptisms and marriages
were entered in them, but nevertheless they are an extremely valuable record.
Rental Lists and Rent Books
The Lists and Books for Gairloch Estate, in the
form of photocopies obtained from the Gairloch Estate archives at Conon House,
and kindly made available to us by John Mackenzie of Gairloch. These give the
names of all people on Gairloch Estate who paid rent to the Laird, and at
Conon House. They run from 1704 till the present day, with some gaps in the
earlier period. So far we have copies in the museum for up until 1860, but we
hope to get the whole run of them in the future.
Lists of Tacks and Minutes
of Sett
The Lists and Minutes for Gairloch Estate, from Conon House. These are the
documents that give the conditions under which the tenants of the time (called
Tacksmen) held their tenancy, and they run from 1770's till 1820's. They are
valuable because they give details of how the rent is to be paid, boundaries
of land, and sometimes (if one is lucky) family relationships.
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Other records
Various other Estate
papers, many of which give names of people in various connections, and
which can be helpful.
Valuation Rolls for Gairloch, for the 1870's to
1890's.
A list of 1798, made for the Napoleonic Wars, of
men in Gairloch who were aged 15 to 60.
Maps
The library also has copies of maps that are relevant to the
Gairloch area (with the exception of the current OS maps and plans, that are
unfortunately too expensive for us to purchase). These include: -
Ordnance Survey
1st and 2nd edition 6-inch maps, and
1:2,500 plans where these were made, 1881 and 1905. These show every house
(and in the case of the 1:2,500 plan every henhouse and bush) in the parish as
they were at the time of the survey.
Admiralty Chart of 1857
This is not very detailed but is sometimes of great help.
Gairloch Estate Plan of 1845
This plan was drawn up in order to plan the layout of the
Gairloch crofts, when the crofting system was introduced in 1846. It shows all
buildings and field boundaries in the Estate, as they were in 1845.
Other Maps and Plans
Various other earlier maps and plans are held, one of which, the
Military Survey of 1750, is the earliest map we have found of Gairloch to show
any sort of detail.
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