|
Isometric Plan reproduced by Permission of ScotlandsPeople
ScotlandsPeople Centre , the new Scottish family history centre ,
is intended to offer enhanced facilities for visitors, improved disabled
access, plus exhibition and retail spaces . Online and other facilities
are being integrated to provide an enhanced service to family historians.
|
Scotlands People centre, the
name proposed for the integrated Scottish family history
centre for genealogy researchers, is gradually nearing completion in Edinburgh.
Scotland's
People Centre will be a 'one-stop-shop' for Scottish genealogy research in
the centre of Edinburgh by bringing together services previously provided separately by
project partners, namely the General Register Office for Scotland, National Archives of
Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon
|
|
|
Scotlands People Centre
is intended to be a centre of excellence for Scottish family history, exploiting the prime location of the
historic
buildings within the heart of Eduiburgh , which are a tourist attraction in their own right. Key
benefits:
-
Enhanced online and
off-line facilities
for all users
-
Creation of two new
search rooms
-
Improved disabled
access
-
Seminar and
exhibition space
-
Retail space and
reception area
-
New entrance at
east of new Register House
|
 |
|
The National Archives of Scotland's headquarters, General Register House, is one of the oldest custom built
Government archive buildings still in continuous use in the world.
In the mid-1700's the need to provide accommodation for the national archives was widely
recognised. In 1765 a grant of £12,000 was obtained to carry out the work and a site was chosen fronting the end of the North Bridge then under construction. The eminent architect Robert Adam and his brother James were selected for the project.
Robert Adam died suddenly in 1792 before his building was complete. The architect Robert Reid finished the
design, including the interior in the 1820s.
|
The programme of reconstruction was developed in consultation with Historic Scotland as both buildings have grade ‘A’ listed status.
Until now, the main records which people could access as as the basis for their family history
searches were held by three separate institutions:
* General Register Office for Scotland (GROS)
* National Archives of Scotland (NAS)
* Court of the Lord Lyon
They occupy the two key buildings – General Register House and New Register House –
adjacent to each other at Edinburgh's East End of Princes Street.
|
|
The integrated Scottish Family History
Centre
which has been named ScotlandsPeople Centre will continue the work already
advanced in creating digital images of the Scottish records, and online versions of indexes.
Staff will be able to offer a more comprehensive service to
visitors, and so exploit more fully the visitor potential of these
historic Register House buildings.
The main objective of the project is to create a Scottish family history centre at the Register House campus
in Edinburgh which is
fully integrated both behind the scenes, and to the customers who
visit.
|
The New Register House site was acquired in 1859. The building was first occupied in 1861 and completed in 1863. The main feature of this building is the fireproof central repository, the Dome, which consists of five tiers of ironwork shelving and galleries – totalling over 27 metres high.
The Dome contains 6.5km of shelving upon which sit some half a million volumes. These include some 400,000 statutory registers of all the births, deaths and marriages in Scotland since 1855 and open Census records from 1841 to 1891.
|
Not able to visit
Edinburgh anytime soon? Don't worry.
We are here now at Scots Family to offer you a first class
Scottish genealogy history research service on the records of Scotland's
people .
|
