The still growing popularity of research into family history for those people not only resident in Scotland but also for those scattered across the globe with ancestral links to Scots has undoubtedly been encouraged by the availability of online resources such as Scotland’s People.  Among other resources, this popular website holds birth, death & marriage records for the Church of Scotland and more recently for the Scottish Catholic Church.  As with all record types however, there are always gaps and

Would you like to help West Lothian Council Archives in its work of preserving and enabling access to its historic collections?  Anyone with spare-time and an interest in history or considering a career in the archives profession can volunteer in the Archives and Records Centre. Volunteering provides an opportunity to work within a small friendly team, to use existing skills and learn new ones.  It offers a unique perspective of archives and allows you to get up close and personal

The Titanic   On 14th April 1912 the jewel of the White Star Line, the ‘unsinkable Titanic, hit an iceberg. The massive hulk scraped the starboard side of the ship leaving a large gash. Water began to flood in, pouring over the bulkheads. It was soon clear that the ship could not be saved and the lifeboats were brought into action. But there were not enough spaces on the lifeboats, and some were even put to sea half empty. The

Pupils at Harrysmuir Primary visiting LDC HQ Livingston was designated as a New Town on April, 17th1962, with the promise that Livingston would have it’s first residents by 1964. 50 years later, we are getting ready to celebrate Livingston’s 50th birthday. This important year offers us the opportunity to reflect on the transformation of Livingston from a settlement of farms and villages to a vibrant and economically active town in the heart of Scotland. As part of the celebrations,  the Archives

                              One of our projects in Midlothian Local Studies is to catalogue a large collection of pamphlets that once belonged to William Hutton Marwick (1894-1982). Marwick was, amongst other many other accomplishments, professor of Economic History at the University of Edinburgh, a Quaker and committed pacifist. His collection includes many rare pamphlets about politics, economics, social issues, peace and religion. Amongst the collection are several small

The Archive and Local History Team is pleased to announce that we have officially moved to the John Gray Centre! And it certainly looks like the mess and perhaps the stress are all things that we need to remember and record for posterity. During this move the team have found themselves to be neck high in archive boxes, crates, brown paper, and miscellaneous packing equipment. The team has also had access to several rolls of six-foot high bubble wrap that has,

                    The village of Rosewell in Midlothian grew-up around the coal-mining industry. Mining had been taking place in theMidlothianarea since medieval times. Monks from Newbattle Abbey were known to work the local area. Whitehill colliery in Rosewell was owned by Wardlaw Ramsay. It was situated at the top end of the village where the houses ofRosedaleand Fairmeadow are now.  In 1856, Archibald Hood, an engine manager, acquired the lease for Whitehill

Thanks to the tremendous hard work carried out by our committed band of volunteers, we are creating several useful indexes to a few records within our extensive collections. The latest index to be completed relates to a Register of Inmates of Edinburgh Charity Workhouse between July 1835 and June 1841 (our ref. SL146/9/1). This index is now available on our website in the ‘Find out about records we hold‘ section, alongside our other completed project indexes for readers to search.

  Shelving has been installed in an additional store in Whitburn in order to increase records management storage capacity for the council.   Records management is an essential and core part of the work at the Archives and Records Centre.  Demand for storage space within WLC has been steadily increasing over the past few years due to a number of factors – legislation – FOI, DPA, EIR and now the Public Records Act; corporate restructure, due in part to cost-saving

Archives, though often mentioned in the same breath as museums and libraries, and though sharing some similarities with them, are different in several ways. One crucial distinction is that although museums hold original & unique artefacts, the public are seldom allowed contact with these; libraries on the other hand do allow handling of their holdings by users although they do not usually possess unique items.  Archives not only hold original and irreplaceable items but also provide ‘hands on’ access to