We're rolling out an exciting line-up of events throughout 2026 focusing on Scottish and American ties, history, culture and family connections.
These are in a variety of formats - from short talks to multi-week courses - both in-person and online. Speakers and educators include academics from Scottish Universities and expert Scottish genealogists.
Booking Link: coming soon.
Sailing to Philadelphia: Scottish sources for tracing emigrant ancestors. This presentation will help researchers to discover family members who have left Scotland, and the destinations where they eventually settled. Rather than looking at the obvious passenger lists, it will cover less well-used records such as poor relief applications, estate papers, and gravestones. This talk will be held online and a recording will be available to participants for two weeks post-event.
Date & Time: 16 April, 18.00-19.15 BST
Speaker: Alison Spring is a professional genealogist, speaker, and writer specialising in the records of Scotland. With over 40 years’ experience of family history research, she has a Masters Degree in Family & Local History from the University of Dundee and is a member of the Register of Qualified Genealogists. Based near Glasgow, she is passionate about tracing your family tree on a budget and blogs as the “Frugal Family Historian”. She has also taught college and university genealogy courses and written for the UK’s “Family Tree” magazine. She has delivered presentations for events including the Virtual Genealogical Association, RootsTech, and Scottish Indexes, as well as family history societies in the UK and overseas.
Cost: £10.00
Booking Link: coming soon.
Early Modern Scottish Family History Research.
Tracing and identifying your ancestors in Scotland before 1800 can be very challenging, especially when trying to find those who migrated elsewhere. This course will provide an overview of various records which may contain useful information and will also outline records which do not exist for the period 1600-1800. Where to find these online and/or in-person will be outlined. Resources which provide contextual information on what life was like in Scotland pre-1800 will also be discussed.
Each class will feature a presentation with a case study and time for questions. Through practical exercises using court, church and other sources, attendees will gain confidence and practical skills to apply in their own research.
The course will cover:
Other record types such as sasines and inheritance records will be discussed in learning materials.
Date & Time: 28 April, 5 & 12 May, 18.30-20.00 BST
Speaker: Tahitia McCabe, MLS, QG, FHEA, FRSA is the head of the Strathclyde Institute for Genealogical Studies at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. She loves helping people discover more about their ancestors and about Scottish history. She is currently a PhD candidate working on a study of Americans in Scotland, 1850-1900 and her areas of research interest are migration and British and American genealogy.
Cost: £80.00
Booking Link: coming soon.
Flora MacDonald: From Skye to the Americas and back again
Many have heard of Flora MacDonald, the heroine who helped rescue Bonnie Prince Charlie after Culloden. But not so many know about her transatlantic adventures in later life. Come along and hear, through the story of one family, something of the experience of Scottish migration at the time of the American Revolution. This talk will be held online and a recording will be available to participants for two weeks post-event.
Date & Time: 16 June, 18.00-19.30 BST
Speaker: Dr Elizabeth Ritchie is senior lecturer in history at the University of the Highlands and Islands. She specialises in the nineteenth century and is particularly interested in rural areas and family life, both in Scotland and North America
Cost: £10.00
Booking Link: coming soon.
The Scots in North America
This short course offers an introduction to Scottish migration to the United States and Canada. We’ll explore the reasons so many Scots left their homeland from the 1700s to the 1900s and consider what life was like for them when they arrived. We will trace where Scots settled, from the farming communities of the Carolinas, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island to the growing cities of New York and Toronto and the fur-trade frontiers of the Great Lakes and Rupert’s Land. And we will examine how Scottish identity evolved in North America through literature, music, language, and culture. This course will be held online. Recordings will be available to participants each week which will remain available for two weeks beyond the last class.
Dates & Time: 17 & 24 September, 1 October. 18.30-20.00 BST.
Teachers: Dr Nicola Martin and Dr Elizabeth Ritchie
Dr Nicola Martin is a lecturer in history at the University of the Highlands and Islands. She specialises in the eighteenth-century and is particularly interested in both Jacobitism and in North America during the revolutionary era.
Dr Elizabeth Ritchie is senior lecturer in history at the University of the Highlands and Islands. She specialises in the nineteenth century and is particularly interested in rural areas and family life, both in Scotland and North America
Booking Link: coming soon.
From Scotland to Mississippi: The Crofter’s Son.
A journey of discovery, from a DNA surprise to an eminent citizen of the Deep South. This presentation showcases the wide range of sources available online that can help to identify Scots emigrants after they arrived in the USA. This talk will be held online and a recording will be available to participants for two weeks post-event.
Date & Time: 5 November, 18.00-19.15 GMT
Speaker: Alison Spring is a professional genealogist, speaker, and writer specialising in the records of Scotland. With over 40 years’ experience of family history research, she has a Masters Degree in Family & Local History from the University of Dundee and is a member of the Register of Qualified Genealogists. Based near Glasgow, she is passionate about tracing your family tree on a budget and blogs as the “Frugal Family Historian”. She has also taught college and university genealogy courses and written for the UK’s “Family Tree” magazine. She has delivered presentations for events including the Virtual Genealogical Association, RootsTech, and Scottish Indexes, as well as family history societies in the UK and overseas.
Cost: £10.00
Booking Link: coming soon.
From Culloden to Concord: The Jacobite Rising and the American Revolution
Many Jacobite exiles, British army veterans, and political ideas crossed the Atlantic in the aftermath of the 1745 rising. This talk will explore how these individuals and ideas shaped colonial identities and understandings of loyalty and resistance during the American Revolution. This talk will be held online and a recording will be available to participants for two weeks post-event.
Date & Time: 11 November, 18.30 – 20.00 GMT
Speaker: Dr Nicola Martin is a lecturer in history at the University of the Highlands and Islands. She specialises in the eighteenth-century and is particularly interested in both Jacobitism and in North America during the revolutionary era.
Cost: £10.00