Angus (or Forfarshire), Scotland Genealogy

Guide to Angus ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Background
Angus (formerly Forfarshire until 1928) is a maritime county in the east of Scotland. It is bounded on the north by the counties of Aberdeen and Kincardine, on the east by the German Ocean, on the south by the Firth of Tay, and on the west by Perthshire. It is about 38 1/2 miles in length and 37 1/2 miles in extreme breadth, comprising an area of 840 square miles or 537,600 acres. The county or area was anciently called Angus after the brother of King Kenneth II to whom it was granted by the king after his victory over the Picts. It was later called Forfarshire after the county town of Forfar. [Apparently the name changed back to Angus in 1950.]

The county is comprised of fifty-five parishes and two civil districts of Forfar and Dundee. The royal burghs are Forfar, Dundee, Arbroath, Montrose, and Brechin. The market-towns are Kirriemuir and Glammis, and there are several smaller towns and villages.

(Source: Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, 2nd ed., 1851.  FHL book 941 E5L.)

Scotlands People: An Important Online Source
ScotlandsPeople is one of the largest online sources of original genealogical information. If you are researching UK genealogy, your Scottish ancestry or building your Scottish family tree, they have more than 100 million records to look through.

The comprehensive choice of Scottish records includes: For more detail on exact record availability, see Availability. For examples of the records available, see Record Types and Examples. More information on the site, its contents, and instructions for using it can be found in the ScotlandsPeople Wiki article. Indexes may be searched for free, and there is a small pay per view fee to see the actual digitized record.

Census
Many census records have been indexed by surname. Some indexes cover one parish (and will be listed in the Wiki on the parish page) and some indexes are for the county as a whole. The Family History Library has county-wide census placename indexes for Angus (or Forfarshire) for. Click here for other census indexes available at the library.


 * ScotlandsPeople, index, images, free index, pay per view ($)
 * Scotland Census, 1841, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index, ($). Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1851, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index, ($). Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1861, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index, ($). Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1871, no images. Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1881, no images. Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1891, no images. Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1901, index and images, ($). Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1911, index and images, ($).

Church Records

 * 1658 - 1919 - at FamilySearch — index

Parishes
Some of the Angus (or Forfarshire) parish records are indexed in Angus (or Forfarshire), Scotland, Extracted Parish Records.
 * This database is a collection of historical parish registers from the county of Angus (or Forfarshire) in the country of Scotland. The records in this collection can range in date from the early 1500s to the mid- to late-1800s. The records include baptisms/christenings, burials, marriages, tombstone inscriptions, obituaries, tax lists, wills, and other miscellaneous types of records. Also included are some records from non-conformist churches. You will find interesting phonetic spelling. Some of the records may be in Latin or even a Welsh or Scottish dialect. Due to the nature of the records and because the records were originally compiled by a third party, it is difficult to absolutely verify the completeness and validity of the data.

Here is a list of the historic parishes of the county of Angus (or Forfarshire) with their parish numbers. Click on the parish name to see information about records. Click on the link for an outline map of the parishes of Angus.

Biographies

 * People of Angus | Courtesy of the Angus Council

Directories
Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland:

PO Directories Online:


 * 1846 "Angus and Mearns directory and almanac"
 * 1847 "Angus and Mearns directory and almanac"

The above directories includes the following areas:


 * Montrose
 * Forfar
 * Brechin
 * Arbroath
 * Kirriemuir

Maps

 * National Library of Scotland map collection

Poorhouses
There were 5 workhouses in this county:


 * Arbroath and St. Vigean's Combination
 * Brechin Almshouse
 * Dundee Combination
 * Forfar
 * Kirriemuir Almshouse

A description with drawings and photos of them today along with databases of those living there from the 1881 Census are provided on the links above located on the site entitled "The Workhouse: The Story of an Institution" which is owned and operated by Peter Higginbotham.

Societies
In every county in Scotland there are one or more family history societies made up of members with genealogical interests in their areas. A coordinating organization for many societies is the Scottish Association of Family History Societies (SAFHS). The society publishes the SAFHS Bulletin, which contains news and updates on its member societies. For information about this organization and its member societies, contact or visit their website at:

Tay Valley Family History Society 179 - 181 Princes Street Dundee DD4 6DQ Scotland, UK

Scottish Genealogy Society 15 Victoria Terrace EDINBURGH EH1 2JL Scotland

Websites

 * Scots History on Line
 * Angus (Forfarshire) Resources and help pages on RootsChat Angus (Forfarshire) Resources and help pages. (Free).