Scotland Periodicals

A periodical is a magazine, newsletter, or journal published on a regular basis. Journals are published by family history, local history, one-name (organized to study a specific surname), and national societies. The articles often include:


 * Family genealogies and pedigrees.
 * Transcripts of church records, migration lists, and cemetery records.
 * Suggestions for research procedures.
 * Information about local records, archives, and services.
 * Book advertisements and book reviews.
 * Research advertisements.
 * Researcher queries or requests for information about their ancestors.

For more information about societies, see the "Societies" section of this outline.

A few of the countrywide journals are:


 * The Scottish Association of Family History Societies Bulletin. Published by The Scottish Association of Family History Societies. This is published twice a year and contains news and updates from the various family history societies across Scotland.
 * The Scottish Genealogist: The Quarterly Journal of the Scottish Genealogy Society. 1954-. Published by the Scottish Genealogy Society. (FHL book 941 B2g.)
 * Scottish Local History. 1960-. Published by Scottish Local History Forum. This is published three times a year. (FHL book 941 H25sl.)
 * SCOTS: One hundred ten page published quarterly, SCOTS magazine contains information on Scotlands past, present and future.  Their object, as stated on the website, is:  "Serving the North American Scottish Community and people of Scots descent around the world".  As of 28 August 2008, the site was undergoing a major upgrade, expecting to back up by the end of August.

Scots = www.usscots.com

A good source for Scottish periodicals is:

Current Periodicals in the National Library of Scotland. Edinburgh, Scotland: National Library of Scotland, 1987-. This is a bibliography of Scottish periodicals. It is available on microfiche at the Family History Library.

Many major libraries have the following directory:

Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory. New York: Bowker, 1932-. (FHL book 016.05 Ul7p.) This directory gives the subscription, address, and name for many journals.

Another valuable source for finding pertinent periodical articles is Periodical Source Index on Microfiche (PERSI).

Many English local and family history societies include sections about Scottish research in their publications. There are also genealogically oriented periodicals which are not associated with family history societies. These may also contain information on Scottish records and research.

Journals are available from the societies that publish them. Major archives with genealogical collections have copies of many journals, especially those for the area they serve.

The Family History Library subscribes to many journals published by family history societies and magazines published independently. If you know the title, search the Author/Title Search of the catalog on microfiche. To find journals in the Locality Search, look under SCOTLAND or SCOTLAND - [COUNTY] then under one of the following subjects:

PERIODICALS

SOCIETIES - PERIODICALS

GENEALOGY - PERIODICALS

HISTORY - PERIODICALS