Scottish Indexes Conference XXXI - Saturday 31 January 2026

Interested in tracing your Scottish genealogy? The Scottish Indexes Conference is an opportunity to learn new research skills, discover diverse records and see how others have put these into practice. If you want to trace your Scottish family tree, this is the event for you.

Don't live in the UK? No problem. We are live from 7 am to 11 pm UK time. We do this to make our conferences time-zone friendly. Each presentation is shown twice, once between 7 am and 3 pm UK time, then again between 3 pm and 11 pm. You can come and go throughout the day. A schedule will be posted on our website a week or so before the conference.

Donations

This conference is run through the kindness of your donations. We are delighted to be able to continue hosting these for the Scottish genealogy community.

If you are in a position to donate at this time, we greatly appreciate your support. We know that these are challenging financial times for many so we are keeping the conferences free with no recommended donation. We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has donated to keep these conferences going.

Scottish Indexes Conference Donation -	£10 -
Scottish Indexes Conference Donation -	£20 -
Scottish Indexes Conference Donation -	£30 -
Scottish Indexes Conference Donation -	£50 -

Registration Instructions

Zoom: It is free to register for this event on Zoom. Click here, fill out the registration form and you should receive an email confirmation within a few minutes. You will also receive reminders in the week before the conference.

Facebook: This is an easy way to watch and interact with the presenters and attendees of the Scottish Indexes Conference. It is also possible to cast the conference to a smart TV which makes viewing more comfortable. Click here to join the Scottish Indexes Facebook Group.

Presenters

These were the speakers at the November 2025 Conference. Details on speakers for our January 2026 conference will be coming soon.

'Introducing the Ordnance Survey Name Books and historical tax rolls on Scotland's People' by Tessa Spencer, Head of Learning at the National Records of Scotland

'An Arran Jigsaw: some records relating to people and places between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries' by Robert Urquhart of Abbotshall Palaeography

'Reverend Russell and relief from patronage' by Dr Kay Williams

'5th Duke of Buccleuch: a forward thinking landed aristocrat' by Dr Craig Thomas, Assistant Archivist at Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust

'The Doctor will see your ancestors now' by Fiona Musk, NHS Grampian Archivist

'Weaving the threads of time: exploring the lives of Dundee textile workers' by Caroline Brown, University Archivist and an Assistant Director in the Library Academic and Cultural Services at the University of Dundee

'Court of Session: Neighbours at war and so much more!' by Emma Maxwell

Scottish Genealogy Q&A hosted by Graham and Emma Maxwell

Discover more about our speakers and their topics here.

Schedules & Handouts

Handouts: Emma has prepared the conference handout for the 30th Scottish Indexes Conference on 22 November 2025 which includes information on all the presenters and many of the resources mentioned during the day. Download the PDF handout here. If you are looking for handouts from previous conferences please see our Past Conferences page.

Kay Williams has prepared a page on her website with further resources relating to her talk which you can visit here.

Schedules: About a week before our next conference we will post schedules in a variety of timezones.

Speakers Past and Present

Discover more about the experts who have spoken at the Scottish Indexes Conferences.

Past Conferences

These events are designed to be interactive and are best watched live. Some presentations from previous conferences are available to watch again. Visit our Past Conferences page to see what you have missed so far and catch up with some of the presentations.