Elizabeth Carmichael, the Education Officer at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library, gives as an example from the archives just one of the resources available to visitors to the Mitchell – the Evening Times Roll of Honour.
This evening newspaper for the city of Glasgow had an important role in the First World War as a medium that recorded details about Scottish servicemen. This especially included reports of their deaths in action, medals awarded or reports of missing in action. The material includes photographs, and contributions by the soldiers’ families. Surname, town of origin, rank, regiment and date of death can all be found here.
The Evening Times Roll of Honour is an on-going indexing project for the Mitchell Library and is (May 2009) as yet incomplete. This material is also available through the Glasgow City Council website.
The basic starting point for many ancestral researchers is the ten-yearly Census. These started in 1841 and the Mitchell Library has every Census between that date and 1901 available on microfiche.
The Census is useful as it allows the charting of expanding families on this ten yearly basis. Trade and marital status of individuals are also recorded there. The information is also available on-line at the scotlandspeople web address.
The Mitchell Library in Glasgow, Scotland, is Europe’s largest reference library. It holds a vast amount of material of great interest to genealogists, including census records, newspapers, old parish records, war records, monumental inscriptions and Post Office trade directories.
