Religious collections at the University of Dundee

Palm Sunday Processions

Last week we held a departmental training session on the subject of religious enquiries. The session gave us the opportunity to explore the types of past enquiries we have received, consider which areas of research had proved to be of greatest interest and ascertain which of the archive’s holdings can be used when researching religion. Within our collections we hold a range of useful resources including church plans, congregational and committee minutes and registers of births, marriages and burials. The session also gave us the opportunity to look at some published sources such as Hew Scott’s Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae: The Succession of Ministers in the Parish Churches of Scotland from the Reformation, A.D to the Present Time, Vol. III, Part II: Synods of Aberdeen, and Angus and Mearns  (KLoc F 285.241 F 251) and David Bertie’s Scottish Episcopal Clergy (GH 438) as well as the archived volumes of statistical accounts compiled by Parish Ministers (see KLoc 914.131 D 914 and KLoc 914.1 T 445), useful sources of 18^th and 19^thcentury church history. 

Membership list, Glasite Church

In addition, we examined various external resources that are available for genealogists and/or those exploring church history or Scotland’s past in general. Identified as being of particular interest were two online resources, MUNDUS http://www.mundus.ac.uk/, a web based gateway to the records of more than 400 collections of overseas missionary materials held across the UK, and the Scottish Archive’s Network’s (SCAN) website http://www.scan.org.uk/, which provides a single electronic point of access to catalogue holdings of more than 50 Scottish Archives. 

The session ended with a series of questions designed to test our knowledge and understanding of the materials in our care and further hone our investigative skills. All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative training session and one that will inform future practice when handling requests of a religious nature. 

For more information about our religious holdings please see our subject source list, http://www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/slreltop.htm, search our online catalogue, http://134.36.1.31/search/search-all.htm or email us at archives@dundee.ac.uk.