Your Local History Centre

 

Local History Centre:

The Local History Service of East Lothian Libraries is your essential and useful source of providing information and help with research into the history of the county and its people. Located in the John Gray Centre, Haddington, the Service provides many opportunities for research. The public can utilise resources to find out about family history, house or building history, community matters, and various other topics on the history of East Lothian.

The family history research area and Reading Room is a comfortable and spacious study space, with free Wi-Fi. Visitors can get access to Old Parish Registers, Censuses, Monumental Inscriptions, Valuation Rolls, historic newspapers and local studies reference books. The Local History Service also works closely with the Archive Service and the Museum Service so that the public can gain access to historical records of the county such as old manuscripts, maps and plans, and a large photograph collection, as well as relevant objects and paintings.

Our historic county newspaper collection on microfilm comprises the Haddingtonshire Courier (now East Lothian Courier), the Musselburgh News and Portobello Advertiser, East Lothian News, the Haddingtonshire Advertiser, and a few other short-lived local newspapers.

We also hold a vast amount of other resources to help you dig deeper into your East Lothian family history:

·                 Old Parish Registers of East Lothian baptisms, marriages and deaths on microfilm.

·                 East Lothian census returns 1841-1901 on microfilm.

·                 Microfiche indexes to East Lothian baptisms and marriages.

·                 Microfiche indexes to International Genealogical Index 1992 edition for Scotland arranged by counties.

·                 Valuation rolls for East Lothian from 1855 onwards on microfilm and microfiche.

·                 Monumental inscription booklets and burial/mortcloth registers for East Lothian graveyards

·                 Annual county directories/registers

You can consult the above items in the Local History Library or request for information via email with as many details as possible.

 

John Gray Centre Film Appreciation Club

If you enjoy watching and discussing all kinds of films, why not join our vibrant film appreciation group. It is a safe and relaxing space to chat about or even just to listen to a variety of opinions about a range of films and genres.

The Club has been on its annual summer hiatus but will be resuming in autumn 2021. During lockdown Our Club has been holding informal video chats over Google Meet. Our online meetings have been occurring bi-weekly, on Thursday evenings between 6.30 to 7.30 pm.

For easy access, we have been discussing selected films available on BBC iPlayer, All4 (Channel 4) player, and Netflix. Our group members even recommend TV shows and books! Our meetings and film choices are advertised on the John Gray Centre website What’s On page, as well as on our social media platforms. You can also check out our SCREENING ARCHIVE online

To find out how to join our FREE-OF-CHARGE online video chat, please do get in touch via email

We are looking into when and how the physical meet-up screenings and discussions at the John Gray can resume and will let you know as soon as possible.

 

Haddingtonshire Histories Podcast:

The Local History Centre of East Lothian Libraries produces a heritage and history podcast called Haddingtonshire Histories which features conversations on a variety of East Lothian history topics. Expert guests include Museum officers, Archivists, and Archaeologists in East Lothian Council’s heritage services as well as local historians and researchers.

Haddingtonshire Histories aims to keep things as light and cheerful as possible and hopes that listeners will enjoy finding out a little more about East Lothian’s rich past.

To date Haddingtonshire Histories has published four episodes.

Episode 1: ‘Who Is John Gray?’ about the founding father of Scotland’s public libraries and the namesake of the John Gray Centre itself

Episode 2: ‘The Inns and Oots of Dunbar’ about the historical inns and ale-houses in Dunbar

Episode 3: ‘Family History – Fascinating Finds’ features an interesting chat between the host and former East Lothian Local History Officers reminiscing about some of the more fascinating cases and enquiries they have dealt with.

Episode 4: ‘Night at the Museum – Claire’s Favourites’ features Museums Collection Officer Dr Claire Pannell highlighting some of her favourite items in the Museum store and speaks about how items are stored and looked after.

Episode 5: ‘Powerful Prestongrange’ highlights the history behind some of the items/objects displayed at the Prestongrange Museum.

Coming soon: Witches of East Lothian.

You can listen to Haddingtonshire Histories on Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts or on Anchor FM