Kingdom of Fife

Contents

Dunfermline Carnegie Library

The Local History Department, Dunfermline Carnegie Library, Abbot Street, Dunfermline.
Tel. (01383) 602365
Fax (01383) 602307

Opening hours:
Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri : 10 - 7
Wed, Sat : 10 - 5

Local History Librarian: Anne Rodwell

The Library has an extensive Local History Department which contains a wealth of original manuscript material as well as printed volumes, typescript indexes, notes, etc. of much value for the genealogist. The collection covers the area formerly known as Dunfermline District, i.e. roughly the triangle between Kincardine, Aberdour and Ballingry.

In addition, the more recent archives of the former burghs of Dunfermline, Cowdenbeath, Culross, Inverkeithing and Lochgelly are being incorporated into the local history department here.

There are also some records for Culross at the Fife Council Archive Centre.

The Local History Department produces a series of leaflets for those researching family or local history. "Family History Research - the ancestor hunter's ABC in Dunfermline District" is a detailed guide to research and sources available in the local history collection (price £1.50). The following list of sources is taken from this publication. There are numerous other sources, both manuscript and printed, available in this large local collection.

Library staff will assist with research where they can, but it is not possible for them to carry out extensive or open-ended research on behalf of readers.

Local and Family History Material held includes:

• International Genealogical Index (Scotland & Ireland)
• Index to the Christenings and Marriages in the Old Parish Registers (Fife)
• Old Parish Registers (microfilm) for all parishes in Fife, plus Culross & Tulliallan
• Parish Register of Dunfermline 1561-1685 (transcription) plus Index
• Census Returns 1841 - 1891 (microfilm) for all parishes in Fife & Kinross, plus Culross & Tulliallan

Monumental Inscriptions & Burial Records:

• Volumes of transcribed & indexed pre-1855 inscriptions for East Fife, West Fife, Kinross, Clackmannan, East Stirling, West Stirling, West Lothian, South Perthshire
• Churchyard Memorials of Crail
• Overton Gravestone Project (transcriptions of the earliest of the 3 Tulliallan parish churchyards)
• Tulliallan Genealogy - transcriptions of the 2nd of the Tulliallan churchyards
• The Gravestones of St Bridget's Kirk Dalgety
• Manuscript notes of Erskine Beveridge (covering several churchyards)
• Fife Deaths 1822-1854 (from newspapers)
• Fife Deaths Abroad 1855-1900 (from newspapers)
• Index to Death Notices in the Dunfermline Journal 1851-1885
• Rosyth Burying Ground - transactions & minutes 1825-1880
• Rosyth Vault Subscribers 1828-1880
• Auchtermuchty Deaths 1701-1851

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Directories, almanacs, registers, etc.:

• Fife & Kinross Register - various years 1812 - 1895. Some include Clackmannan.
• Westwood's Parochial Directory for Fife & Kinross 1866
• Fifeshire Directory 1885, 1888, 1893 (includes Clackmannan & Kinross)
• Fife & Kinross Trades Directory (includes farmers, county councillors, private residents, etc) various years 1914-1939
• Trade Directories for Fife for more recent years
• County Directory of Scotland 1912
• Dunfermline Register - various years 1829-1859
• Slater's Directory 1867 (Dunfermline pages only)
• Dunfermline & West Fife Annual Register 1870-1872
• Campbell's Dunfermline & West of Fife District Family almanac 1864 - 1899
• Dunfermline list of voters 1870 (listed in above)
• Clark's Almanac for Dunfermline, Inverkeithing, Cowdenbeath, Lochgelly 1900-1908
• Journal Almanac for Dunfermline, Inverkeithing, Aberdour, Burntisland, Cowdenbeath, Lochgelly, Bowhill, Culross, Kincardine 1908-1922 (some years include Rosyth)
• Dunfermline Directory - various years 1832-1898
• Dunfermline & Inverkeithing Directory - various years 1909-1912
• Burntisland Directory 1892
• Cowdenbeath & Lochgelly Almanac 1895 - 1898

Voters rolls, valuation rolls, lists of ratepayers, etc.:

• Dunfermline List of Occupiers 1832
• Dunfermline List of Ratepayers 1848
• Valuation roll: Fife 1864 (all parishes, minus the burghs)
• Valuation roll: Kirkcaldy & Dunfermline districts 1895, 1933-1946 (minus the burghs)
• Valuation roll: Dunfermline & Lochgelly districts - various dates post 1947 (some including burghs)
• Voters roll: Dunfermline - various dates 1832-1870
• Voters roll: Fife 1846
• Voters roll: western Fife c1860
• Dunfermline Burgh electoral roll 1952-1973
• Dunfermline District electoral roll 1974-1995
• Saline Stent Roll 1740

Burgh & Official Records:

• Burgh Records of Dunfermline 1488-1584
• Extracts from Dunfermline Burgh Records: various dates 1573-1680
• Regality of Dunfermline Court Book 1531-1538
• Notes from Dunfermline Town Council 1696-1726
• Notes on Dunfermline Sasines 1556-1576
• Protocol Book of David Kinghorn, Dunfermline 1572-1580 (notes of contents)
• Dunfermline Conveners Court Book 1686-1775
• Dunfermline Baron Court Book 1686 and 1708-1713
• Dunfermline Parochial Board Minutes - various dates 1848-1930
• Sheriff Court Book of Fife 1515-1522
• Inventory of Inverkeithing Burgh Records
• some printed records relating to Kirkcaldy, Dysart & St Andrews

Additional Church Records:

• Registrum de Dunfermelyn (13th - 16th century)
• Register of the Kirk Session of Dunfermline 1640-1689
• Dunfermline abbey Kirk Session minutes (extracts) 1640-1915
• Inventory of Dunfermline Kirk Session records
• Scroll minute books - Abbey Church 1832-1877
• Minutes of associate Session of Dunfermline 1770-1776
• Minutes & rolls for Congregational Churches (Chalmers Street Secession Church, Evangelical Union, Bath Street Congregational, North Congregational, Canmore Street Congregational) - various dates
• some records for churches outside Dunfermline

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Trade & Work Records:

• The Guild Court Book of Dunfermline 1433-1597
• The Guild of Dunfermline in the 15th century
• The Book of the Hammermen Craft of Dunfermline 1585-1686
• Dunfermline Hammermen Records - various dates 1604-1862
• Dunfermline Hammermen Account Book 1796-1823
• Dunfermline Incorporation of Weavers: Minute Books 1793-1858
• Dunfermline Weavers' Incorporation: Manuscript Books 1697-1836
• Dunfermline Incorporation of Weavers: Account Book 1809-1838
• Dunfermline Niffler Society Minutes 1835-1855
• Fife Shopkeepers & Traders (1820-1870)
• Fife Apprentices & Freemen 1524-1899
• also records of the Dunfermline Co-op, the local Post Office, the Dunfermline Gas Company, and others.

Military Records (most including lists of officers &/or men, & rolls of honour):

• "The Fifes"- History of the Fife Light Horse (1892)
• The Fifes in South Africa 1900-1901
• Fife Yeomanry in South Africa
• The Fife & Forfar Yeomanry 1914-1919
• The Fife & Forfar Yeomanry 1919-1956
• Fife Volunteers
• Officers of the Black Watch 1725-1952
• Soldiers Died in the Great War (The Black Watch - Royal Highlanders)
• War History of the 7th Btn. The Black Watch (Fife Territorial Battalion) 1939-1945
• The Dunfermline Volunteer Gazette
• Elgin Fencibles 1794
• Officers Died in the Great War
• Soldiers Died in the Great War (Princess Louise's Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders)
• A History of the Kinross-shire Volunteers
• World War 2 Memorial Plaques - Roll of Honour
• Dunfermline at War - men lost at sea 1939-1945
• Dunfermline Postal District Memorial 1914-1919, 1939-1945

Clubs, Societies & other social groups:

• Dunfermline Subscription Library Minutes 1789-1811
• Dunfermline Pamphlet Club Minutes 1810-1811
• Abriged History of the Society of Gardeners Dunfermline (1716-1816)
• Reports of the western District of Fife Bible society 1827, 1829
• Woodhead Street Funeral Society Account Book 1866-1940
• Dunfermline Naturalists society - List of members 1908
• Saline Cycling Club Minute Book 1895-1903

Poor Relief Records:

• Aberdour Poor Register 1845-1855
• Reid's Mortification (details of the Trust & its property) 1777-1834

Newspapers (available on microfilm):

• Dunfermline Press 1859-date
• Dunfermline Journal 1851-1951
• Rosyth & Inverkeithing Journal 1940-1951
• West Fife Echo 1900-1932
• Fifeshire Journal (& Clackmannan & Kinross Register) 1833-1851
• Monthly Advertiser for the Western District of Fife 1835-1840
• West Fife Annual 1937-1951
• There is also a local newspaper card index, mainly for Dunfermline, covering major articles but including many obituaries from the Dunfermline Press & Dunfermline Journal

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Maps:

• Ordnance Survey 6" to 1 mile (Dunfermline area) - 1854, 1896, 1920,1928
• Ordnance Survey 25" to 1 mile (Dunfermline area) - 1896, 1914, 1927
• Ordnance Survey 5' to 1 mile (Dunfermline burgh only) - 1856
• Ordnance Survey 10.56' to 1 mile (Dunfermline burgh only) - 1896
• Wood's town plan of Dunfermline 1823
• Walker's plan of Kincardine 1786

Family & Estate Records:

• Inventory of Pitfirrane Writs 1230-1794
• Blairadam estate (printed volumes)
• Pitreavie Writs (16th & 17th centuries)
• Law Cases (extracts for 18th & 19th centuries)
• Lands of Dunfermline (typescript notes)

Biographies:

• Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Men of Fife (1866)
• Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, vol. 2, part 2 - Synods of Fife, Perth & Stirling (1869)
• Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, vol. 5 - Synods of Fife, Angus & Mearns (1925)
• History of the Congregations of the United Presbyterian Church 1733-1900
• Scottish family histories held in Scottish libraries (1986)

General Works including:

• The Surnames of Scotland (Black) 1946
• Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland 1900
• The Statistical Account of Scotland 1791-1799 (vol X - Fife)
• The New Statistical Account of Scotland 1845 (vol IX - Fife)
• Ordnance Survey Object Name Books 1850-1854. There is an index to most of them on the Fife Council website (select  A in the A-Z list, then  Archives).

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