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Access to Our Records

If you are unable to visit the island, we will do our best to assist you in your research.  Please remember that we have no paid employees and are a small band of volunteers so a response by return is unlikely but we are happy to help whenever we can.

We do not offer to do all your research nor to trace living relatives.  However, those of us undertaking the research are all natives of Islay with a wide range of local knowledge.  We have been working on the island’s records for the past 14 years and we may well be able to provide that elusive bit of information to help you make the next leap or, for example, pinpoint that location with the strange sounding name.

If you wish us to do some research for you, please tell us what you have already done so that we don’t duplicate effort.  We would ask you also to provide as much information as possible: it is particularly helpful if you can indicate in which parish, village or locality the person being researched is thought to have lived.

A minimm donation of £10 is suggested for all enquiries.  We rely on such donations to continue to meet expenses and to increase and improve our collection.

Census records 1841 to 1901;

Old Parish Records of the established Church of Scotland prior to 1854 with some as early as 1728;

Statutory Records of which we have a growing collection covering births, deaths and marriages post 1855.  data.

Once you have the core information on your family tree you can start to understand the lives of your ancestors by making use of the following records which are also held in our collection:- Some Islay Rentals Maps and Charts, a collection of miscellaneour documents on Islay folk and events and photographs of Islay people and places

Below is a page of a notebook belonging to a clerk at Lochindaal Distillery. (Click it to enlarge).  Many of the village men were employed on a casual basis to offload the cargo from the steamers.  documents such as this are invaluable in giving us an insight into the lives of our ancestors.

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