These are some of the resources we used to gather our facts and photos. There are also useful websites for researching family trees. We are indebted to locals for sending their photos, books, memories and personal copies of RoM magazines. Some photos and information has come from various Facebook pages.
Before we start - did you know that Who Do You Think You Are magazine is available for free using the D&G library digital services along with many other books and magazines.
Annan Library has a local history room through the door in the children's section - many books about local history of the town and surrounds are available. Some can be borrowed others are just for reference. There are also microfiche versions of Census returns and newspaper archives.
Ewart Library in Dumfries has a more extensive collection of Archives of the whole county including documents related to Annan. Check these local county archive collections - staff will often do a search for you or with you. Some have unlimited access to Scotlandspeople which means less expense but 1 hour might cost about £30.
Check for a local Family History Society which might have transcribed local census returns, gravestones and other local collections - Dumfries & Galloway FHS are based in Glasgow Road Dumfries. https://dgfhs.org.uk/
Scotlandspeople.gov.uk - once registered (free) you can search records for free but to view the documents costs credits. £10 = 40 credits e.g. Old valuation rolls cost 2 credits (50p) Census/BMD certificates 6 credits (£1.50)
Scotlandplaces.gov.uk - free to search and free to view scans of places/ OS maps and tax records.
The National Library of Scotland www.nls.uk has a lot of resources available online but the website is sometimes difficult to navigate (well for me anyway!). My favourite section is their collection of old maps and estate plans. This link will take you directly to the page where you enter a place name and get a list of maps/plans covering that location. Click here.
Family History websites can be used to research buildings as well as family trees. Annoyingly most of the major Genealogy websites have similar collections of documents but each one has some unique collections not found elsewhere which means that by going to different sites you might get extra information but it can cost a lot to join all of them. I will try to indicate where things are free.
Most of the big websites allow you to construct a tree for free. Even if you subscribe for a short while and cancel, your tree will still be there for you to view and edit, but you will not be able to see attached media or documents.
Freeukgenealogy.org.uk - by it's name you can tell it is free - it has 3 sites FreeBMD, FreeCen, FreeReg. These are work in progress and are trying to get basic Birth, Marriages and Death registration indexes searchable, as well as Census documents transcribed, and Parish Registers. BMD is the most complete but transcribers are welcomed to help.
Ancestry.com - subscriber based about £100 per year but offer short free trials. Some collections are free to search - available free through some local libraries (e.g. D&G and Cumbria) using their computers. Check with your local library
FindmyPast.co.uk - subscriber based about £100 per year but offer short free trials. Some collections are free to search - available free through some local libraries (e.g. Cumbria). Also limited free availability through National Library of Scotland for details see Scottish Indexes below.
Genealogist.com - subscriber based but searches in a different way which I personally couldn't get used to. It doesn't have much for Scottish records.
MyHeritage.com - I have no experience of this site but runs the same as the other big sites.
Family Search.org - The Church of Jesus of Latter-Day Saints - FREE to search but check where the information comes from. If it says 'added by member' it might not be verified.
Genesreunited.co.uk - another subscription based site although you can sign up as on a pay-as-you-go or just build your tree for free.
Scottishindexes.com - was based in Annan at one time, this family run concern is trying to transcribe Scottish documents held in Edinburgh. Free to search and see transcriptions. They have a very good help section called Be a Detective. This gives direct links to free trials and explains about free access to FindmyPast through the National Library of Scotland for residents of Scotland. They will build trees for you or check yours for errors but charge for this service (about £50 per hour)
General Record Office GRO.gov.uk is where you would order BMD certificates for England & Wales but they also have a search facility for Births and Deaths before buying the actual certificate. For births this mentions Mother's Maiden Name which isn't always found on indexes. They also offer digital versions for Birth and Death which are cheaper and sent by email.
There are numerous newspaper archive sites and war grave/ forces sites but beware of costs when these collections might be included in big websites costs - you don't want to pay twice.
