Founded in 1991, Shetland Family History Society is run solely by volunteers with a passion for ‘reddin kin’. We have accumulated a vast range of records relating to Shetland people including researched histories of specific families, microfilms of all the old parish registers and some editions of Shetland newspapers, old electoral registers, indexes of men and women who served in conflicts, seamen’s lists and much more. At the core of this are the Pedigree Charts we ask new members to complete, and our database of Shetland people. This database is secured, only accessed by designated researchers and will never be put on the internet or sold to any third party.
A friendly team
Our offices are in the Shetland Amenity Trust buildings at Garthspool in Lerwick and are open to visitors. We regularly welcome guests from Shetland and from all around the world.
About a third of our members live outside the United Kingdom, and our friendly team of researchers is used to unearthing the details that make your relative a person and not just a name on a piece of paper. Headed by our Research Secretary a small team answers email and postal enquiries and is able complete limited research in order to do this. This video gives you a glimpse of what we can offer at Garthspool.
Our Garthspool offices
Video © Barnum Smith
Lectures and conferences
In addition to research, the society organises meetings and lectures within Shetland, conferences – now held online and available worldwide, and delivers outreach work to schools and local groups and communities. The society also arranges visits to some places in the United Kingdom with a large Shetland diaspora, as shown in the brief timeline below. Some of our plans including for the Monumental Inscription Photographic Project, are shown on the Projects page.
We hope to welcome you into our 'family' soon, if you are not already a member.
