News - Aberdeen & North-East Scotland Family History Society

The November 2019 edition of the Society Journal is now available online. Postal distribution will begin this week. Please login to your membership account to access this Journal. If you haven't registered your account yet, click on the Register link in the top right corner.

Due to increasing postal charges, the subscription rates for Postal memberships will be increased from 1st January 2020. Subscription rates for 'e' memberships are unchanged. Please note, the new rates apply to payments made from 1st January 2020 - renewals made before that date will be charged at the previous rate. Full details of our membership subscription rates are available here.

See also Journal 151, p13 and Journal 153 p12.

Kirkyards of Forbes, Kearn and Tullynessle

The Society is pleased to announce that the Memorial Inscriptions for the Kirkyards of Forbes, Kearn and Tullynessie are now available.

In the hilly country to the north-west of Alford there were originally four separate parishes: Auchindoir, Forbes, Kearn, and Tullynessle. The original boundaries between these parishes are not recorded, but such evidence as we have puts Auchindoir to the west and Tullynessle to the east, separated by Forbes, running westward from Bridge of Alford, close to the north bank of the River Don, and Kearn, running northwards from Lumsden, and passing to the east of Rhynie.

Not being large enough, in terms of population, to be financially viable as separate units, these four parishes have, over the centuries, undergone various attempts at amalgamation and rationalization, culminating in 1808, when they were consolidated into just two: to the northwest, “Auchindoir and Kearn”, and to the southeast, “Tullynessle and Forbes”.

This has resulted in some confusion in the written records and more particularly in the memorial inscriptions, since, whatever the “official” position, people continued to use their families’ traditional burial grounds long after the individual kirks were abandoned and their congregations assigned to new parishes.

The MIs of Auchindoir (the Old and New Kirkyards, but not the modern Cemetery) were issued by ANESFHS some years ago with the catalogue code AA110. The present publication (AA078) now adds the inscriptions from Forbes, Kearn and Tullynessle Kirkyards (but not the adjacent Tullynessle Cemetery, which is still in use).

The booklet may be purchased online by contacting our Publications Department or at our Research Centre at 158 King Street, Aberdeen. In addition to this latest Memorial Inscription booklet, you can browse all of our Publications here in this fully searchable, filterable list.

Now available, Anne Park's database of soldiers from the North-East, who died in WW1.

Did your ancestor die as a result of the First World War?
Anne Park has built an extensive database with details of over 20,000 soldiers and other personnel serving in North-East Scotland regiments/units, who died in service during the First World War.

The information available may include burial location, war memorial as well as family details.

The database is available here (members only).

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Aberdeen & North-East Scotland
Family History Society

Journal 153 Available

Postal Subscription Changes (updated)

The Kirkyards of Forbes, Kearn and Tullynessle

World War 1 - Roll of Honour