New group aims to help firth folk discover their family roots

THE fascination for family trees has been the spur for plans to form a new family history group on the Moray Firth coast.

Monthly family history sessions are due to begin in February at Portsoy’s old salmon bothy community venue.

It is hoped that, if enough interested people attend, they will establish a special-interest group in the subject.

Bothy manager Leanne Watt said: “We plan to hold family history days on the first Saturday of every month.

“The first one will be on February 6 at 2pm, and anyone interested can come along.

“We hope that will lead eventually to a new group and a network of interested people.”

At the meeting, genealogy consultant Alison Smith will talk about sources for Banffshire family history research.

Mrs Watt said: “We hope to have a different speaker every month.

“We will try to attract them from other family history groups, such as the one at Buckie.”

Previous genealogy sessions at the bothy have concentrated on the hands-on, practical task of family history research, without guest speakers.