Welcome to the website of the Highland Family History Society, which was established in September 1981 to promote the study of genealogy, family history and related subjects in the Highlands of Scotland. We are based in the Highland Archive Centre in Inverness.
The society meets monthly to hear speakers from September to April (excluding December). We usually have a table at the SAFHS Conference in April and at the Inverness Highland Games in July.
The society records and publishes monumental inscriptions from Highland burial grounds. The Burials Index lists the names and dates of death of all those who are recorded on these gravestones.
News of meetings, events, and recent publications
Our first meeting since the Covid pandemic will be held on Thursday 16 March at 2.00pm in the upstairs room of the Highland Archive Centre. Nick Hide will talk about “Some Davidson Connections in the Highlands & Northern Scotland”.
Our latest publication is “Parish of Contin” which includes MIs from the burial grounds at Lower & Upper Achnahalt, Garve, Kinlochluichart, and Strathconnon. You can order it online by going to the HFHS stand on GenFair.
News of upcoming meetings and recent publications can be found on our Facebook Page.
What we offer
Statutory registration of births, marriages and deaths began in Scotland in 1855 – and can be accessed via ScotlandsPeople. Before that we are dependent for information about the deaths of our ancestors on newspaper obituaries, testaments and monumental inscriptions – though only a minority of pre-20th century Highlanders could afford a gravestone. The society records and publishes monumental inscriptions from Highland burial grounds. Basic details of every individual mentioned in these inscriptions (name, date of death, age – if recorded – and the name of the cemetery) can be found in our Burials Index.
The society also publishes transcriptions of Free Church and other registers of baptisms & marriages and records of monumental inscriptions from Highland burial grounds – for details of which please see Publications.
