New podcast taps in to Fife family histories

Lisa May Young, who presents the show Holding The Space on Kirkcaldy’s community radio station K107 FM, said she came up with the idea after tracing her own family tree.

“I’ve been doing a lot of my own ancestral research for the last six years with a friend of mine,” she said.

“We’ve graduated from just going to Register House in Edinburgh and looking at certificates to going to the Scottish Genealogy Society (SGS) off the Royal Mile and looking at the actual records.

“It’s been going since 1952 and staffed completely by volunteers who know everything.

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“I went through to interview one of them for my show and spoke to Ken Nisbet who is not only an SGS volunteer but also a member of the Scottish Association of Family History Societies.

“After that I said to him that I thought there was something that we could maybe do. He said there was no podcast for Scottish Records so would I like to do it.”

The result is Scottish Ancestral Records, a podcast starting this month which will guide people through the process of tracing their family roots.

“The first one will tell you how you get started, because it can seem like a minefield at first,” she said, “then Ken and I will run through birth records, working records, industries, etc.

“We’ll be telling you where the best places to go are, and what is the cheapest option. And we’ll be telling stories along the way.”

She added: “I hope it will really resonate with people.”