Lochaber Archive Series: September 10 2024

And while I usually end our Lochaber Times’ articles with ‘these documents can be accessed in person at the Lochaber Archive Centre’, I thought I would use this latest article to talk about archive research which we offer when in-person access is not convenient.

As the term might suggest, archive research is paid research undertaken by myself on behalf of a customer, using the archives in our care.

Usually, a customer will contact the centre via email, telephone or social media with a subject they would like to look into further.

Sometimes the customer will have identified specific documents we hold using our online catalogue. Other times, they will simply have their subject and I will help them identify records in our collections which might be worth taking a look at.

Family history research is arguably the bread and butter for the Highland Archive Service in terms of getting customers through our doors.

Those interested in tracing their ancestry might live round the corner or they might have travelled from the other side of the world.

So visiting us in-person is not always manageable. We understand this and I encourage anyone interested in paying for archive research to get in touch.