Research Tips and Resources Step One: Collect Background
Information Do your homework! Nothing is more disappointing than
to come to the Hebrides looking for ancestors and relatives,
only to find that necessary information is lacking - and
available at home! Before you turn to research resources in the
Hebrides, try to establish for a fact that your ancestors came
from the islands. The obvious requirement is to know the name of
the original emigrant (your ancestor that was born in the
Hebrides but emigrated from the islands to the mainland or
overseas.) If this is John MacDonald or Donald MacLeod, it is
not very helpful - there are far so many people of these names
on the islands! If the emigrant was married before leaving the
Hebrides, a note of the spouse’s name makes success in
identification much more likely. It can also be helpful to have
the names of the first generation of children, in order to try
to establish a family naming pattern. It can be very useful to
know where the emigrant settled first afte