The Urban Historian has been delivering short courses and Heritage Walks in Paisley for several years along with providing a genealogy service to anyone with Paisley and Renfrewshire Ancestors.
Stephen graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in History and went on to complete a Masters in Multimedia from the then University of Paisley. Stephen has worked as an archaeologist on many archaeological digs in Paisley, Renfrewshire and beyond, and has taught local history, archaeology and genealogy at the University of the West of Scotland and the University of Dundee.
Stephen is a former chair of Paisley Thread Mill Museum and an ex-member of the Renfrewshire Local History Forum. In addition to this the Urban Historian has also advised the Renfrewshire Tapestry Group on historical aspects of the old County of Renfrew along with other historical projects for Renfrewshire Council.
Currently along with a series of local history talks, and genealogical research Stephen is running Heritage Buddies– Where Buddies Rest: Stories Rise a 2 year project rexamining and recording Renfrewshire’s heritage graveyards.
When choosing Renfrewshire Ancestors to carryout research on your behalf, we belive you deserve to receive the best information available at the time.
We choose to carryout our research a the most suitable venue to suit your requirements, be that in Renfrewshire or elsewhere in Scotland such as the National Records of Scotland Historic Search Room or at the Scotlands People Centre. Where possible we prefer to research in the archives, not relying on online sources.
With a background in Scottish history and research for corporate clients we can provide more than just a family tree and basic background information from church records, BMD records, census, military records, etc. We can provide bespoke reports that place your ancestors lives in context, be it relating to what has happeing locally or nationally in their lifetime.
We also have access to a copy of the West Relief Church, later Canal Street Church and finally Castlehead Parish Church burial records that have only recently been sent to the Church of Scotland to be passed on to the National Records of Scotland. Until they are available in the NRS we hold the only full copy of the registers from 1820 to 1930.
