Neil Craven (ed.) - A Bibliography of the County of Angus (Forfar: [Ernest Simpson Mann], 1975)
James Fowler Kellas Johnstone - A Concise Bibliography of the History, Topography, and Institutions of the Shires of Aberdeen, Banff, and Kincardine (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University, 1914) - here
Gazetteers of Scotland - covering the whole country
--- The Topographical, Statistical, and Historial Gazetteer of Scotland: with a Complete County-Atlas ... (2 vols, Edinburgh: A. Fullerton & Co., 1848, 1854)
Francis Hindes Groome - Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (6 vols, Edinburgh: Thos C. Jack, 1883-85) - with illustrations and maps. At the end of Volume 6 is a General Survey of Scotland, covering geography, geology, history, education, ecclesiastical history, population, meteorology, agriculture, zoology, botany, fisheries, industry, language and literature.
Samuel Lewis - A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (2 vols, London: S. Lewis, 1851)
John Marius Wilson - The Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: W. & A.K. Johnston, 1882) - here
Monumental inscriptions - books
See Scots Law.
Street, Trade and Other Directories
Local
National
1843 Directory to Gentlemen's Seats, Villages &c. in Scotland - for all Scotland
1886-89 County Directory for Scotland
See also Directories for Arbroath, Brechin, Carnoustie, Forfar, Friockheim, Monifieth and Montrose.
Statistical Accounts of Scotland
- The Statistical Accounts are rich sources of information about every aspect of the parishes of Angus and Kincardineshire. They provide brief histories of the individual parishes.
See also the later sections of volume 6 of Francis Groome's Gazetteer for general information about Scotland.
There is only one essential book:
George Fraser Black - Surnames of Scotland: their Origin, Meaning and History (New York: New York Public Library, 1946; and later reprints)
Much of what was published by antiquaries in the 19th century was encyclopaedic and, as an almost inevitable consequence, less than wholly accurate. Their works can make for enjoyable reading, but one should take the details of both genealogy and land tenure with a large pinch of salt.
J. Brodie (ed.) - The Muster-Roll of Angus: South African War 1899-1902 (2nd ed., Arbroath: Brodie & Salmond, 1903) - here. See also this Article.
John Carrie - Ancient Things in Angus: Old Manners, Customs, and Inhabitants of Forfarshire (Arbroath: Thos Buncle, 1881)
Flora Davidson - Seventeenth Century Tombstones of Angus and the Mearns: an Inventory (---: Angus District Council Libraries & Museums, n.d.: ISBN 1-873752-20-2)
Francis Douglas - A General Description of the East Coast of Scotland, from Edinburgh to Cullen (Paisley: 1782; 2nd ed., Aberdeen: 1826)
Robert Edward - A Description of the County of Angus, in the year 1678 (1678; 2nd ed. Dundee, 1832) - the book was originally published in Latin. Mr Robert Edward was minister of Murroes.
Francis Carolus Eeles - The Church and other Bells of Kincardineshire (Aberdeen: W. Jolly, 1897) - here
Duncan Fraser - The Land of the Ogilvys (Montrose: Standard Press, 1964)
William Fraser - History of the Carnegies, Earls of Southesk, and of their Kindred (2 vols, Edinburgh: Thos. Constable, 1867) - vol. 1 - vol. 2
--- - Forfarshire Illustrated: being Views of Gentlemen's Seats, Antiquities, and Scenery ... (Dundee: Gershom Cumming, 1843) - here
James Headrick - A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Angus, or Forfarshire (Edinburgh, 1813) [an agricultural survey of the county for the Board of Agriculture, by the minister of Dunnichen] - here
I.A.N. Henderson - Discovering Angus & the Mearns (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1990: ISBN 0-85976-302-1)
John Alexander Henderson - Annals of Lower Deeside: being a Topographical, Proprietary, Ecclesiastical, and Antiquarian History of Durris, Drumoak and Culter (Aberdeen: D.Wyllie & Son, 1892) - here
John Alexander Henderson (ed.) - History of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1912) [i.e. solicitors in Aberdeen] - here
Andrew Jervise - Epitaphs & Inscriptions from Burial Grounds & Old Buildings in the North East of Scotland (vol. 1 - Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, 1875; vol. 2 - Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1879) - vol. 1 - vol. 2
Andrew Jervise - The History and traditions of the Land of the Lindsays in Angus and Mearns with Notices of Alyth and Meigle (2nd edn., Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1882) - mainly concerned with the parishes of Edzell (with Glenesk), Navar & Lethnot, Oathlaw, Fern, Careston and Menmuir - here
Andrew Jervise - Memorials of Angus & Mearns: an Account Historical, Antiquarian & Traditionary (2 vols, Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1885) - vol. 1 - vol. 2
George H. Kinnear - Kincardineshire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1921) [In series "Cambridge County Geographies"] - topography, geology, natural history, climate, population, agriculture, industry, trade, history, antiquities, architecture, communications, etc.; the author was headmaster of Glenbervie Public School - here
Alexander William Crawford Lindsay, 25th earl of Crawford, 8th earl of Balcarres - Lives of the Lindsays: a Memoir of the Houses of Crawford and Balcarres (London: John Murray, 1849) - vol. 1 - vol. 2 - vol. 3
William Marshall - Historic Scenes in Forfarshire (Edinburgh: Wm Oliphant, 1875) - here
Alexander Hastie Millar - Roll of Eminent Burgesses of Dundee, 1513-1886 (Dundee: 1887) - here. It includes many Angus landowners and gentlemen.
Arthur Mitchell & James Toshach Clark (eds) - Information for Sir Robert Sibbald anent the Shyre of Forfar by Mr Ouchterlony of Guinde in Geographical Collections relating to Scotland made by Walter Macfarlane, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Scottish History Soc., 1907) - here
Arthur Mitchell & James Toshach Clark (eds) - Geographical Collections relating to Scotland made by Walter Macfarlane, vol. 3 (Edinburgh: Scottish History Soc., 1908) - additions and corrections made by Sibbald to Ochterlony's information on Forfarshire, as given in vol. 2 of Macfarlane - here
John Monipennie - A True Description of the Whole Realme of Scotland (1612; reprinted Glasgow, 1820) [possibly the shortest travel guide ever written; pp. 162-4 for Angus and the Mearns] - part of The Abridgement, or Summarie of the Scots Chronicles - here
Dorothy Morrison & Isobel Reynolds - Rural Schools in Angus (Balgavies by Forfar: Pinkfoot Press, 2004: ISBN 1-874012-44-X paperback)
John Ochterlony of the Guynd - Account of the Shire of Forfar, circa 1682 (reprinted for the Forfar & District Historical Society, Forfar: 1969) - and see also above, under Arthur Mitchell & James Toshach Clark
Richard Oram - Angus & the Mearns: a Historical Guide (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1996: ISBN 1-874744-47-5 paperback)
David MacGregor Peter - The Baronage of Angus and Mearns (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1856) - here [very unreliable]
Alan Reid - The Bards of Angus and the Mearns: an Anthology of the Counties (Paisley: J. & R. Parlane, 1897) - here
George Robertson - A General View of Kincardineshire or the Mearns (London: Richard Phillips, 1810) [an agricultural survey of the county for the Board of Agriculture] - here
Charles Rogers - Monuments & Monumental Inscriptions in Scotland (vol. 2, London: Chas Griffin, for the Grampian Club, 1872) - pp. 193-270 for Angus, pp. 271-301 for Kincardineshire. Rogers gives much more attention to verses on monuments than to genealogical details. - vol. 2
Fiona C. Scharlau - Angus (Stroud: History Press, 2009: ISBN 978-0-7509-5089-3 paperback) [In series "Britain in Old Photographs"]
Hay Shennan - Boundaries of Counties and Parishes in Scotland (Edinburgh: William Green, 1892) - describes the parish and county boundary changes of 1889 - Angus, Kincardineshire
Easton Smith Valentine - Forfarshire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1912) [In series "Cambridge County Geographies"] - topography, geology, natural history, climate, population, agriculture, industry, trade, history, antiquities, architecture, communications, etc. - here
Alexander Johnston Warden - Angus or Forfarshire: the Land and People, Descriptive and Historical (5 vols, Dundee: Chas Alexander, 1880-85) - masses of facts about each of the parishes, and a fair bit of error:
Alexander Johnston Warden - The Linen Trade, Ancient and Modern (2nd edn, London: Longman, 1867) - here
James Crabb Watt, K.C. - The Mearns of Old: a History of Kincardine from the Earliest Times to the Seventeenth Century (Edinburgh: Wm Hodge, 1914)
C. P. Will - Place Names of Northeast Angus (Scottish Place-Name Soc., 1999)
For further books on Scottish topics, see the Scottish Books page on this web site.
The full texts of a very large number of books that are now out of copyright can be found, in various formats and with the very obvious advantage of being fully searchable, at the Internet Archive and at Google Books. Unfortunately, a change to Internet Archive's "online reader" in late 2010 means that it is no longer possible to search for parts of words in a book. This means that works for which the images are of poor quality, or texts with special typesetting to represent contractions used in mediaeval manuscripts are now all-but-impossible to search.
The easiest way to find a full-text online book at the Internet Archive's site:
- Go to Google's "Advanced Search" page at Advanced Search
- Type in, exactly, the first few words of the title in the box labelled "this exact wording or phrase"
- Type in "archive.org/details" in the box labelled "Search within a site or domain"
If a book has several volumes, it's often easiest to go to the link for one volume, and then change the address in the browser's title bar, e.g.: a search for "fasti ecclesiae scoticanae" only gives 2 hits, one of which is volume 5. Go to the link for volume 5, then, in the browser's title bar, change the "5" in the address to the number you want, e.g. "2", and reload the page.
Stenlake: Books on Angus & Dundee
Stenlake: Books on N.E. Scotland including Kincardineshire