Bill Lawson has been specialising in the Family and Social History in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland for over forty years, and is widely recognised as an authority in the area. Virtually every household in the Western Isles in the last 200 years has been researched and a resource bank of over 27,500 family tree sheets has been ingathered, together with many emigrant families in Canada, USA, Australia etc. With the opening of Co Leis Thu , information from this resource can now be made available to genealogists and researchers as a professional service. Estate Papers, including rental rolls Emigration Lists Government Papers and other published sources Oral Tradition Oral tradition has always been strong in these islands, and since it is preserved in Gaelic, which is still in normal usgae here, it is more comprehensive and often much more reliable than many written sources in English.
Oral tradition includes patronymics, song, story and preservation of family relationships.
For families still based in the Outer Hebrides, pedrigree charts can be prepared showing all lines of direct ancestry, so far as can be traced. 5-6 generations is not unusual, but this depends on the available source material. Useful data would include the island of origin, the place of original emigrant settlement, local census entries, family naming patterns etc. With information of this type, it is usually possible to trace the village from which the family emigrated, and to make links with any relatives remaining here. Fees depend on the amount of research required, which in turn depends on the quality and detail of information supplied as a starting point.