Old Boys at Edingurgh Uni

perisama · Post by **perisama** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:45 pm

How do I find out where my 3x Gt Grandfather was educated/ He was born in Perthshire in 1787 and I believe in 1822 was in Edinburgh so I assumed he may have gone to the university there because he served 45 years with the Admiralty as a clerk at Somerset house. The exams to become a Clerk were quite tough so he must have had higher education.

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 6:54 am

Hello Perisama,

I’m not sure whether this is or has always been the case but someone with a university degree would tend to have letters after their name e.g. B.A., B.Sc., M.A. etc. when their name is mentioned in newspaper death notices etc. or on some documents or publications of a formal nature?

I think,
Alan

perisama · Post by **perisama** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 8:16 am

Ah yes... i hadn't thought about that. I suppose it must have been the case back then? I don't know. If he did then he didn't use them. So now I have to find not which Uni but which school. Crumbs!! That could be anywhere. I should think around or near Perth/Edinburgh? Is this going to be an impossible task? Would he or his family have had to pay for his education/ His Daddy must have had a good job so I'm guessing he was not a labourer. I haven't found him on any census yet.

perisama · Post by **perisama** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 6:48 pm

After doing a bit more reading up on this I find that the Scots were far better educated that us Brits. Most children went to school before it became compulsory and regardless of status of wealth, a prince would sit next to a pauper.
The task remains in finding the school he attended. (Needle and haystack immediately come to mind!!!)
I did find a very a book listing all Matriculation students from St Andrews University from the 17c. on Internet Archive.

Archiver · Post by **Archiver** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 3:19 pm

School records before the 1870s can be difficult to find, as it was not compulsory for people to go to school before then. Though there may have been what we would think of as 'parish schools' the records usually only survive where they went on to become the state school.

Other school records, such as those for church and private ones, are much harder to trace. The best thing to do, if you know where he lived when he was at school age, is to contact the local archives. For Perth, this would be Perth & Kinross Archives, who can be contacted by emailing archives[at]pkc.gov.uk (replace [at] with @). For Edinburgh, you could try Edinburgh City Archives by emailing archives[at]edinburgh.gov.uk or Edinburgh University's Special Collections at special.collections.library[at]ed.ac.uk

They should be able to tell you what records have survived which may be of use. If he was a student at Edinburgh University, they should have a list of graduates they can check.

perisama · Post by **perisama** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 4:23 pm

Thank you for those, I have already sent one to Edinburgh and they are having a look for me. I shall contact pkc now and let you know waht happens.