By Gary Cooper

THE BLACK Watch has joined forces with Angus Council in a bid to attract people to the area and walk in the footsteps of their military ancestors.

A new scheme will see nine Angus-based veterans trained to carry out research for people whose ancestors fought in the regiment in the first world war.

The initiative is supported financially by the local authority under the auspices of the Angus and Dundee Ancestral Tourism Initiative.

Veterans will be shown how to research a wealth of regimental archives as well as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Scottish National War Memorial, newspaper casualty lists, notices of wounding, local rolls of honour and entries from battalion war diaries.

The service will be rolled out from the end of next month and will then be promoted at the regimental reunion at the Black Watch Museum in June.

Phase two of the project will include production of a pack telling people how to carry out their own regimental research plus a CD containing the personal archives of more than 30 Angus Black Watch soldiers from the first world war.

Running alongside is an educational project involving secondary schools in the county.

This will see pupils tracing the history of first world war soldiers who are named on their own school memorial.

Fraser Brown, education officer at the Black Watch Museum in Perth, said, “We’ve launched this initiative in response to the increasing level of inquiries we’re receiving at the museum from people looking for information about their Black Watch ancestors.

“Regimental ancestry is a very specialised field but it can be extremely rewarding for the family historian given the wealth of records and archival material at our disposal.

“Some records, such as war diaries which give details of actions in the field on a daily basis, can only be accessed by staff here at the museum but other sources, such as local newspapers, are readily available to members of the public.

“Local newspapers in particular are a fantastic source of colour for regimental historians, with many even carrying excerpts from letters by local soldiers written from the front line.

“These provide a very personal account of what life was like for soldiers on a day-to-day basis.”

Gillian Harrower, of Angus and Dundee Ancestral Tourism Initiative, described it as an innovative and exciting project.

She said, “TV programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are? have generated enormous interest in family history—to the extent that family history is now the third most popular internet search worldwide.

“Many families in Angus have a connection to The Black Watch and, given that there are estimated to be around 2.5 million people worldwide with Angus and Dundee ancestry, we anticipate that this new service will be extremely popular.

“We hope that in addition to carrying out research, people will be encouraged to visit and actually see the places connected with their Black Watch ancestors.”

An ancestral training session for veterans was held this week at the drill hall in Brechin Road, Forfar.