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Doors Open Day 2010

Edinburgh's next 'doors open day' will fall on Saturday 25 September 2010. Members of the public will be welcomed into the Centre for taster sessions, talks on Scottish family history, and will be given the opportunity to browse the family histories of some Famous Scots.

A full program of the day's events will be published nearer the time.

Archivists' Garden opening

The Archivists' Garden has long been one of Edinburgh's best kept secrets - until now. It has now been officially opened by one of Scotland's best-loved TV presenters.

The garden is situated between New Register House and General Register House, and we were pleased to welcome the BBC's Beechgrove Garden presenter Jim McColl to do the honours. He planted a tree to mark the official opening.

The event was filmed and will feature on an episode of the Beechgrove Garden, to be broadcast on BBC Scotland on July 14. Jim McColl spoke to Saltire, the Scottish Government's internal website, before the official opening and admitted he was thrilled by the spectacle.

Pictured with Dave Brownlee (Deputy Keeper, NAS, on the left) and Raymond Evans (ScotlandsPeople Internet Manager, GROS, on the right), Jim said:

"I was aware of the raison d'être for the garden, having seen the plantingplan. It was absolutely fascinating. This garden is chock-a-block with an amazing variety of plants. All the plants you see here have earned their place. They are each uniquely significant because of their connection to Scotland and its culture. We will be highlighting many of them on the show".

Jim planted the symbolic tree (below), alongside the garden's designer, David R Mitchell of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. He then switched his attention to an altogether more fascinating type of tree, taking advantage of the Centre's unique facilities to research his branch of the McColl family tree.

I've never investigated my family history before. I discovered facts about my great-grandparents from 1890. My mother worked in an Ayrshire lace factory and her mother before that. My grandfather drove steam engines from Carlisle to Glasgow."

Dave Brownlee said: "I emailed Jim to ask if he would be interested in visiting the garden to perform a formal opening ceremony. Jim was not only delighted to do so, but suggested that it would make an excellent feature for an episode of the Beechgrove Garden. Many people know Jim - he is the doyen of Scottish gardeners, and we can't think of anyone better to open it.

Our mission is to make not only the garden, but the wonderful treasure store of records held by the ScotlandsPeople partner organisations, as accessible to as many people as possible - we are sure the Beechgrove Garden feature will help to achieve this."