My interest in tracing the Harley family in Scotland arose when I began to trace my own family tree : I had no problems with my paternal family line since that is already the subject of a One-Name Study, and the line is complete right back to 1550. My mother's family, however, is a different matter, and although a family tree through her mother (i.e. my maternal grandmother) is building up nicely, my grandfather is quite another matter. All we know about him is verbal anecdotes and the memories of his (now elderly) children. We have always believed him to have been born in or around the Edinburgh area in about 1874, but thorough searches of the Scottish Records Office have drawn a complete blank : as far as they are concerned, my grandfather Kenneth Harley never existed! The English censuses also failed to reveal him, so the only documentary evidence we have of him are his death certificate - he died in Hull, Yorkshire in 1948 - his name on the birth certificates of his seven children, and of course a number of photographs. A summary of this research can be seen here.

Undeterred by this total lack of concrete facts, I decided to approach the problem from the "other end" and began searching for the earliest Harleys I could find : these proved to be records of a marriage in 1575 between Catherine Harlaw and Johne Hall in Perth, one between Archebaud Harlaw and Marione Andirsone in Stirling in 1589, one in 1597 in Edinburgh between Begis Harlaw and Roger Stevinsoune and yet another in 1598 which took place in Clackmannan between Johne Harla and Cristane Foirman. A whole family of Harly/Harlay/Harlaws are recorded as being born between 1600 and 1605 in Pencaitland, the earliest individual using the "Harley" spelling being James Harley born in 1626 in Haddington, in modern East Lothian. Intrigued, I carried on with my researches and discovered the Harleys of central Scotland. The vast majority of these early records are from the counties of Fife, Kinross, Clackmannan, Stirling and the Lothians, surrounding the Firth of Forth, with only a very few "strays" into neighbouring counties (see maps of locations.)

A second "line of attack" has been an attempt to trace him through a purported sister, Rosina Harley, whose existence was purely anecdotal. I did in fact find not one but two Rosina Harleys, mother and daughter, and their family turned out to be quite fascinating. A summary of that research can be seen here.

Although I have not yet traced my own family line, I have unearthed a great deal of data which could be of use to other Harley family researchers, so please browse through these pages and see if you can find anything relevant to you. I would be delighted to hear from you if your search proves successful, and even more so if you can aid me in mine!

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