Wha dae ye think ye are?

DOUGIE MacLean may be best known for his anthem Caledonia, but another song from his prolific output contains the lines "I'm talking with my father, he's talking with his son, / And I don't need to look any further for the one I have become…"

Later this week, however, the Perthshire based singer-songwriter does indeed look much further, as he goes public with his family history at the International Genealogy Festival, which opens at Strathclyde University today.

As well as MacLean, the Glasgow-born BBC Newsnight presenter Gavin Esler will o turn the limelight on his Ulster Scots and German Lutheran ancestors. Both are taking part in a four-day programme of lectures, workshops and introductory sessions on the "nuts and bolts" of genealogy, all of it open to the public. The event is the university's contribution to the Scotland's Year of Homecoming, and a recognition of how widely popular family history has become over the past decade or two.

Any genealogical revelations – or unlooked for skeletons in family cupboards – will be revealed at two sessions hosted by BBC broadcaster Janice Forsyth today (Esler) and Friday (MacLean), and will be broadcast at a later date on BBC Radio Scotland's Radio Caf. Dr Bruce Durie, director of the university's genealogy course – possibly the only professional postgraduate course of its kind – who has been working on MacLean and Esler's family histories, agrees that, "as composer of Caledonia, the anthem of Homecoming, it's particularly apt that Dougie MacLean is tracing his roots."

As many of his songs suggest, MacLean is an artist who is particularly rooted in his Perthshire and wider Highland background. He lives and has his recording studio in the former village primary school at Butterstone, outside Dunkeld, which he and his father both attended. He knows the lie of the land and its ancestral voices, and it comes as no surprise to learn that he has done some family research of his own in the past. "I'm fascinated by it all," he says, "and over the years I've done a fair bit of work on it myself, or as much as an individual can, so it's really exciting to get involved with the professionals to fill in some of the blanks."

MacLean's father and his Gaelic-speaking grandfather both worked on Perthshire estates, and while Durie is keeping any revelations about his star subjects' genealogies close to his chest until the festival, he says the singer's Highland connections go way back: "Dougie's antecedents are in Argyll and the West Highlands on one side, and Ross-shire on the other, with a sprinkling of family from Northamptonshire. They were Gaelic-speaking and intimately connected with the land – shepherds, gamekeepers, agricultural labourers, and they knew the sweep of the landscape and the turning of the seasons that run through his work today. Their names – MacLean, McGregor, Menzies, MacDonald, Campbell, Lamont, McIntyre – are virtually a roll-call of Highland clans."

And as a performer who once rolled a vintage "wee grey Fergie" tractor on to the stage of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, as part of his Rural Image Celtic Connections extravaganza, MacLean is clearly steeped in his heritage – although whether or not a musical gene runs through his family tree won't be revealed until Friday.

MacLean, who will take the stage in Holyrood Park this weekend at The Gathering, is philosophical about any surprises. "I've had a chat with Bruce Durie, and he's taken it on a good bit more from where I got, but he hasn't told me yet. My family were all rural folk, so they probably didn't get up to anything spectacular, though I asked him to make sure there's no sheep stealing," he laughs. "But really, I think it will be fascinating."

Gavin Esler is also well acquainted with some of his lineage, but hopes that Bruce Durie's investigations will shed further light beyond his more recent family backgrounds – again, all will be revealed during the festival. The broadcaster and author describes his recent background as "solid west of Scotland Protestant working class, even though I was mainly brought up in Edinburgh and went to Heriot's."

He can, however, trace his ancestry back through working-class Clydebank and Northern Irish immigrants whose forebears arrived in Scotland in the 1880s, but were Ulster Scots who had settled in Ireland during the "Plantations" of the 17th century. The Eslers had originally arrived in Scotland from Europe, following the former Baltic trading routes in search of religious freedom. "I know quite a lot about them," says the broadcaster. "They were German Protestants who emigrated to Scotland in the 17th century to escape religious persecution during the Thirty Years' War. The name Esler comes from 'Esel', meaning donkey – which might explain my family history of mule-like stubbornness. They were probably ostlers, looking after horses. Three brothers settled near Ballymena in County Antrim, and thereafter bits and pieces of my family lived in Ulster and the west of Scotland."

What Esler looks forward to learning is more about his mother's side of the family. "That's the real mystery to me – the Knights of Clydebank and my grandmother, Annie Bruce. I know almost nothing about them and I can't wait to find out what Bruce Durie has discovered.

"What we do know so far is that at least five of my ancestors signed the Ulster Covenant, threatening a rebellion against a united Ireland. And I also know that I have relatives all over the world, in Australia, Canada, the United States, Ireland north and south… you name it. And the same names keep recurring – David, James, William, Robert Esler come up time after time."

Durie hints that today's session could reveal whether Esler's interest in current affairs and communications can be traced back through his family, "and why he opted for journalism rather than following his childhood plan of studying medicine, and why he didn't follow the family tradition of working in industry".

Esler reckons there are "hints of writers in the background somewhere". Pointing to his new novel, Powerplay, which will be launched at the Edinburgh International Book Festival next month and which concerns an American vice-president who vanishes while grouse shooting and exploring his family history in Aberdeenshire, Esler adds: "For many Americans, and for me, Scottish genealogy is absolutely fascinating. I also think that the British have more in common with the Germans than we realise."

In many ways, says Durie, the contrasting backgrounds of Esler and MacLean, of historical emigration and longstanding rootedness in the land, encapsulate the history of Scotland. And so far as family history is concerned, interest has burgeoned hugely over the past couple of decades. Scotland is well equipped to pursue that interest with what are widely considered the best maintained public records and research facilities of any country in the world. Much of this has become accessible online in recent years, with websites such as Scotland's People, and the National Archives of Scotland.

"At Strathclyde here we teach the principles, which are the same anywhere," says Durie, "And we do English, Irish… world genealogy, but Scotland is a great place to do it in."

There's no doubt, he concedes, that BBC television's Who Do You Think You Are?, currently into its seventh series, has further heightened public awareness of genealogy , as celebrities such as Jeremy Paxman, Moira Stuart and Stephen Fry make emotional forays back through their family histories, to confront unexpected revelations or family tragedies, or to have long-standing assumptions dashed.

"Anything that goes on TV tends to stir up public interest," says Durie. "Professionals tend to hate these things, much in the way that marine biologists hate Jaws and archaeologists hate Indiana Jones… But you can't deny that they get the public really interested, and Who Do You Think You Are? has really got everybody going.

"There have been some issues: people are now walking into libraries demanding to see their family tree, and of course it's not quite like that, but it has made people realise just what is possible."

• The International Genealogy Festival is at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, from today until Friday. For further information, see www.strath.ac.uk/homecomingscotland or tel: [phone]

SO FAR as investigating family history is concerned, Scotland boasts the best maintained public records and research facilities of any country in the world, and much is now accessible online. However, start your search by speaking to relatives and consult any family documents available. When looking for basic information about when and where your forebears lived, elderly relatives are worth talking to before you go online.

Essential sites include Scotland's People www.scotlandspeople.gov.ukwhich offers records of births and deaths from 1855 to 2006 and marriages from 1855 to 1933, plus births and baptisms, banns and marriages and deaths and burials from 1538 to 1854, as well as a searchable database of Scottish wills and testaments from 1513 to 1901.

The National Archives of Scotland www.nas.gov.uk holds land and probate records for Scotland, including wills, and parish court and kirk session records from 1550 onwards, addressing family law, poor relief, education and more.

The recently opened Scotland's People Centre at the east end of Edinburgh's Princes Street combines the resources of the General Register Office for Scotland, National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon. For more details, see www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk

Local archives, libraries and family history societies are also indispensable. There is also a useful introduction on the UK & Ireland Genealogy website: www.genuki.org.uk