The research project website includes a listing of all known Porteous/Porteus family emigrants from 1623 to the present day, a history of the Porteous family and brief biographies of some family members, and a summarised historical background to help put that emigration into context.

The Porteous Research Project is a useful resource for family researchers and genealogists – particularly for the collection and exchange of information about the emigration of Porteous and Porteus families (and other variant spellings – see the foot of this page).

It is hoped that it may be useful to analyse and seek to come to some understanding of the historical background and social factors that led to this apparent mass movement of people – whether political, economic or historical – and to investigate whether there emerge any common factors when compared with the history of other similar families from the same part of Scotland, ie, the Borders, Peeblesshire, Dumfriesshire and Lanarkshire.

The authors are seeking to establish the dates at which Porteous families emigrated, the principal cities and areas from which they moved, as well as the main places of settlement, initially in England and Ireland – and later in the Americas and beyond.

Any information about the emigration of Porteous/Porteus families (regardless of spelling) emigration to the US or Canada, Australia or New Zealand, other former British Commonwealth countries – or anywhere else – will be gratefully received.