Harvey explained: "My paternal grandfather, Louis Kaplan, was the manager of the Jewish Institute from the 1930s to 1950s.

"I wish I had a pound for everyone who has visited the centre and told me the story of going to the Institute to find him sitting at the door, checking their subscriptions were paid.

"When we run the Jewish Bus Tour, we do a sketch on the bus in which I play my grandfather."

Harvey, who was born in 1955, attended Annette Street Primary School and cheder. He went to Shawlands Academy in order to take the Hebrew course there.

He recalled: "My Hebrew teachers at Shawlands were Linda Hall and then Evelyn Tiefenbrun. There were a lot of Jewish pupils at the school, in the days when there were still many Jewish families living in Shawlands.

"When I was growing up, Allison Street was still a flourishing Jewish area. There were Jewish butchers, delicatessens and other businesses and the Burial Society and Crosshill Synagogue were there.

"I can still remember South Portland Street Synagogue - I had my barmitzvah there."

Harvey was a member of the Jewish Youth Study Group before going to Glasgow University, where he obtained an MA degree in history.

He was also very involved in J-Soc, latterly as president.

"After my time in J-Soc, I joined the Northern Region Chaplaincy Board and I'm still there, more than 30 years later," Harvey said.

"I served as chairman for three years and am currently secretary. I've worked with all the chaplains, from Michael Rosin to Garry Wayland.

"I believe that it's a symptom of the shrinkage in the community that it's very difficult to attract new blood.

"In the past, in each generation of graduates some settled in Glasgow and in that way we were able to rejuvenate the Board."

Harvey was also on the executive committee of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council for many years.

After graduating, Harvey's first job was at what was to become the Museum of Education - the Museum of Childhood in Scotland Street School.

He said: "It was in the school's final year, so there weren't many pupils left. We went round old schools and collected archival material.

"We started a small exhibition and groups of pupils visited. We gave them lessons in a Victorian-style classroom.

"After that I worked for several bookshops, latterly as a manager. After being made redundant I joined the Civil Service."

It is for his work for the Archives Centre that Harvey is best known.

He explained: "In 1984 a letter from Charlotte Hutt, of the Gorbals Fair Society, was published in the Jewish Echo.

"They were launching an exhibition on the Jewish community in the Gorbals, in the former Adelphi Street School and were looking for material and people to get involved.

"Charlotte and I put together a little booklet, A Scottish Shtetl - Jewish Life in the Gorbals from 1880 to 1974. The exhibition was a great success and lots of Jewish and non-Jewish people came to see it.

"I wrote a letter to the Echo saying that it was a shame that our own community wasn't doing anything to preserve its history.

"The Rep Council sent Kenneth Collins to discuss this with me and we set up a Jewish Archives project, sponsored by the Council.

"Garnethill Synagogue gave us the former Vestry Room, now the Esterson Room, for our use and to house the project.

"We set up a committee, which included a number of Garnethill members.

"We did a survey of what historical material was around in the community and started collecting and cataloguing.

"In 1987 we formally became the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre with a public meeting at Garnethill at which Professor David Daiches spoke.

"In that same year, Kenneth published Aspects of Scottish Jewry, the first history of the community for around 40 years. I contributed one of the chapters.

"Ever since we started collecting, around 1985, I don't think a week has gone by when we haven't been given something for the archives.

"I remember going to visit Moray Glasser, whose father had been very active in the community and grandfather had been the rabbi of the Gorbals.

"He reached up to a shelf and picked up a minutes book from the United Synagogue of Glasgow, dated 1898 to 1906. It had survived by accident.

"What makes me very sad is that there are shuls and other communal buildings which have closed without a single photo being taken inside or out or record or artefact kept.

"A Jewish librarian in Montreal once sent us a single copy of the Jewish Times from 1903. It was a Glasgow newspaper written in Yiddish and is the sole surviving copy anyone had seen.

"I just wonder where all the other copies went."

He added: "We have a really hands-on committee and are continuing to build up the collection, develop the centre and reach out to the wider community.

"What we are doing at the Archives is just as important for them as it is for us. We are showing how poor Eastern European Jewish immigrants or Holocaust survivors came here with nothing and became leading doctors, lawyers, politicians and chairmen of national organisations.

"For Scotland this can be an example to other communities."

Harvey, who has always been interested in his family history, said: "I've spent many years tracing the various branches of my own family, which has included discovering distant cousins around the world.

"I've visited ancestral towns in Lithuania and Poland, where I met my fourth cousin, now a doctor in Krakow.

"I've also researched family history for many people in the UK and around the world and have lectured on Scottish Jewish genealogy at International conferences."

It looks like Harvey will continue his love affair with the past well into the future.