diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 52669d8..bc4ef85 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ Imports:
     utils
 Suggests:
     MASS,
-    testthat
+    testthat,
+    devtools
 LazyData: yes
 ByteCompile: yes
 Version: 1.6
diff --git a/R/Packages.R b/R/Packages.R
index 9908ee9..10df091 100644
--- a/R/Packages.R
+++ b/R/Packages.R
@@ -12,7 +12,9 @@
 addRegistryPackages = function(reg, packages) {
   checkRegistry(reg)
   assertCharacter(packages, any.missing = FALSE)
-  packages = setNames(lapply(packages, function(pkg) list(version = packageVersion(pkg))), packages)
+  # load packages (this forces source packages to be loaded)
+  packages <- requirePackages(packages, stop = TRUE, suppress.warnings = TRUE, default.method = "attach")
+  packages = setNames(lapply(packages, function(pkg) list(version = packageVersion(pkg))), names(packages))
   p = c(reg$packages, packages)
   p = p[unique(names(p))]
   reg$packages = p
diff --git a/R/Registry.R b/R/Registry.R
index 4df03d5..c5f8749 100644
--- a/R/Registry.R
+++ b/R/Registry.R
@@ -1,3 +1,19 @@
+# internal overloading wrapper for BBmisc::requirePackages
+requirePackages <- function(pkg, ...){
+  
+  sapply(pkg, function(pkgname, ...){
+    # pre-load source packages
+    if( grepl("^[~./\\]", pkgname) ){
+        a <- devtools::load_all(pkgname, reset = FALSE) # reset = FALSE is very important
+        pkgname <- packageName(a$env)
+    } 
+    # standard require
+    BBmisc::requirePackages(pkgname, ...)
+    pkgname
+  }, ...)
+
+}
+
 makeRegistryInternal = function(id, file.dir, sharding, work.dir,
   multiple.result.files, seed, packages, src.dirs, src.files) {
 
@@ -20,7 +36,7 @@ makeRegistryInternal = function(id, file.dir, sharding, work.dir,
 
   assertCharacter(packages, any.missing = FALSE)
   packages = union(packages, "BatchJobs")
-  requirePackages(packages, stop = TRUE, suppress.warnings = TRUE, default.method = "attach")
+  packages <- requirePackages(packages, stop = TRUE, suppress.warnings = TRUE, default.method = "attach")
 
   assertCharacter(src.dirs, any.missing = FALSE)
   src.dirs = sanitizePath(src.dirs, make.absolute = FALSE)
@@ -42,7 +58,7 @@ makeRegistryInternal = function(id, file.dir, sharding, work.dir,
   checkDir(getExportDir(file.dir), create = TRUE, check.empty = TRUE)
   sourceRegistryFilesInternal(work.dir, src.dirs, src.files)
 
-  packages = setNames(lapply(packages, function(pkg) list(version = packageVersion(pkg))), packages)
+  packages = setNames(lapply(packages, function(pkg) list(version = packageVersion(pkg))), names(packages))
 
   setClasses(list(
     id = id,
@@ -95,13 +111,17 @@ makeRegistryInternal = function(id, file.dir, sharding, work.dir,
 #'   Default is a random number from 1 to \code{.Machine$integer.max/2}.
 #' @param packages [\code{character}]\cr
 #'   Packages that will always be loaded on each node.
+#'   Path to source package directories may also be specified (strings starting with 
+#'   a \code{.}, \code{/} , \code{~} or \code{\\} are considered package directory specifications).
 #'   Default is \code{character(0)}.
 #' @param src.dirs [\code{character}]\cr
-#'   Directories containing R scripts
+#'   Directories containing R scripts or source packages
 #'   to be sourced on registry load (both on slave and master).
 #'   Files not matching the pattern \dQuote{\\.[Rr]$} are ignored.
 #'   Useful if you have many helper functions that are needed during the execution of your jobs.
 #'   These files should only contain function definitions and no executable code.
+#'   Source package directory must contain a valid DESCRIPTION file and are loaded with 
+#'   \code{\link[devtools]{load_all}}.
 #'   Default is \code{character(0)}.
 #' @param src.files [\code{character}]\cr
 #'   R scripts files
diff --git a/R/sourceRegistryFiles.R b/R/sourceRegistryFiles.R
index 6228661..1a0120c 100644
--- a/R/sourceRegistryFiles.R
+++ b/R/sourceRegistryFiles.R
@@ -23,12 +23,31 @@ sourceRegistryFilesInternal = function(work.dir, dirs, files, envir = .GlobalEnv
   if (length(w))
     stopf("Files to source not found, e.g. %s", files[w])
 
-  w = !isPathFromRoot(dirs)
+  w = !isPathFromRoot(dirs) & !grepl("^~", dirs)
   dirs[w] = file.path(work.dir, dirs[w])
   w = which.first(!isDirectory(dirs))
   if (length(w))
     stopf("Directories to source not found, e.g. %s", dirs[w])
 
+  # detect source package directories
+  if( length(dirs) ){
+      wpkg <- which(sapply(file.path(dirs, 'DESCRIPTION'), file.exists))
+      if( length(wpkg) ){
+        # setup temporary directory to hold package loading script
+        tmpdir <- tempfile('BatchJobs_load_all_')
+        dir.create(tmpdir)
+        on.exit( unlink(tmpdir, recursive = TRUE) )
+        # generate loading scripts
+        lapply(dirs[wpkg], function(d){
+            cat(sprintf("# load source package\ndevtools::load_all('%s', reset = TRUE)\n", d)
+                , file = tempfile(paste0(basename(d), '_'), tmpdir, fileext = ".R"))
+        })
+        # remove directory from list and add temporary load_all directory
+        dirs <- c(dirs[-wpkg], tmpdir)
+      }
+  } 
+  ##
+  
   lapply(c(getRScripts(dirs), files), sys.source, envir = envir)
   invisible(TRUE)
 }