Scotlands People Website Review

If you’re tracing Scottish ancestors on the internet you’ll almost certainly be familiar with Scotland’s People the official government source of genealogical data for Scotland offering access to Scottish records from 1513-2006 on a pay-per-view basis. If you’re researching a common name, the information you have is a little vague or your ancestors are at all elusive you’ve probably also discovered that it’s very easy to spend a lot of money very quickly without ever finding a record of the person you are seeking. This may prove not only expensive but also disheartening, especially if you’ve heard tell of the wonderful amount of information to be gleaned from Scottish records and find yourself unable to get beyond the first step.

A visit to the new Scotlands People Centre in Edinburgh may be the answer. The Centre was officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen last July and has been offering a full service to the general public since early this year. The ScotlandsPeople Centre is a partnership between the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) and the Court of the Lord Lyon and gives access to Statutory Records of Births, Marriages & Deaths 1855-Present, Old Parish Registers 1553-1854, Census Records 1841-1901, Wills and Testaments 1513-1901, Coats of Arms 1672-1908 and various Miscellaneous Records and Resources.

Although most of these records are available on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk the great advantage in visiting the ScotlandsPeople Centre is that after paying the entrance fee, currently £10 per day, you can view as many of the records as you like at no additional cost. You only pay for any copies you require, which can be printed or downloaded to a USB stick, after viewing the complete record and if you prefer can transcribe any records of interest rather than paying for a copy. This means that if you have to view 10, 50 or even 100 records before finding the one that relates to your ancestor you will not have had to waste money paying for information that does not further your research.

It also possible to view records from the 20th and 21st Centuries which are not available on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk for reasons of privacy – that is births from 1909, marriages from 1934 and deaths from 1959. This is particularly helpful if you are just beginning your family history research.

Even if you are a seasoned family historian you may find that a visit to the ScotlandsPeople Centre opens up new avenues for research which would be prohibitively expensive online. You can find the birth records of all the children born to a particular couple for example or look at records of individuals who share a particular surname in the hope of establishing a connection. If your ancestors emigrated from Scotland you may want to find out what happened to the family they left behind and can even trace living descendants still resident in Scotland.

To begin planning your trip to the ScotlandsPeople Centre visit www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk. This gives details of opening hours, the records available and how to get a free taster session or an assisted search. Helpfully this website uses the same interface as the computers at the Centre so you can begin to familiarise yourself with the system before your first visit. It is worth spending a little time exploring the site as there is a lot of useful information here, including the dates of the surviving Old Parish Registers for every parish in Scotland and lists of Miscellaneous Records and Additional Resources held by ScotlandsPeople which are not available on the main computers. Knowing in advance which of these sources you may wish to consult during your visit can save valuable search time. There is also an interactive beginner’s guide to Scottish family history research which starts off well, but which I have tried several times using different browsers and appears to stop working part way through.

On visiting the ScotlandsPeople Centre for the first time you will be asked to set up an account with a username and password. You keep the same account for each subsequent visit and can add credit for making copies as well as saving your favourite records so they can be easily found again.

Usefully (although rather well hidden) you can also access other family history websites from your terminal. These include www.familysearch.org, websites listing Scottish monumental inscriptions, the NAS online catalogue and subscription sites such as www.ancestry.co.uk and www.findmypast.com. You will need to have your own subscription to any site requiring payment but this does mean you can follow up any information you find immediately, for example by checking incoming and outgoing passengers lists, rather than having to wait until you get home. It is also useful to be able to consult the IGI at www.familysearch.org and the Scottish census transcripts at www.ancestry.co.uk in conjunction with the indexes provided by ScotlandsPeople to give you the best possible chance of finding that elusive ancestor.

Researchers who previously used the search rooms at GROS will find several improvements in the new system including the option of using wildcards when entering names, increased options for searching the censuses and the ability to access records of Wills & Testaments and Coats of Arms. However, on my visits I have found that some census records for Renfrewshire were missing (hopefully soon to be remedied if not already!), the system does not recognise apostrophes (rather useful when searching for O’Neils, O’Briens etc., although a wildcard can be used instead) and it is now less obvious when there is a RCE (entry in the Register of Corrected Entries) connected with a Statutory Record.

With its unrivalled access to Scottish genealogical records the ScotlandsPeople Centre is the number one destination for those wishing to learn more about their Scottish ancestors and with a shop, café and changing exhibition of Famous Scots and their family histories you’ll find plenty to keep you busy.

About the author:
Kirsty F. Wilkinson is a professional genealogist based in Edinburgh and a regular visitor to the ScotlandsPeople Centre. If you are not able to visit Edinburgh in person and would like assistance with tracing your Scottish family history she would be happy to help. Please see My Ain Folk for details of research services or to contact Kirsty to discuss your requirements.

 FIRST NAME

 LAST NAME