Genealogy Chat

I agree completely - SP is the best site on the web for Scottish searches. I only wish there were an equivalent for English searches. Ancestry is OK but search results are quirky - don't bother to tick an 'exact' box as that will result in zero results, and why when I don't request results outside the UK do I get all these USA and Canadian returns, or if I specify a particular county and parish do I still get every possible result in the world? Familysearch/LDS is unreliable and incomplete. Sylvia, you are correct, the use of wildcards is essential in using SP, even on common first names e.g. I always use S*r* for Sarah/Sara/Sarrah or even J*n* for John/Jn/Johnne/Johne. By the way you only need one wild card * not multiple *** to get the same results. One of my families is Mundell which I have found as Mundel/Mundal/Mundle/Munnel/......by using M*n*l*. I haven't found Soundex very useful. Yes it can be expensive but with experience you can usually get an actual image for around UKP2.00 (5 searches plus image). That's a lot better than having to send away to GRO and pay UKP7.00 and wait 2 weeks. You can also do a lot of preparatory searching without paying e.g. finding how many of a particular name were born in a particular parish over a period of, say 50 years. Finally, always double check that you haven't searched for a similar set of parameters before; it is easy to forget!

Hi Julie I've found the extensive use of wildcards **** in both surname and christian names is often called for. Example My Jeffrey family I looked for under J*ffr** which brought up the spellings of Jeffrey, Jaffrey and Jaffrie ...all legitimate spellings of the name in those days. Another one was Umpherston which I finally found uner U*****n. So be creative :-) Sylvia

Julie scotlands people can be very expensive if your rellies change the spelling of their name, who are you looking for? Georgina.

Hello Julie, Yes you must find it dispiriting, as you say your family came from Scotland i dont understand why you have no sucess. I can only tell you my experience on the site has been spot on, like many people I wasted many, many, units when I first started. But with guidance from others, I began to do my homework properly and then went on for info. I am sure somebody will get back to you with more help and tips on how to get some good results. Good luck in your research Julie. Regards Jane

hiya, well done, its lovely when you can see records. can you give me some advice please? which site are you using. I bought units on Scotlands People and despite a whole family being born in Scotland i havent been able to pick any up on any records including census . It seems really odd. Despite spending a lot so far on this site i have not found sight of any ancestors records which has been a bit dispiriting thanks j

I'm another one that's hooked ...and poor. Having found a daughter noted as the 10th child it cost me a fortune finding 8 more (still one to go!) Great stuff. Sylvia

Hi All. I understand what you say about costing a fortune, you just want to dig up every parish record in the family. My other side of the tree is from England, I do wish the records were available to view also. Off to do some more digging soon!! Jane

Jane I think it's amazing to see your ancestors names on records from such a long time ago. What I didn't realise is they had to pay to marry, I have just viewed a marriage & they had to pay 8 shillings to the poor of the parish & this was in 1772 so maybe the family had money or land a long time ago. Georgina.

Cheers Ann, We are obviously singing from the same hymn book.Regards to you Janex

No Jane, it's not your age! It is a very emotional time to actually see the names of your relatives listed, it always sends shivers down my spine. Regards Ann

Was just wondering what you thought of being able to access the Parish records on SP? I think its absolutely fantastic, I was moved to tears tonight when I saw my ancestors births 1800 online. Or maybe its my age!!!!!! Jane x