Genealogy Chat

Today, I took the plunge and purchased some Scotlands People credit. I had a 4 certificates, that I could look at and when I received confirmation of my greatx 3 grandmothers maiden name, this morning, it gave me one extra thing to look at. Ididn't expect to get much new info, but just wanted the certs, but I was wrong. I got loads of new info, dates, addresses and even my great x3 grandfather's signature. I had received info on his death previously from someone who had looked at the record for me, but now I have the cert myself, I found that she had read some of the info from the person listed above, so I now have a totally different cause of death! I even managed to find my ggg grandparent's marriage, although I couldn't view it, I now have the date. Lucky are the people who have rellies from Scotland!! Lynn (very happy)

Yes, Scotlands People is a wonderful site, and so instant! You can run through a horrific amount of money, though, without really noticing, once you get caught up in the thrill of the chase! Tina

And because Scotish law is different from the law in England and Wales, you can get images of the Registers for relatively few credits, instead of shelling out on formal certificates (for exactly the same info). - Assuming you're not trying to prove a claim to a heritage, of course! Christine

I've found it very useful for tracing OH's and my ancestry. Sometimes faced with huge pagefuls of names at 20p a page but it's great when a marriage register page pops up with lots of new leads. Requires a lot of common sense to ask the right questions to minimise spend. The Old Parish Registers section is a fabulous resource for going back beyond 1837 reliably. The only downside is there's no equivalent to the Ancestry England/Wales register index pages beyond the legal cut-off dates.

Where is this scotlands people site please and can you just buy a very small number of credits? - I only have one person I want to find . Is it just Bmd or do they have census on there too? Dea x

Hi Dea The web address is www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. You have to register, then you buy credits, minimum is £6 for 30 credits. They have just about everthing - BMD (post 1855 which is when compulsory registration came in in Scotland), OPCs (old parish records - pre 1855), censuses, some Wills. If you find a BMD you want, you can see the cert on line (for about 5 credits, if I remember rightly). It's a wonderful site - you will love it. Tina

Thank you Tina - I had been trying dot co dot uk instead of the org bit and whatever site I got, I couldn't find my way around. Will try the proper one this time. Dea x

I was lucky that I had uncommon names to find and also had some help. So when I actually bought the credits, I didn't have to waste any looking through long lists Lynn

Yes Lynn it is brill site, I know it is £6 for 30 credits but the info on certificates are great and as it costs £7 for certificates in England works out a bit better as parents names on them. This is what is on site: Deaths 1855 to 1955, Births 1855 to 1905, Marriages 1855 to 1930 and the 1841 to 1901 cencus you also have Parish Records 1553 to 1854