>This is my first attempt at researching my Scottish ancestry, and I have >already gotten a response that I don't understand...can anyone please excuse >my lack of knowledge of Scottish history and explain to me what sort of >unfortunate things transpired in the Borders region that would have affected >records being kept, etc.? All sorts of things could have happened to the records. Books got lost, or fell apart. Damp doesn't do a lot for the survival of paper. Moreover, if your folk were not Church of Scotland (they could have been free Church, Epicopalian, or other things) then their records will be in the National Archives of Scotland, and would therefore not have been taken up into the IGI. I suggest that if you're just starting, you take a look at the Beginners Guide on Genuki on http://www.genuki.org.uk/ Lesley Robertson