In a message dated 03/07/2004 11:01:18 GMT Daylight Time, pamelaj.groves@ntlworld.com writes: John Fergus was born in Scotland in 1812 but where? . . Your best chance of finding him would be via a county-by-county search of either the IGI for Scotland (or try the LDS website) or - and this is what I would recommend you do first - a county-by-county search of the OPRs. The IGI includes some entries from churches of all denominations, but is far from complete and notoriously unreliable. The PRs, on the other hand, include only Church of Scotland entries, but they are as complete as possible to 1855, having been compiled from the parish registers which, by Law (Scottish Law, that is) had to be sent in to the Registrar Geberal for Scotland when Civil Registration began there in 1855. In my experience they are also reliable, having no "spurious" entries. Remember, however, that even if you find what you seek, you will only be given an abbreviated version of the entry. To find the full details, which may include the precise address, the father's occupation and perhaps even other details, you will need to refer to the original registers, now held in Edinburgh. . . Whichever method you choose, the main principal is that if he was born in Scotland his birth/baptism records will have been made in Scotland and will still be there. Even if he lived most of his life in England, those records will not be in England. If you find a statement from him (eg in a census return - but that is not very likely) about precisely where in Scotland he was born, it will only be an allegation by someone in later life, who may or may not have known where that place was, and who may or may not have thought it important to tell the enumerator the truth! . . Geoff Nicholson . 57 Manor Park, Concord, WASHINGTON, Tyne & Wear NE37 2BU Ask for details of NBL/DUR family history research in depth by THE local expert, working for YOU.