----- Original Message ----- From: ingrid lamberts To: JOHNSTON-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 3:38 PM Subject: Scottish Records Hi All - finally glad to have something to contribute, though enjoy following other people's stories even if not related to mine. Scottish records online are actually really good - the key site is http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/index.php - it's a pay-per-view site but well worth it. It covers both Old Parish Records (OPRs) and later civil records between 1553 and (deaths) up to 1953. I use it in conjunction with the LDS IGI - the trick with the Mormon records is to realise that there are two types of records on there, 'official' and 'speculative'. That is to say you will get some with a message along the lines of 'extracted from birth record' such and such, they are direct transcripts and as such as reliable as any other source which you don't actually see yourself. The others are family records or pedigree records which have been submitted by members of the Church or other interested parties and may or may not be accurate, but can provide many good leads. There isn't any cross-referencing which can make things a little tedious when you get many results for one seemingly specific search and realise ! they are all about the same person, just that a number of people have made contributions about them. If you're confronted with a large number of 'hits', as a general rule, the 'official' entries will have names in all caps, while many 'manual' entries will be in uppers and lowers - but as I say, this is a general guide only. I'm another Australian (Canberra), but my Johnston link was a 4th great-grandmother who lived and died in Scotland (she married a Kirkwood, but it wasn't until they became Gillespie and then Griffin that they came to Australia). Let me know if I can help any more - as I say, it's nice to finally have something I know a little about!!! Best of luck Ingrid