Online Scottish Research using Original Records and Major Indexes www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/NEA/5-5_009_Scot_Milner.asp by Paul Milner Those of us researching men and women in or from Scotland are luckier than most when it comes to using the Internet. We have online access to original records and large comprehensive indexes, thanks to a number of excellent websites that are growing each year. These websites, as we shall see, are accurate and helpful if used correctly. Scotland’s People Let’s start with the best and the biggest. The website at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk is a partnership between the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) and Scotland On Line. The GROS administers the registration of births, marriages, deaths, divorces, adoptions, and the decennial census of Scotland’s population. It is therefore an important record keeper. From a research perspective, the question to ask is, “What original records and indexes are available at this site?” Let’s begin with census data. Currently available are complete indexes and scanned images of the 1891 and 1901 census. For 1881 there are an index and complete transcript, but no original images. Indexes for 1841 through 1871 are proposed for later in 2004, along with scanned images of the census. This site will only get better as more information is added. The registration of all births, marriages, and deaths by the government began in Scotland in 1855. Scotland’s People offers the indexes and scanned originals for births 1855 to 1903, marriages 1855 to 1928 (with a few years of scanned images missing), and deaths from 1855 to 1953.Online records for each event increase annually. Prior to 1855 churches maintained birth/christening, marriage, and death/burial records. The earliest date from 1553, although the records of many churches begin much later. The Old Parish Register Index to events recorded by the Established Church of Scotland, is now available, but does not include data from the Presbyterian churches that broke away, or from other non-conformists. The website informs us that images of the original registers are coming. As descendants of true Scottish ancestors we are always concerned about costs! Here, £6 (approximately $11), payable by credit card, provides thirty page credits which last forty-eight hours, so we are well advised to be prepared ahead of time. When searching the indexes, we will find results displayed in groups of up to twenty-five names for one credit. We are told how many names are generated by the search before we look at the results in case there are too many and we want to change our search parameters. The viewing of an actual image costs five credits. Case study and alternatives The www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ website is important, but it is not the only way to access Scottish vital records. Most researchers are familiar with the International Genealogical Index (IGI), available online for free at www.familysearch.org. Some events recorded in the IGI are extractions from original records, while others are patron submissions that may or may not be accurate. Care needs to be taken in reading the source of the information. For example if we search for Thomas Trotter, born around 1760 in Roxburgh we find a christening on August 3, 1760, in Melrose, Roxburgh. The source is an extraction from original parish registers on film. The parents are listed as John Trotter and Alison Marr. A marriage for this couple is shown on May 22, 1756, in Melrose, but is a patron submission. Therefore, we need to check another source. We can do so by accessing the Scottish Church Records Index at any local Family History Center (FHC). This indexes covers births/christenings and marriages recorded within the Established Church of Scotland and is basically the same index available online at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ for a fee. A search of either index confirms that the John and Alison were married on this date in Melrose. Whenever we search an index, we still need to check the original registers for two reasons. First, we want to verify information from the indexes. Second, we want any additional data in original sources. Currently the only way to check these sources in North America is through a local Family History Center (FHC). Normally when we check church records, we also look for death or burial data. But such are not included in the Scottish Church Records Index, online at Scotland’s People or in many churches, and when death information does appear in church records it is often very sporadic. As more data become available online, how we search may depend upon whether we seek for one individual or many family members within a given locality. Our access to a FHC is a factor, as is the amount of money we want to spend on our search. When looking for a post–1855 birth, marriage, or death, online searches and access to original images make the Internet the quickest and cheapest way to gather data, unless we seek a common name over a number of years, or a family that stayed in one location. Births and marriages from 1855 to 1875 are indexed and included in the IGI. For deaths or other years we would use www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ and pay the search fee. We should view the scanned image of the original record to see what additional information is provided, and to check that we have the correct individual or couple. We can access the census records at Scotland’s People. Alternatively, a complete transcript of the 1881 census for Scotland, England, and Wales can be purchased on CD-ROM inexpensively at www.familysearch.org/. Microfilm copies of census images from 1841 through 1891 are available through your local FHC. The only way to access the 1901 census outside the British Isles is via the Internet. Scottish documents At www.scottishdocuments.com we can search an index to all 520,000 wills and testaments in a multitude of Scottish courts covering 1500 through 1901. We can then obtain for most of these a high quality scanned image of the original. Images from missing courts are added to the website regularly. This website simplifies probate research in Scotland because we can now search all courts at once. We do not need to know the court in which a will was probated. The website lists which courts have images online and which do not. An advanced search on this website allows us to limit our search to a specific court or commissariat, a description field such as title/occupation/place, or a specific date. When dealing with a common name it helps to know the most likely court. If you know the parish of your ancestors, courts for specific parishes are listed at www.rootsweb.com/~bifhsusa/sct-test-pre1801.html. So, for example, when I search the surname Trotter in Peebles Commissary Court there are four results for the years between 1681 and 1827. One is a George Trotter with a probate date of April 16, 1812, a tenant in Kerchesters. I can ask for more information. Here I find that this record is an inventory, Extract Deed of Settlement, twenty-four pages in length, with its full reference. The typical record is one or two pages. The cost of a scanned image of this record, £5 (approximately $9), is the same whether the document is two pages or twenty-four. When reading old documents, such as these wills, we will encounter Scottish words we do not understand or recognize. We can check The Dictionary of the Scots Language at www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl. Scots in the British military The Scots have been fighting in the British Army for centuries. Two very large databases cover many of our ancestors in the military. One at The National Archives is for soldiers discharged to pension between 1760 and 1854. The second is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission recording soldiers who died in World Wars I and II. The National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office) The National Archives catalog for individual soldiers discharged to pension is located at www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search.asp. We can search on any word or phrase (surname, place name, etc.) requesting the search be conducted in WO97 and WO121, and will likely find enough information to know whether a given soldier is a relative. Records are organized by regiment; copies are available on microfilm through your local Family History Center. Its Information Leaflets describe these and many more records in more detail. Commonwealth War Graves Commission For soldiers who died in the First or Second World War, we can check www.cwgc.org. Here we can search by name and hope that biographical information, such as next of kin, allows us to distinguish our soldier from others with the same name. A search for Albert George Trotter shows that he was a private in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, “B” Company, 14th Battalion, with service number S/9082 and was twenty-four years old when he was killed on September 3, 1916. He is buried at Fins New British Cemetery, Sorel-Le-Grand. Under “additional information” we learn that he was the son of Albert Wood Trotter and Isabella Trotter of Crook’s Cottages, Coldstream, Berwickshire, and a native of Rowchester, Greenlaw, Berwickshire. We can then return to the online version of the 1901 census and find seven-year-old Albert living with his parents and two older siblings in Greenlaw. Albert’s father Albert is working as a shepherd. This example shows how quickly online sources can be utilized to begin a pedigree. Putting our ancestors into context A great place to begin putting ancestors in context is the Statistical Accounts of Scotland at http://edina.ac.uk/ statacc. Here is a digitized version of the first two Statistical Accounts, covering the 1790s and 1830s. Data varies greatly from one parish to the next depending on the personal interests of the local minister. But overall the accounts provide a superb picture of life in local communities and changes over time. For example, a search for Melrose, where the Trotters were married, gives us sixteen pages with headings covering name and extent; soil; agriculture, and produce; manufactures (with details of the local linen industry); population (with numbers of non-conformists in the parish); religion; stipend, school, etc.; the poor; abbeys; and camps. To identify surrounding parishes, we can visit the Parish Locator Database at www.genuki.org.uk/big/churchdb/search.html. We can adjust the number of miles from our parish of interest and receive a list of those nearby, with approximate distances. We should then return to the Statistical Accounts of Scotland to read data on surrounding parishes. Scottish Archive Network The Scottish Archive Network at www.scan.org.uk provides an online catalog to access the holdings of fifty-two archives in Scotland — a total of over twenty thousand collections. Within this site is a large quantity of material that will help put your ancestors into context. In the Digital Archives section, for example, there is an index to five thousand Australian-bound names in the Highlands & Islands Emigration Society passenger lists, 1852–1857, one of the few emigration sources held by the National Archives of Scotland. In that same section we find population tables for the Isle of Skye, from 1755 to 1841, an image of an 1849 petition, an 1849 letter describing conditions on the Isle of Skye, and a transcript of the society rules from 1851. In the Family History Section and Knowledge Database we find images of the 1891 Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health arranged by county, with community mortality rates and causes, infectious diseases, population distribution, industries, offensive trades, working-class housing, water supply, river pollution, and local hospitals and health services. Conclusion Access to original records and major indexes is simplifying the search for Scottish ancestors. However, as serious researchers, we will always need to examine originals online or at a local FHC to make sure we are extracting all available data. With care, we can create a well-developed pedigree using online records. Ultimately, however, such research cannot replace a trip to Scotland. A personal visit will take us beyond basic record groups to items neither online nor on film and likely never to be. But you did want a reason to go to Scotland, didn’t you? Paul Milner, is co-author with Linda Jonas of A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your Scottish Ancestors (Betterway, 2002) and A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering your English Ancestors (Betterway, 2000). He is a native of northern England, and a nationally-recognized lecturer specializing in British Isles research. Sally Rolls Pavia sallypavia2001@yahoo.com "Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors." .. 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