In Search of Your Scottish Ancestors
In Search of Your Scottish Ancestors
In order to be successful researching your Scottish ancestors, you need to know where in Scotland your ancestors were from. Only then are you ready to research. This presentation will discuss the basics of your Scottish Research Toolbox.
Navigating the ScotlandsPeople Website
Genealogy researchers have become accustomed to subscription websites and find navigating the ScotlandsPeople website to be too steep of a learning curve. Given that this is the ONLY place where you can access images of the actual documents held by the Registrar, it is critical that Scottish researchers are comfortable using the website. In this presentation, we will discuss
• Parish registers vs Statutory registers
• What’s available and what’s not
• Search strategies for success
• Hidden or little used features of the website
Breaking Through Brick Walls in Scottish Research
Scottish documents contain a wealth of information and can make researching so much easier when you really take a look at what the documents are telling you. It becomes important to really pay attention to the key words on the documents so that you know what records you need to look at next in order to break through brick walls and learn as much as you can about your Scottish ancestors.
From Scotland to America
In order to be successful researching in the Scottish records, we need to know where in Scotland our ancestors came from. Bridging the gap between finding them in the North American records (birth, marriage, death and census records) and being able to locate them in the Scottish records may seem like a daunting task. However, it is often less of a challenge and more of a reward if you understand what brought them here in the first place. Some clues can be taken from the major historic events in Scottish history that led to Scots leaving their homeland.
Registration: Online attendance will be available for all HGF monthly meetings. Unless new Covid restrictions are warranted, you may also also attend in-person at Bayland. More meeting information will available in November.
