GENEALOGYBITSANDPIECES-L Archives

From: "Sally Rolls Pavia" <>
Subject: Scottish Ancestry by Nathan W Murphy
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 06:41:09 -0700

Scottish Ancestry
By Nathan W. Murphy, AG

Do you have Scottish roots? If so, there are two Web sites you won't want to
miss: Scotland’s People, at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk and Scottish
Documents, at www.scottishdocuments.com. Nationwide in scope and covering
Scotland’s most valuable sources — parish registers, civil registration,
censuses and probate records — these databases greatly facilitate finding
Scottish ancestors.

Many Scottish emigrants set sail for America. One migration that consisted
mostly of Scots-Irish immigrants arrived after staying in Ireland for a
number of generations. They often settled in the backcountry regions on the
edge of civilization, in what later became the United States of America.
Social historians have written many excellent books about their unique
culture, such as David Hackett Fischer’s Albion’s Seed: Four British
Folkways in America. Fischer calls one of the four groups discussed the
borderers." His 175-page expository on these people, who American
genealogists refer to as the Scotch-Irish, shows how former residents of
northern England, Scotland and Ireland, transported their culture from the
Old World to the New World.

The General Register Office for Scotland generated the Web site Scotland’s
People. This Web site documents baptisms and marriages from the Presbyterian
Church, Scotland’s state religion, from the 1500s through the mid-19th
century. Picking up in 1855, when civil registration records began, this Web
site will help you find the birth, marriage and death certificates of your
ancestors through the early 20 th century. The Web site also has indexes to
the 1881, 1891, and 1901 censuses. Scotland’s People is a pay-per-view site,
but, will speed up the research process.

Alternative computerized methods to access some of the same information also
exist. Although none of these means cover the sources as comprehensibly as
Scotland’s People, they are more economical. The Presbyterian Church records
are available in a free database at LDS Family History Centers. This
compilation, called Scottish Church Records, is accessible through the DOS
Version of Family Search. Civil registration births and marriages from 1855
through 1875 are indexed on the International Genealogical Index at www
familysearch.org.

The other Web site, Scottish Documents, created by the Scottish Archive
Network, houses scanned images of over 520,000 Scottish probate records.
Their index provides quick reference to wills dating from 1500 to 1901. You
can search the index for free, and for a nominal fee, have a digital copy of
your ancestors sent to you. These organizations have harnessed the
Internet’s power to provide genealogists with nationwide indexes to find
Scottish ancestors. In the British Isles, the Scots lead the pack over the
English, Welsh, and Irish in indexing their historical documents.

Nathan W. Murphy is an accredited genealogist in three geographic areas:
England, midsouth, and Gulf-south United States. He expects to graduate from
Brigham Young University with a B.A. in Family History in August 2004. Other
areas of research interest include Wales, Scotland, Québec, Scandinavia,
Latin America, and Italy. Nathan is working full time as a professional
genealogist in Salt Lake City this summer. Contact him at



Sally Rolls Pavia
Sun City, AZ

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