Genealogy Chat

when they say they think Scotlandspeople is expensive.

I've seen this a lot over the last few weeks and dont really get it. Please bare with me while i rant a bit. *It costs £7 to get ONE certificate from the GRO, even more if you dont have the number and district. While it costs £6 to get 30 credits from Scotlandspeople (here after refered to as SP) and if you use those credits right you can do five searches and get FIVE certificates. *It takes days (even weeks) for certs to arrive from the GRO On SP you get them immediately, you can save them on your computer, print them out, instantly send them to others for deciphering. Anything you want...instantly. *Ages only appear in the death index from 1866 (i think) and mothers maiden name on births from 1911 and you have to take a guess at who married who. On SP you can search deaths from 1855 (the start of Scottish general registration) by age. You can search marriages by both names and it will show you match where those two names marry each other, not just appear on the same page. SP are now also introducing mothers maiden names on births and deaths making it easier to search for the people you are looking for. Those are just a few points. Personally i think people have been spoilt with ancestry (and before anyone says anything, i do have a sub) and now expect family history to be as easy as a few clicks and hey presto they have their family back several generations (which technically you can do with SP) SP is never going to have a subscription like system, it just wouldn't work. One or two people could sign up and could look up everything for everyone else. But what you are getting at the moment is, in my opinion, fantastic. Just imagine that it was like even just ten years ago, i bet that half the people one here (even more) wouldnt have even considered genealogy because of the leg work and expenses. I will openly admit that i did (and still do when my heads not switched on) waste a lot of credits in the beginging but i presevered with it and a part from a few hicups now and again i can genrally put my credits to good use. If you dont know how to search properly, ask! People on here or anywhere i'm sure will be more and willing to give you tips and pointers. If you can get to the records office in Edinburgh or Park Circus in Glasgow then great but if you cant then SP is the way to go. I know i have a slight advantage over others searching for their scottish roots. I live in Edinburgh and have (at the moment) quite a bit of free time, i'm able to make full use of the resources (some of which can be accessed for free). But in the end there are always costs involved whether it be transport or printing and for someone living on a student loan, that can really add up. I shudder to think how much i've spent over the last 3/4 years but i enjoy myself so in the long run does it really matter? Money is only money and you cant take it with you so why not spend it when you have the chance? I aso have the feeling that some people start this hobby thinking that it isnt going to cost them that much money or no money at all. Is that just me? Thank you for bearing with me :) All replies and counter arguements gratefully accepted, i jusy might not reply until tomorrow as my eyes are getting a bit droopy Mhairi (p.s I'm not trying to cause an arguement, honest. Its just something i dont quite get so i need to put it into words)

No..I find SP an excellent resource and alot cheaper and easier to research than my English and Welsh familes. I dont suppose you are the Mhairi with Campbells in the Reay area of Caithness,,,,just I sent a message to you quite a few months back asking about a connection and I never had a reply.

Mhairi I joined SP on Jan 1st this year, knowing only my Grandmother's MARRIED name, and a possible for her maiden name. thanks to wonderful Woody, who gave me a really hard shove in the right direction, by January 6th, I had Grandma and Grandfather - b, m,d. 4 Great grandparents - b, m, d. 8 GG Parents - b,m,d, 16 3 x GGPs - b,md, 4 x 4GGPs - b,m,d, and a few census entries. Sure, I wasted some credits, particularly on censuses because I didnt dare refine the searches too much - common names, and I downloaded a couple of incorrect certs, again for the same reasons - but what a result, for about £100. OC

Willow the Wisp I do have Campbell's in Reay Caithness...hm i usually reply to all my messages even if its just a 'sorry thats not my relative'. My laptop did go on the blink a while ago and i've been away on holiday recently so it might just have gotten a little lost. Will go and see if i can find it. Old Crone Holden Woody is great isnt she? :) Very very helpful and informative. On another point (when i start i cant stop) I can understand that some people have hard to find names eg the common ones, but you areing speaking (reading the words) of a person who has Robertson's (twice), Dickson's (twice), Ross's (at least twice), Muir's, Campbell's, Cunningham's, McGregor's, Hamilton's ect The list goes on...and on..and on but i still wouldnt swap SP for an english type system. Could you imagine how difficult it would be to find them then! Mhairi

Well of course, Scotland wins hands down on marriage certs - both parents names, which makes it soooooo much easier to go back a generation. I couldn't stop and kept on buying more credits! OC

Scotland are fantastic not only with SP but like OC says with the information that their certs hold...Scotland is a fantastic place to research.

ps OC have you ever had 1855 birth certificate??? wonderful gives the number of other children inc sexes....and 1855 death certs I have gives all the childrens names plus ages!!!!

It could be alot worse. We could have records like...Ireland! No disrespectic intended on the green isle, its just Ireland is a very difficult place to search. Says she who thinks her grt grt grandfather made up the part about him being born in Ireland cause no one can find hide or hair of him (born c1879 so there should be a birth record). Anyway, nite nite folks Mhairi

Ah but on the down side to 1855 certs in 1856 where they seemed to cut down on everything, epecially spouses names (on death certs). Wish all certs where like those in 1855 but i suppose it took to long to fill out... :( Mhairi (really saying good night now)

I agree that SP is fantastic value for certs - far better than the GRO. But I wish that they had allowed more fields for searching on their censuses - in particular, place of birth would have been invaluable. I wasted lots of credits trying to find the right census entries for some very common names so temporarily gave up with my Scottish line. However, once Ancestry put their Scottish census indexes online I was able to very quickly (and cheaply!) find the right people on there, and then was able to go into SP and download the images for £1.20 each (that's another thing that bugs me about SP - even if you know the reference, you still have to waste 20p doing a search before you can download the image for £1 - meaning that you only get 4 images for a fiver instead of five). Minor grumbles though - overall, it's an excellent site. Richard

I have to agree, I don't feel that Scotlandspeople is expensive, except when you get carried away !!! By using my ancestry sub for the census and then SP I have been able to go back almost as far as possible with my scottish families. And as well as finding all the names I need, and download the certificates and census images, the searches are there on SP if I ever need to go back and check again or followup. From here in Australia, the advent of these on-line resources on the other side of the world has allowed so much progress that would have taken years of library visits and rolls of microfilms to find my ancestors, but now I have them all back to 1841 and followed their families through to 1901 and beyond. Now I have to weigh up the pros and cons for 125 pounds for a findmypast sub ! Di in Sydney

Hi Mhairi Queen of Scots I think SP is a really good site only problem being not getting carried away. I started off using SP for my family and once you get into it you can get at least 4 certificates downloaded onto your computer if you are careful. So much cheaper than GRO and you have them forever as they go under your previous searches. I dread starting my English side as you have to spend £7 for one certificate and it might not even be the right one! I was shocked when I once got some credits for GR and found after a certian amount of time I could not look at them as a previous search! I am lucky in staying near Edinburgh so love going to New Register House as although £17 seems alot for the day if you make good use of the time you can get an awful lot done. I love the fact we can get certifcate copies for 50p and I usually spend a fortune so only go 2-3 times a year. I shall not be starting the Irish side for ages if it costs £11 for each certificate! Must remember to get a lottery ticket this week-end! Kind Regards Diana

I use SP a lot and have downloaded many records. The site is an excellent one. The only drawback I find in my searching is the 100, 75 and 50 year rules governing births, deaths and marriages to protect the living. I just wish other sites had the SP system of downloading images. Ray.

MQOS Well I took everyones advice and jumped in, great, I have managed one marriage cert. and a census return. OC&G

Thank you for people's views, its always interesting to here what people have to say on a subject. Couple of more points (I love my points, can you tell i'm a politics student? lol) Having the Scottish Census on ancestry is a great help and i will freely admit that that this is the only reason i signed up for a sub. Previously i didnt use the census a lot on SP unless i knew where my family was, they had unusual names or i had already found them at the records office. I dont think having place of birth in the searches would help as who's rellie actually keeps the same birth place in each census? There are other ways of tracing people after 1906, 1931 and 1956 - electrol rolls, valuation rolls (only available in Scotland), even old telephone books. And you dont have to travel to Scotland to look at those. Just get in touch with the local library and request a look up, you have to have an address but they will be able to tell you how long they stayed at that address. Another way is to request a look up from the following website http://scotfamtree.11.forumer.com Sign up for free (or to the sub site if you want, £10 for the whole year and you get a mountain of resources and people to ask questions of). In the Teir 3 section you can request a look up from either the Records Office or the National Archives of Scotland. The next time they are going is in July and the more people who request look ups, the cheaper it will be for everyone asking for lookups. Mhairi

With a Scottish mother and an English father I have had to use both Ancestry and ScotlandsPeople. I just wish I had waited a year so that I could have used the Scottish census on Ancestry as I spent a fortune on SP. SP is very good value for money for certicates. Maureen

I had never had occasion to use SP - my only Scottish event was the marriage of an uncle and the subsequent births of 4 children, which were too recent to be on. Didn't think I had enough queries for £5 of credits! I made use of the free credits mentioned on here - well, what an amazing site! Found the marriage at first attempt (unusual surname and only 1 appropriate reference for it) and used up the others by tracking his wife back in census. With regards to people using a lot of credits through making mistakes/trial and error, surely this is no more expensive than ordering a couple of wrong certs from the GRO? Or trialling census refs on a pay site? Jay