Scottish roots

[brianinwedmore]

My grandmother was a Gordon and I think I’ve traced her family back to a George Edgar Gordon born  18 March 1806 to Robert Gordon and Elizabeth (nee Bennett) both born around 1775. I was hoping to trace the family back to Scotland. Does anybody have any suggestions as to how I can get back further?
Many thanks,
Brian

[KGarrad]

All Scottish records are on ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk.

It is a pay-per-view site - you have to buy credits to be able to look at indexes and records!

[GR2]

As you say you "think" you have traced this particular line back to a birth in 1806, it would be better to spend time confirming this first, rather than spending time, and perhaps money, pursuing ancestors who may not turn out to be yours.

[ScottishAncestry]

Hi Brian,

I see from the marriage entry that Robert Gordon was a soldier, have you tried consulting army records? @GR2 is quite right, you need to trace back and I would start with military records.

Given that he was also able to sign his own name this is an indication that he might be Scottish. A higher percentage of Scottish people could sign their name in that time period then their counterparts in England. It is however only an indication.

Emma


P.S.

One thing I would also mention (in relation to @KGarrad's post) is that by no means are all Scottish records on ScotlandsPeople. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic website. They have are civil registration records, but as these don't start until 1855 they are too late for you. They also have the census records. There are many free websites with a patchwork of census transcriptions though so it's good to know who has what and save yourself some money. Again however these do not begin until 1841, so too late for you. They have some valuation rolls, also too late for you.

The two things ScotlandsPeople have which may be of use to you are the OPRs (pre-1855 records of birth, marriage and death in Scotland) and wills. Both of these however are not complete. Huge numbers of wills and church records are not included on ScotlandsPeople. This is because of the way they are distributed throughout other sources. It's not the fault of ScotlandsPeople, but rather the way the records were kept and maintained.

[carolineasb]

Just a note about the comment about Wills, the most common reason not to find one on Scotlands People is that not that many people wrote a Will (even today loads don't) and, even if they did, Confirmation of an Estate was not always required just as it is not always required these days. 

People assume that if a Will is written then there must be a record but if an Estate is distributed without Confirmation, there will be no formal record of that at all with an official source.

Also, the documents on SP are not all Wills (although some of them are copies of same) but a lot will be copies of the Confirmation of the Deceased's Estate (Inventory)