Hello Imber,
thanks for the reply. Just to clarify the process in case others are interested:
General Register Office - Scotland (GROS) decided on what information was to be extracted as the populated fields for a database. GROS chose a "thin" index that excluded the place of birth, and therefore it is not a searchable field, but the information is available on the image. The User Group pressed for a thick index but cost and time constraints were involved. GROS use the index on their internal system at New Register House and accessed from other locations such as Glasgow and Kew, and passed over the index and images to ScotlandOnline for loading on to the ScotlandsPeople internet site.
With its deeper pockets, Ancestry was able to specify a "thick" index, and I have to comment that some of its indexing is thick in another sense. GROS have not ruled out returning to the censuses and preparing thick indexes, but it is not likely to happen soon.
Sometimes the place of birth does not help. One of my relatives flitted between Scotland and England, and on Scottish censuses he was born in England, and vice versa. On the other hand, being able to look for all people named John born in Warmsworth (for example) has helped overcome some of the vagaries of the enumerators, handwriting, and indexing, so credit to Ancestry for that.
Regards,
John
