Getting Organized Enough to Do a Major Search?

[CavalierLady]

Hello there... I'm so glad I found this forum... there looks to be a wealth of information here to be searched!

But I'm still stumped as to how to get organized enough to do a search on scotlandspeople. I read the post about optimizing searches, and it seems one can easily end up spending lots of $$ and I'm curious as to what the average high cost might be. I am just chomping at the bit and my fingers are itching to go there and search, but I don't think I have enough information to be concise or effective there.

Based on many emails, searches, ancestry.com, rootsweb.com, etc., I can go back fairly safely to the first ARD to settle in America, know the spouse, and their children, with various birth, death, and deed records accessible to me. "Everyone" and his cousin on these websites list: James "Smokey" Ard, born 1705 or 1710 in Scotland, and then immigrating to America. Some people believe it was on the ship "The Nancy" in 1767, a ship which sailed from Belfast, which should have held 80 people but was packed with 300 people, many sick and dying by the time they arrived in Charles Town Landing, South Carolina. Whether the Ard family traveled to Ireland to board the ship or lived there for a while, I could not determine. I could find no James or John Ard on Irish cenuses. There was a John Ard that ancestry.com lists as traveling from Scotland in 1738.  And there was an Ard that sailed to Barbados first, but his descendents have all the wrong names and the time between going to Barbados and then going to S.C. is too great.  The only thing anyone knows about "Smokey's" father is: James Ard, B: 1659-1688 in Scotland, D: 1713-1773 in Scotland. There are those that believe the family came from the Ayrshire District and there are many AIRD names on the pre 1850 Ayrshire tax census and the a few AIRD names in the Scottish surname database. Some believe they might come from the Vale of Beauly area in Inverness, but I can find no concrete name references, aside from a very few mentions of the name Del Ard or De La Ard. There is hardly anything to be found using the derivation Ayrd or Arde.

So you see, I haven't gotten enough concrete information to start a search at scotlandspeople, even though that's where the answers lie. It would seem there are too many areas to search in and too many variations of the last name, and also two versions of a first name to search for. Does anyone have any suggestions for how I might tie up these loose ends, so that I might organize a concise list of names, areas to search, and which documents to search for? From what I could see at the FAQ at scotlandspeople, it might be pretty complicated for a first timer, and your posts here suggest it can end up being very expensive.

I ~really~ would like to be able to find the missing link and one day travel to Scotland, but I've a long way to go yet. Any advice that you could offer would be very much appreciated.

Thanks very much for your time....

Cav

[trish251]

Hi Cav and welcome to RC

It seems your folks left Scotland before the advent of Civil Registration 1855, so you will be searching parish records to find them. You are mainly going to find baptisms and marriages because  only a percentage of the parish records include burials and these are not on SP and also not on the IGI. It is also useful to realise that SP mainly contains records from the Church of Scotland so if your folks belonged to another church they may not be on SP. This link gives details on what oprs exist

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/hlpsrch/opr-cov.html

I would suggest that you start by checking the IGI, as many records from Scotland are on the IGI and it is free to search. If you find records of interest, you can order the films from your local lds centre OR you can find the record on SP and pay to look at the image. It is usually cheaper to get the LDS films as you can check a complete parish for a small fee.

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=igi/search_IGI.asp&clear_form=true

Trish

[CavalierLady]

Thank you very kindly, Trish.  I appreciate you taking the time to answer.

I have been to the LDS site and have done some initial searches, though I haven't tried to order any information.

I was disappointed that it seems to be user submitted information, which can result in the same name with varying dates of birth and sometimes two or three different names for spouses.  It's similar to an ancestry.com search, but there you might get 50 hits or more, and even more confusing information.  So it's hard to decide which information is credible or not.  What's even more exasperating is that every male in that family named their sons James, Reuben, or John, so it can get very confusing.

I had hoped that the antiquity of European countries would yield better and older records, but it seems that anything pre 1850 anywhere is going to be a real needle in a haystack.  But one of these days, I'll try the Scottish sites, and hope these folks were church members and at least had some births or marriage registered in church records.

Thanks very much.

Cav

[trish251]

Hi Cav

The submitted IGI records do have to be treated with some doubt - I was thinking more of the extracted records. I do find submitted records MAY be helpful  if
a) An exact date is given (not about or circa)
b) Full names for both parents are given on a baptism - Scottish baptism records usually give the maiden surname of mothers (cf English parish records which usually only give the mother's given name)
If both of these items are given, it may mean the submitter has sighted the parish record.

If you are not having any joy on the IGI, by all means try ScotlandsPeople. My aim when using SP is to get as much information as possible for the smallest outlay  although it is very easy to spend money. There are church records back to the 1500s, so it is worthwhile trying to find your folks.

When looking at index entries, you can access 1 page for 1 credit - I think there are 25 records per page. So if you are searching around a particular date - I keep expanding the search until I have a full page of records to look at, rather than pay a credit for only a couple of names! This may be done by expanding the years or by adding more wildcards to the search (e.g. ard or a*rd)

Noting that you have the same names repeating - this can actually help with your searching. Apologies if you know the Scottish nameing patterns - but they have been exactly followed in my Scottish families until the mid 19th century, so very worth using

A married couple will name their children as follows

1. First son - paternal grandfather's name
2. 2nd son - maternal grandfather's name
3. 3rd son - father's name
4. 1st daughter - maternal grandmother's name
5. 2nd daughter - paternal grandmother's name
6. 3rd daughter - mother's name

For other children it is very common to use siblings names - or the names of the spouses of siblings. The patterns will often mean cousins will have the same names - which can be confusing, however it can also be used to find family groups.

Another option for deaths can be to find memorial inscriptions - I don't know alot about these records but it is useful if you know a county or parish to search. Someone else may have more information on finding death/burial records.

You may also get some joy with wills. You can search the wills index for no charge on SP so this may be useful.

Trish

[CavalierLady]

Thank you for your reply, Trish.

I agree with you that finding some definite dates rather than "about", at least for the American born descendants.  I've looked at many hundreds of family trees on the net, and it should be possible to find the one who immigrated, there are only two dates of birth listed, 1705 and 1710, (died in America), while the father, born and died in Scotland is only listed as "about".  So at least that's one place to start.  Thanks for the tip on maiden surnames.  I did not know that about English parish records.

I had read about the naming patterns before, and never thought much about it, but now that you mention it, it can indeed be very useful, especially to weed out the ones that probably don't apply because of very different names.  Thanks for that.

I'm not familiar with memorial inscriptions, but I'll go through all the FAQ at SP and learn as much as I can before actually doing a search.  I have not tried the free wills index yet, because (a) I need to, at least, try to be sure of the name first, James or John, Ard or Aird (b) one wonders if middle/lower income folks wrote wills, as compared to wealthy land owners and (c) I knew I would be very tempted to go on to the other pay with credit lists too early because of excitement, before having all my ducks in a row, per say.  Since most of my records are pre 1750, I doubt that there will be very many useful index records to look for.

Thanks for the help!

Cav

[trish251]

I did find a number of my folks in Scotland had wills - with not large amounts of money. It is certainly worth checking the free index. For women the index will often give their maiden and married name which can be useful (It is not unusual to find Scottish women listed by their maiden name - caused me much confusion when checking census data until I began to check for women by their birth name)
It may be worth looking at the index records for wills for anyone with your surnames as this may help to give possible locations.

Hope it goes well - if you get specific queries it is well worth asking them here  It is easy to spend money on SP, but their charges are very reasonable - especially for certificates/images - if you get to find one of your folks 

Trish

[CavalierLady]

Thanks so much, Trish.

Many emails and posts don't get answered because folks take this "obsession" in spurts and might abandon this hobby for long periods of time.  So I appreciate your quick replies all the helpful suggestions!  Good point about the wills giving possible locations!

I'm sure I'll have questions later... nice to know this is the place to get them answered!


Cav

[RJ_Paton]

Looking at the surnames Ard and Aird on the BVRI (British Vital Records Index) shows that primarily the Ard name is based mainly in Ayrshire with a few in adjoining areas (Wigtownshire). The surname Aird is far more common in the index and the two major factions are based in Ayrshire and in Midlothian areas of Scotland.

There is no James Ard listed here between 1705 and 1710 although there is a James Aird christened on 26th October 1707 which was recorded in Bowden in  Roxburgh. the father is listed as Alexander AIRD

[CavalierLady]

Thank you for looking this up, Falkyrn!

I had heard of the BVRI, as well as other CD-ROM collections, such as ships passenger lists, but have hesitated to order any of them.

A search at house of names .com told me the same thing, and that is why I have always leaned towards the Ayrshire theory rather than the Inverness theory.  I'll be searching for the areas that you have mentioned.  I was surprised to see the name Alexander.  Is your access to this record the most current or updated version?

Regardless, thank you very much for this information.  It gives me new areas to search for.

I appreciate very much that you took the time.....

Cav