Author Topic: indexing of Scottish records  (Read 3950 times)

Offline alan_rowe

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indexing of Scottish records
« on: Sunday 21 June 15 21:05 BST (UK) »
I waste a lot of time searching multiple sites. Much of it is probably pointless, since the underlying databases are the same.
Can anyone point me at a history of indexing of Scottish records - what was scanned, how many times, and where the results went. For example, Scotlandspeople OPRs are the same as LDS (other than later corrections of typos etc). But not SRs.  And LDS has (very usefully) indexed parents of SR births, where Scotlandspeople does not, so that must have been a different indexing operation.
LDS results went, I assume to Ancestry. SP's is licensed to FindMyPast.
Scotlandspeople seems reasonably up-to-date. LDS will sometimes find more, but seems to have faded out in the 1960s?

Offline MonicaL

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Re: indexing of Scottish records
« Reply #1 on: Sunday 21 June 15 21:59 BST (UK) »
Alan, welcome to RC  :)

Have to say, not sure on what sources you are looking at for Scotland records  :-\

I will point you to some links here on RC:

www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=24468.0
www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=578172.0
www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=714261.0
www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=562668.0

Monica
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Offline alan_rowe

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Re: indexing of Scottish records
« Reply #2 on: Sunday 21 June 15 22:24 BST (UK) »
Thanks you Monica.
However, it doesn't answer the question - how can Scotlandspeople not have indexed parents for births certificates, where LDS has. LDS must have done their own indexing, independent of SP (or National Archives). For example: "Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950," Database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FQK4-RZR : accessed 21 June 2015), Walter Read, 04 May 1872; citing DELTING,SHETLAND,SCOTLAND, reference ; FHL microfilm 6,035,516.
How and when did this FHL film get created? And who uses it its records (other than LDS).

A related question is why a person can appear in some databases and not others (including SPs). There must have been different indexings, and I'd like to know what they were.


Offline MonicaL

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Re: indexing of Scottish records
« Reply #3 on: Sunday 21 June 15 22:37 BST (UK) »
The ONLY source of original records online for Scotland is Scotlands People here www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk (for sure, sounds like you have experience of the site and service). They have access, through their relationship with the General Office of Records of Scotald (GROS), the only source of original records to BMDs, OPRs and census images.

Re LDS, they are a useful addition and aid for Scottish research for sure, but they are only an aid. They only have indexes to the original records held by SP/GROS. With their transcription, as indexes, they only really feature up to 1870s...some new records added, not many, through 1880s or so.

What is it you need Alan? Might be a good place to start...

Monica  :)
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Offline MonicaL

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Re: indexing of Scottish records
« Reply #4 on: Sunday 21 June 15 22:43 BST (UK) »
... how can Scotlandspeople not have indexed parents for births certificates, where LDS has. ...For example: ...Walter Read, 04 May 1872; citing DELTING,SHETLAND,SCOTLAND,


There is an entry showing on SP in Delting in 1872 for a Walter Read. The image for this birth on SP will likely be helpful and add more details.

Monica
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Offline Little Nell

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Re: indexing of Scottish records
« Reply #5 on: Sunday 21 June 15 22:55 BST (UK) »
Quote
how can Scotlandspeople not have indexed parents for births certificates, where LDS has. ...

They have all used the same source material, but produced a different index based upon their own criteria.  Since LDS compiled an index for their church purposes - so that everyone's ancestors could be baptised into the LDS church - they had fields in the index for the parents, if they were recorded in the original registers.

SP obviously chose not to have fields for the parents' names for the statutory indexes.

Then different people produced the transcriptions for the different indexes - obviously some writing can be difficult to read and is open to interpretation. There will be checks, double-checks etc, but humans are human and errors often creep in.  And then the searches don't work in the same ways. 

Nell
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Offline alan_rowe

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Re: indexing of Scottish records
« Reply #6 on: Sunday 21 June 15 23:07 BST (UK) »
My question is not who owns the original records. That's SP (or, more precisely, the NRS and licensed to SP). It is about the indexed databases created from the records. Consider this -
David Campbell Lawson
Scotland, Births and Baptisms
Name:   David Campbell Lawson
Gender:   Male
Christening Place:   Peebles, Peebles, Scotland
Birth Date:   02 Feb 1891
Birthplace:   Peebles, Peebles, Scotland
Father's Name:   John Lawson
Mother's Name:   Elizabeth Campbell Lawson
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C01955-4 , System Origin: Scotland-EASy , GS Film number: 255160 , Reference ID: v 768 p 6

this is an LDS index. As Nell pointed out, it clearly different from SP which does not include parents. So in this case, LDS is better (and free:)

So my question remains: how many indexes were created (there are clearly 2 or more), when, and who uses them. Because I'd rather use (or at least start with) the most suitable database., and I'd rather not waste my time with databases which are the same underneath, or with searches that are doomed because there are no records for that year. 

Monica noted that LDS stopped after 1880.  My impression is that it was later, but it might be on a per-parish or per-record-type basis. Somebody must know the exact answer.

Offline Little Nell

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Re: indexing of Scottish records
« Reply #7 on: Sunday 21 June 15 23:23 BST (UK) »
I'm not sure that there is a definitive answer to your question.

I must admit that I have not really thought about how many indexes were created, when and by whom.  For me, it is more about finding pertinent entries.

It is impossible to say which is best overall since there are mistakes and omissions in all of them, just as in the England & Wales GRO indexes. 

I use both the LDS index - a good general indication - and the SP index, since occasionally there are some real howlers in the LDS index.  As with all family history research, all available sources perhaps have to be consulted and the contents considered. Even then, there might not be an answer. 

Nell
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Offline alan_rowe

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Re: indexing of Scottish records
« Reply #8 on: Sunday 21 June 15 23:42 BST (UK) »
Might indeed be true, Nell. But is LDS and SP enough? Can we assume Ancestry uses LDS - it seems to? What does FindMyPast use (I've never used that one).