'Ancestry' for Scotland...Yes or No

[Fergie38]

Should I sign up for Ancestry or not.
I am told that it is not very good for research in Scotland and yet lots of questions I have asked on this forum seem to have been answered via Ancestry.

Cheers.

[Gadget]

Hi Fergie

If you just want to look for relatives in Scotland, I'd say no, don't sign up but rely on SP and other local sources.

Ancestry has the censuses for Scotland indexed but with many mistakes. It also has odd files of some pariish records and emigration but not really worth it.


Gadget

[ostler]

You're better asking someone you know with an Ancestry subscription to look things up for you, but don't rely solely on what you discover!

[Ninatoo]

I find Ancestry very helpful in locating my Scottish ancestors on the censuses, before I purchase the wrong certificates at SP, which can end up being very costly, speaking from experience! 

Since I have joined Ancestry, I am spending much less on SP certificates, because Ancestry allows me to find the exact one I want in most cases.

Also, it is helpful because of the fact that you can search the immigration records for ancestors who have disappeared.  I have found quite a few of my ancestors were immigrants that I didn't know about.

Then there are the War Service and Pension records, and the medal cards.  Wonderful to browse and can be very useful for finding the soldiers in your tree.

And of course there are the online trees to browse...

So yes, I would recommend it.  Highly.  (And I was against joining ancestry for a long, long time because I though it too expensive - but I gave it a try and I wouldn't look back now.)

Nina

[Canisp]

I gave it a try after realising you can subcribe each month and cancel the subscription when you like. Had it going for 2 months now but just cancelled. I will re-subscribe again in the future. I was a bit dubious about joining but ended up finding loads on ancestors who had emigrated and a couple who were in the army. It's also handy to be able to consult the Scotland Census's 1841-1901, although they have been transcribed and do contain a lot of errors.

[RJ_Paton]

I would echo some of the comments made - Ancestry's usefulness depends entirely upon which of their packages you take out.

It may be of some benefit to go the monthly route as it may  be worthwhile waiting to see what Findmypast have on the horizon - they are promising new Scottish and Irish records to be added soon.

There is also the possibility of Scotlands People becoming a subscription site - recent comments on their user group minutes - although the current mode of operation will be in place until September 2010.

[marysma]

I use freecen to look at the 1841 scottish census.Much more detailed than ancestry.

cheers.

mm

[Ringoroses]

If you're looking for Scots in Scotland on the census's, I'd say take out a 2 week free trial, get all the transcriptions you need, then you can purchase the ones you want on SP.

But they have no BMD's or such like for Scotland. And getting beyond 1841 in Scotland is virtually impossible via Ancestry.

Regards,
Ann   

[Maggie1895]

I agree with most of the comments.
I spent an awful lot of credits on SP looking at wrong certificates, but now for anything in the 41-01 censi I try to look them up on Ancestry, where the layout makes it much simpler to identify which is the right one, then only pay my 1+5 credits to see the entry that I know is correct, rather than paying out for several as I search.