Optimise Scotlandspeople searches

[plimmerian]

Was the information used in your search to specific and/or is it possible that the woman married under a variation of her given name like Ellen instead of Helen?

thanks batwoman - I was tired and fighting flu - I've found her / him now LOL

amazing what a good sleep can do 

[scotty75]

Hiya, is it just me or is this website not very good? Finding I am flying through credits and not getting the images. Very frustrated. Anyone know of any other websites that offer the information in an easier format?

[daval57]

I love SP.  It does have its issues though.
There are other sites available but none as comprehensive as SP - depends on location / date.
SP is the only place you can view the actual images for BDMs.
Read through the first couple of pages on this thread - it might save you a few credits.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,43916.0.html

[Ringoroses]

No, it's not just you Scotty. As Daval says, SP has its issues. One of the biggest for me is its stranglehold on the Scottish records, which prevents anyone else from offering the images at a slightly more competative rate. And one of my biggest bugbears with it is that they give you so little information in the indexes, that you have to go through a pile of records - i.e. credits - just to find the one you want (if it's there at all!). It can be very frustrating, not least because they don't even offer a subscription, where you can look through the records you need to sort out the wheat from the chaff to your hearts content for a reasonable fee, like other sites tend to do.

As the link suggests, there are ways to narrow down the records you're after, but even using those methods sometimes is not enough.

[andycand]

Hi

Keeping in mind that Scotlandspeople is a Scottish Government website it is not surprising that they have a strangle hold on Scottish records. For BMDs the English equivalent is the GRO and while the GRO indexes are a little better, that is offset by the fact that historical Scottish images are cheaper than English certificates.

Both Ancestry and Findmypast have transcriptions of Scottish Censuses and are very useful in helping you to work out which census image to download.

If it is OPRs that you are interested in then Familysearch.org is worth looking at first as they have indexed them (the former IGI) In fact I believe that SP uses the Familysearch index.

Also Familysearch have indexed Scottish births and marriages from 1855 to 1875 from the Statutory Registers.

There are also tips on SP as well as on Rootschat on how to maximise your searches.

I think SP are looking at how they can offer a subscription.

Andy

[Forfarian]

One of the biggest for me is its stranglehold on the Scottish records, which prevents anyone else from offering the images at a slightly more competative rate.

Please tell me where you are getting English or Welsh certificates even half as cheaply as you can get Scottish ones? I would love to be able to see images of English and Welsh BMD certificates for as little as £1.40 a time.

At the moment, the cheapest English and Welsh certificates I have found are £9.25 each, and you have to wait for them to come through the post. For the price of just one of those I can buy 39-and-a-bit SP credits. If I use 1 SP credit for a search, I can then look at 7 SP images and still have 3-and-a-bit credits over compared with buying 1 certificate from the GRO. 

That seems to me to be an excellent deal.

And if you compare with certificates from (say) Australia or New Zealand, SP looks an even better deal.

There are at least two petitions to Parliament asking for legislation to allow the GRO to make digital images of historical English and Welsh BMD certificates available online. I strongly recommend that everyone should sign one or (preferably) both/all.

http//epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1792 Petitions ended 2012
http//epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/6988 Petitions ended 2012

[MonicaL]

In advance of the new year and the release of another year's records by Scotlands People:

New Images Will Be Available on ScotlandsPeople From 1 January 2012:

We are pleased to announce that the New Year’s statutory images containing records from the Statutory Register of Births for 1911, the Statutory Register of Marriages for 1936 and the Statutory Register of Deaths for 1961 will be released on the site on 1 January 2012.

Monica 

[CaileanMac]

just wasted 30 credits trying to find a simple marriage of a widower, occupation baker, to an English born woman called Helen (as per 1901 from ancestry.co.uk)

I thought the powers that be wanted people to embrace their Scottish roots - I'd have more success getting into Fort Knox then cracking the access to Scotlands People website

I've not got the will power to search any more or spend the money, which should have resulted in a more direct and successful hit - if only they were willing to allow search criteria as on the English and Welsh 1911 search engine - then I would have stayed longer and probably spent more time researching in depth.

It's just going to have to remain a closed door on that part of the world - which means they'll also miss out on possible tourism trade!

Rant over!

 

Hmm right. So you made a mess of it, randomly started guessing and wasting your credits, then blame the Scottish authorities for the fact you couldn't figure it out?

This isn't to say that site isn't without its issues, because it has issues. Personally I would like to see it converted to some kind of subscription service. However, the records are still relatively cheap, easily accessable, date back to the 1500s, scanned and avaliable online with support from staff who will rescan any document within 3-4 days if you request assistance. The English and Welsh records are absolutely awful and horrendously over priced in comparison, I'm just happy I have no links to England or Wales, it would be a nightmare trying to find anyone.

These records are some of the best maintained in the world.

[plimmerian]

the site I enjoy the most because it is completely free and helped me find two missing marriages is

http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Search/indexp.html

I'm finding my Eire ancestry even harder to trace than my Scottish root - my Welsh and English roots have been a walk in the park in comparison - but I'm very glad to have them all as part of my history