Author Topic: Scotland's People, Ancestry, FamilySearch etc: which to use?  (Read 72585 times)

Offline gjs1949

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Re: Scotland's People, Ancestry, FamilySearch etc: which to use?
« Reply #18 on: Thursday 04 August 16 22:24 BST (UK) »
I would like to remind people to use the previous searches and viewed images buttons when they are looking for something on SP, until I got used to the site I kept paying the 1 credit to look at the results of a search when I had already done the search before, 1 credit is not a lot but it soon adds up after a fair number of searches.
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Offline jaybelnz

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Re: Scotland's People, Ancestry, FamilySearch etc: which to use?
« Reply #19 on: Tuesday 09 May 17 23:09 BST (UK) »
All your searches are saved for you on SP.  They also give you a wee treat every now and then when you get free extra credits!

You can also ask them to improve a poor image you have purchased,, and they usually can!! No charge.

I'll never understand why people think that SP is expensive .... It's the least expensive of them all!
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Offline Liviani

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Re: Scotland's People, Ancestry, FamilySearch etc: which to use?
« Reply #20 on: Monday 15 May 17 02:26 BST (UK) »
I would like to remind people to use the previous searches and viewed images buttons when they are looking for something on SP, until I got used to the site I kept paying the 1 credit to look at the results of a search when I had already done the search before, 1 credit is not a lot but it soon adds up after a fair number of searches.

Just thought I'd add that you can search SP records now with no cost. The only thing that costs credits is when you're purchasing an image of a record. This is especially useful when searching baptism records as you can often find the names of the parents listed on the search returns themselves, meaning you don't always have to buy an image with credits. The only time I would do this is to find a residence where the child was born and/or where the parents were living.

I do use the other sites to get barebones information first, a starting block on where to thereafter go to get the "official" stuff from SP. I will say though, that the newspaper access through findmypast has recently been incredibly useful to me. I found a marriage notice in a newspaper that referred to a child of a direct ancestor of mine. SP had no record of this child anywhere in the birth/baptism records. It appears the birth just wasn't registered. If it wasn't for this search I would be none the wiser to the existence of this person. I thereafter found her death cert on SP confirming that her parents were indeed my ancestors. Was a very fortunate find.

So, the other sites can and do have their uses, but as long as you take much of what you find with a pinch of salt then thereafter get the official stuff from SP it's all good in my opinion.
mtDNA subclade K1b2b. Father's Y-DNA I-S25383
GEDmatch kit; CF7867455
Father's kit; RY1336515
Mother's kit; AF2312865


Kincardineshire
Sheret, Hosie, Valentine, Crow, Beattie, McArthur, Wyllie.
Angus (Forfarshire)
Adam, Valentine, Ewan, Elder, Guild, Kydd, Bradford, Stronner, Gibson, Cloudsley, Evans, Stewart, Stott.
Perthshire
Small, Robertson, Murray, Kennedy, McGregor
Ross & Cromarty
Cameron, Stewart, Grant
Banffshire - Gamrie
Anderson, Massie

Offline Rosinish

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Re: Scotland's People, Ancestry, FamilySearch etc: which to use?
« Reply #21 on: Monday 15 May 17 03:02 BST (UK) »
I will say though, that the newspaper access through findmypast has recently been incredibly useful to me. I found a marriage notice in a newspaper that referred to a child of a direct ancestor of mine. SP had no record of this child anywhere in the birth/baptism records. It appears the birth just wasn't registered. If it wasn't for this search I would be none the wiser to the existence of this person. I thereafter found her death cert on SP confirming that her parents were indeed my ancestors. Was a very fortunate find.

Liviani, you're right but some people have the idea that SP have not recorded it on their site rather than the fact that a baptism just simply didn't take place or the records didn't survive hence no record on SP.

Annie

South Uist, Inverness-shire, Scotland:- Bowie, Campbell, Cumming, Currie

Ireland:- Cullen, Flannigan (Derry), Donahoe/Donaghue (variants) (Cork), McCrate (Tipperary), Mellon, Tol(l)and (Donegal & Tyrone)

Newcastle-on-Tyne/Durham (Northumberland):- Harrison, Jude, Kemp, Lunn, Mellon, Robson, Stirling

Kettering, Northampton:- MacKinnon

Canada:- Callaghan, Cumming, MacPhee

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Offline Liviani

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Re: Scotland's People, Ancestry, FamilySearch etc: which to use?
« Reply #22 on: Monday 15 May 17 03:08 BST (UK) »
I will say though, that the newspaper access through findmypast has recently been incredibly useful to me. I found a marriage notice in a newspaper that referred to a child of a direct ancestor of mine. SP had no record of this child anywhere in the birth/baptism records. It appears the birth just wasn't registered. If it wasn't for this search I would be none the wiser to the existence of this person. I thereafter found her death cert on SP confirming that her parents were indeed my ancestors. Was a very fortunate find.

Liviani, you're right but some people have the idea that SP have not recorded it on their site rather than the fact that a baptism just simply didn't take place or the records didn't survive hence no record on SP.

Annie

Yes that's an important point. I've had numerous ancestors where there are gaps between baptisms of their numerous children happening or being recorded. It's not a case of missing records (as far as I know) as there are other records for the same parish for those periods.

I think it may be important to note and let people know about the "Disruption of 1843". The Free Kirk was created then.

There is information regarding these events here; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruption_of_1843

Note that there are events preceding this "great disruption". People walking out of their parish churches etc. This could well play a part in why many children just weren't baptised around that time.
mtDNA subclade K1b2b. Father's Y-DNA I-S25383
GEDmatch kit; CF7867455
Father's kit; RY1336515
Mother's kit; AF2312865


Kincardineshire
Sheret, Hosie, Valentine, Crow, Beattie, McArthur, Wyllie.
Angus (Forfarshire)
Adam, Valentine, Ewan, Elder, Guild, Kydd, Bradford, Stronner, Gibson, Cloudsley, Evans, Stewart, Stott.
Perthshire
Small, Robertson, Murray, Kennedy, McGregor
Ross & Cromarty
Cameron, Stewart, Grant
Banffshire - Gamrie
Anderson, Massie

Offline carlineric

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Re: Scotland's People, Ancestry, FamilySearch etc: which to use?
« Reply #23 on: Monday 15 May 17 07:38 BST (UK) »
Another date to look for is around 1782 when a tax was introduced on entries in the parish registers.

Eric

Offline MaecW

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Re: Scotland's People, Ancestry, FamilySearch etc: which to use?
« Reply #24 on: Saturday 21 April 18 09:02 BST (UK) »
I am confused by the current search options on Scotland's People.

A cousin of my father's married and had children in Scotland in the period 1930-1960. I know the full names of husband and wife and the place and date of their marriage but no other information except the Christian names of two children (which may not necessarily be their formal names.)

If I were searching on FreeBMD, which of course does not cover Scotland, I would enter the family Surname and the mother's maiden name and an appropriate period and the database would return a list of children matching the criteria.
On SP there seems to be no provision for searching against the parents' names, and entering the child's name, even assuming that it is a correct first name, delivers a list of several dozen. There is then no way to view the entries to see which may be the right one .  The only option offered appears to be to order all the certificates, at substantial cost, with no guarantee that any will be relevant.

Is SP particularly obtuse, or am I just not “holding my mouth right” ?  Any suggestions on how to proceed would be appreciated.

Maec
Baron (of Blackburn), Chadwick (Oswaldtwistle), Watkins (Swansea), Jones (x3 Swansea), Colton (Shropshire), Knight (Shropshire/Montgomery) , Bullen (Norfolk), White (Dorset)

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Re: Scotland's People, Ancestry, FamilySearch etc: which to use?
« Reply #25 on: Saturday 21 April 18 09:48 BST (UK) »
If I were searching on FreeBMD, which of course does not cover Scotland, I would enter the family Surname and the mother's maiden name and an appropriate period and the database would return a list of children matching the criteria.
On SP there seems to be no provision for searching against the parents' names, and entering the child's name, even assuming that it is a correct first name, delivers a list of several dozen. There is then no way to view the entries to see which may be the right one .  The only option offered appears to be to order all the certificates, at substantial cost, with no guarantee that any will be relevant.
This is because of the cut-off dates for the online system. You are not permitted to access online any details of any birth less than 100 years ago other than the name, year, district and reference number.

There is a way round this, which is to go, or to get someone to go on your behalf, to the Scotland's People Centre. In-house, you can search for birth registrations from 1929 onwards using the mother's maiden surname, and you can view and transcribe the information on the certificates, but not download, save or print the document. There is a charge of £15 per day for a day's use of the SP centre, but if someone is going there anyway, they should be able to transcribe all the details of quite a large family in half an hour or so.

Using FreeBMD, there is no way to view original documents of a similar vintage at all, either online or in-house. You have to buy every individual certificate at £9.25 each. If you order more than one recent certificate at a time from SP they cost £10 each.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline kiwihalfpint

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Re: Scotland's People, Ancestry, FamilySearch etc: which to use?
« Reply #26 on: Saturday 21 April 18 10:02 BST (UK) »

Liviani, you're right but some people have the idea that SP have not recorded it on their site rather than the fact that a baptism just simply didn't take place or the records didn't survive hence no record on SP.

Annie

Would just like to mention that I had never found a birth for an ancestor early 1820's, no matter what I tried on SP.  Decided to check for the oldest child 1840's birth,  found the baptism though, which gave me the birth date, and a couple of days later looking more closely at the page, my 1820's chap, jumped out at me, he was an adult baptism, a few months before child was born, and it also gave me the full date of birth.

Cheers
KHP
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