Noob to Scottish Records

[ZerooreZ]

Hello,

I have a lot of ancestors from Scotland, however, I always seem to end up at a pay wall when exploring my family tree.

It seems like ScotlandsPeople has a lot of records that I would like to access, yet I don't want to keep spending money on document after document.  Are their records also available to other genealogy sites (like Ancestry.com for example), or do you just have to pay per document all the time?  I'd like to get some sort of pass, free or paid, where I have unlimited access to their documents, even for a limited time.

Thanks for any help.

[bikermickau]

ScotlandsPeople, either by site or visit is the only place to obtain/view original records (to the best of my knowledge).
There are some records on other sites, i.e. Familysearch, Ancestry, FindmyPast are 3 I've used, however they don't have access to view the original records. There forth I usually go to the ScotlandsPeople site to purchase the relevant record.

As to cost, I just spent approx $75 Au (£40) for 160 ScotlandsPeople credits which is almost 27 BMD or  Census records (6 credits each). Just one Australian BDM record is 1/3 to half that cost.

Edit There are limits as to what you can use credits on.
i.e. You can't purchase Births after 1921/1922 with credits. After that I think they cost £15.

Mick

Hello,

I have a lot of ancestors from Scotland, however, I always seem to end up at a pay wall when exploring my family tree.

It seems like ScotlandsPeople has a lot of records that I would like to access, yet I don't want to keep spending money on document after document.  Are their records also available to other genealogy sites (like Ancestry.com for example), or do you just have to pay per document all the time?  I'd like to get some sort of pass, free or paid, where I have unlimited access to their documents, even for a limited time.

Thanks for any help.

[Girl Guide]

Much as we would like it to be otherwise, accessing records be it transcriptions or images, cost money.  Even Family Search will redirect you to a paying site to view an image if they don't have it themselves.

Interesting that Scotland's People don't offer an annual subscription which would be more cost effective.  Paying £40 every month for 160 credits would cost £480 a year, about £1.30 a day.

Find My Past annual sub is currently £159.99 pa or 43p per day.  The Genealogist Diamond sub is £139.95 pa or 38p per day and Ancestry's worldwide sub is £99.99 for six months is about 54p per day.

Everyone has to make their own decisions regarding how much they wish to pay to access records.

[kiwihalfpint]

Hello,

I'd like to get some sort of pass, free or paid, where I have unlimited access to their documents, even for a limited time.

Thanks for any help.

Hello,

There used to be a time, when we got the thumbs up on here, that Scotlands People were giving away a certain amount of free credits for a certain time, but in saying that I haven't seen that for a couple of years.

Yes, it is expensive parting with money on SP, but it is the only way to go backwards to find family to help you on your way.


Cheers
KHP
 

[GR2]

It costs nothing to look at the indexes on Scotlandspeople, and quite a lot can be gleaned from them. The LDS version of the the 1881 census is also there and free to view. The minutes of the kirk sessions and presbyteries can also be read at no cost.

Scotlandspeople can allow you to go quite a way back very cheaply, if you are careful in selecting key records.

FreeCEN is fairly reliable as a source of census transcriptions. The National Library of Scotland website gives access to early directories and their maps website is excellent and also free. Quite a number of earlier records have been published and can be found to read online.

If you want help with a particular line, you can always post a query here and people will have a look to see what can be done or give you pointers.

[ZerooreZ]

Thanks everyone for your posts!