Wednesday 25 January 2017

Searching on ScotlandsPeople Website

I have lately been researching my wife’s Scottish ancestors and gone back to look at documents on the official ScotlandsPeople website.


The site was redesigned over the past few years and is now much easier to navigate and search. Not to say that one will always find the people they are looking for. It always seems like there is one individual in any family who resists discovery.

What is a great improvement over the past is that we can now search all manner of records free. No funds need change hands until you actually find a document worth looking at. And, of course, you can save the searches with unique names to go back and look at again.

There are many helpful hints and suggestions as to what is on the site and how to go about looking for information.


You can do quick searches for people or advanced searches for specific types of records. Once you find the records you want, you can easily download them to your own computer or leave them on your account. All purchases are recorded so you can go back and look at them any time. Formal certificates can be purchased for personal use – online.


None of this is cheap! If you are like me you buy dozens of images to augment your family history. My credit card got really heated up this past week but I have made incredible progress in assembling information about our Scottish roots.


Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy in several family history society journals. He has also served as an editor of two such publications. Wayne provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated