How to Trace Your Scottish Ancestors - Part 1

A practical guide to researching your Scottish family history

Part 1: Getting started with your Scottish family history

Not sure where to start tracing your Scottish ancestors? The answer is simple: begin with what you already know, gather as much information as you can from family sources, and work backwards one generation at a time. Before searching historical records, take some time to gather the basic details you have about your family.

You don't need to know very much to get started. Names, approximate dates and places can all provide a starting point. Family documents, photographs and what relatives can tell you may also provide clues that become more significant later.

The aim at this stage isn't to get as far back as possible. It's to make sure that each generation is connected to the one before it using reliable evidence. A person with the right name, born at roughly the right time and in the right area, isn't necessarily your ancestor.

This first part of the guide explains how to organise what you have, gather information from your family and begin building your family tree on a sound basis. It also looks at some of the common mistakes that can lead you towards the wrong family before you've even started searching the Scottish records.

1. Start with what you know

Start by writing down what you already know about your family. Begin with yourself and then move back to your parents and grandparents.

For each person, note their full name and, if you know them, the dates and places of birth, marriage and death. You probably won't know all of this when you begin, and that's fine. An approximate year or place can still give you a starting point.

Write down other details as well. Where did they live? What did they do for a living? Who did they marry? What were their children's names? These details can help you identify the right person when you start looking through the records.

It's also worth marking anything you're unsure about. Perhaps you've always been told that your great-grandfather came from Aberdeen, but you don't have a record confirming it. Keep a note of it, but treat it as something to check rather than an established fact.

You should now have the beginnings of a family tree, along with some obvious gaps. Those gaps give you your first research questions: when was this person born, who were their parents, where did they live, or when did they marry?

That's where the research really begins.

2. Look at what your family already has

Before going online, have a look at what has already survived within your family. You may have more than you realise.

Birth, marriage and death certificates are an obvious place to start, but don't overlook other things that have been kept over the years. Old photographs, letters, diaries, family Bibles, funeral cards, newspaper cuttings and military papers can all provide valuable clues.

Look closely at photographs too. Names or dates may have been written on the back, and a studio name or address can sometimes help establish where and roughly when a photograph was taken.

Don't concentrate only on names and dates. An address, occupation, middle name or the name of a witness on a certificate may help later when you're trying to work out which of several people with the same name is your ancestor.

If you have original family documents, it's worth scanning or photographing them and keeping the copies somewhere safe. Make a note of who the documents belonged to and, if you know it, how they came into the family.

You don't need to understand the significance of everything you find straight away. Keep it together. Something that seems unimportant now may make much more sense once your research has moved further back.

3. Talk to your relatives

Relatives can tell you things you won't necessarily find in records, especially older family members who may remember people and events from before you were born.

Ask about parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, where the family lived and what people did for a living. Rather than asking someone simply what they know about the family, try asking about particular people or events. Who lived in a certain house? Where did a grandparent work? Did anyone serve in the armed forces? Were there relatives who moved abroad?

Ask about family photographs as well. An older relative may be able to identify people who would otherwise remain unknown. If possible, make a note of the names while you're looking at the photographs rather than relying on remembering them later.

Family stories are also worth recording, even when you're unsure how accurate they are. Stories can change as they're passed down, and names, dates and places are sometimes confused. There may still be an element of truth in them that gives you something to investigate.

The important thing is to keep what you've been told separate from what you've been able to confirm. If your grandmother said that her grandfather was born on Skye, record that information, but don't treat it as established until you've found evidence to support it.

And if you have older relatives who can help with your research, speak to them while you have the opportunity. Information that has been passed down within a family can easily be lost when nobody thinks to ask.

4. Work backwards one generation at a time

Once you've gathered what you have, start working backwards through your family one generation at a time. This is one of the most important principles in family history research.

Begin with a person whose identity you're confident about and use records to establish their parents. Once you've identified the parents, do the same with them. Continue in this way rather than jumping back several generations because you've found someone with the right surname in the right area.

If you reach a generation where the evidence isn't clear, don't simply choose the person who seems most likely and continue. Make a note of the possibilities and look for other records that might help. Sometimes a census, marriage record, death certificate or records relating to a brother or sister will provide the missing connection.

Working this way may take longer at first, but it greatly reduces the risk of spending hours researching a family that isn't yours.

5. Make sure you have the right person

Finding a record with the right name doesn't necessarily mean you've found your ancestor. Identifying the right person can become more difficult as you move further back, when the information in records may be more limited.

Names alone aren't enough to identify an ancestor. This matters especially when you're dealing with common Scottish names. There may be several people called John Campbell or Margaret Wilson born in the same area within a few years of each other.

Always check the other details. Does the age fit? Is the place right? Do the names of the parents or spouse agree with what you already know? Is the occupation consistent with other records? An address can also help when you're following a family through census returns and other records.

Be careful with dates as well. Ages given in census returns and other records aren't always accurate, so a difference of a few years doesn't automatically rule someone out. Places of birth can vary too. One record might give a village or parish, while another simply gives the county.

It's usually the combination of several details that allows you to identify someone with confidence. If some of the information doesn't fit, look into it rather than ignoring it. Sometimes you won't be able to decide between two possible people straight away.

That's quite normal. Keep both possibilities in mind and look for more evidence before deciding which one belongs in your family tree.

6. Use online family trees carefully

Online family trees can help when you're starting out. You may find someone researching the same family who has already found records or details that you haven't come across.

But information in an online tree shouldn't be accepted simply because someone else has added it. Trees can contain mistakes, and those mistakes are often copied into other trees. If the same parents appear on twenty different trees, it may look convincing, but all twenty could have copied the information from the same incorrect source.

Look at the records attached to a tree and check them yourself where possible. Make sure they actually relate to the person in question rather than someone with a similar name, age or birthplace.

Online trees can also give you new leads. They might point you towards a marriage you hadn't found, another child in the family or a place you hadn't considered. Treat these as things to investigate rather than facts to add immediately to your own tree.

If a tree doesn't show where its information came from, be especially cautious. It may be completely correct, but without supporting records you have no way of knowing how the researcher reached those conclusions.

7. Keep a record of your research

As your family tree grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember where every piece of information came from. Get into the habit of recording your sources from the beginning.

If you find a date of birth on a birth certificate, note the certificate as the source. If an address comes from a census return, note which census it came from. This means you can return to the original record later and also makes it much easier to check your research if something doesn't seem right.

It's also worth keeping track of searches that haven't produced anything. If you've already searched a particular parish over a certain period and found no suitable record, making a note of it can save you from repeating the same search months later.

You don't need a complicated system. Genealogy software, an online family tree, a spreadsheet or a notebook can all work. What matters is that you can see what you've found, where you found it and what you still need to investigate.

As you move further back, good record keeping becomes more valuable. You may eventually have several people with similar names, conflicting dates or different possible relationships. Being able to return to the evidence you've already found makes these problems much easier to untangle.

8. If you're researching from outside Scotland

If your Scottish ancestors left Scotland, it's usually best to find out as much as you can about them in the country where they settled before searching for them in Scottish records.

Try to establish their full name, approximate year of birth, spouse and children, occupation and, if possible, where in Scotland they came from. Census records, marriage and death certificates, immigration and naturalisation records, obituaries and newspapers may all provide valuable clues.

A record that simply says someone was born in Scotland may not be enough to identify them. A birthplace such as Glasgow, Aberdeen or a particular parish is much more helpful. The names of parents or siblings can be even more valuable, especially when the ancestor had a common name.

Don't assume that details recorded after emigration will always be accurate. Ages and birthplaces can vary between records, and the spelling of Scottish names may change. Compare several records and build up as complete a picture as you can.

It's also worth researching brothers and sisters. One sibling's records may give a more precise Scottish birthplace or name the parents when your direct ancestor's records don't.

Once you have a reasonable picture of the person and their family, you'll be in a much better position to identify them correctly in the Scottish records.

9. When you're ready to search the Scottish records

By this point, you should have a clearer idea of who you're looking for and what you know about them. You may have exact dates and places, or you may only have an approximate year and a few details about their family.

For ancestors who lived in Scotland from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, there is a good range of records available. Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began on 1 January 1855, while census records can help you follow families between 1841 and 1921. For research before 1855, Old Parish Registers become particularly important.

Many of the main Scottish records can be searched through ScotlandsPeople, the official genealogy website of the National Records of Scotland. Other records are held by local archives, libraries and specialist collections, and an increasing amount of material can now be accessed online.

Which record you search first will depend on what you already know. If you have an ancestor who married in Scotland after 1855, for example, their marriage record may provide the names of both parents. A census can show you the family living together and give approximate ages and birthplaces. One record will often point you towards another.

Don't expect every search to produce an immediate answer. Records can contain errors, names may be spelled differently and some records haven't survived. In other cases, the details you're looking for may simply never have been recorded.

In the next part of this guide, we'll look at the main Scottish records, where to find them and how to decide which ones to search first.

Before you start searching: a quick checklist

Before moving on to the Scottish records, check that you've done as much as you can with the information available to you.

☐ Write down what you know about your family

☐ Start with yourself and work backwards one generation at a time

☐ Gather any certificates, photographs, letters and other family documents

☐ Speak to relatives and record what they remember

☐ Keep family stories as clues until you can check them against the records

☐ Check information found in online family trees against the original records where possible

☐ Record where each important piece of information came from

☐ Make a note of searches you've already carried out, including unsuccessful ones

☐ If your ancestors left Scotland, research them in the country where they settled

☐ Identify any gaps or questions you want your research to answer

You don't need to have everything before you continue. The aim is simply to know what you have, what you're reasonably confident about and what you still need to find out.

Discover Your Scottish Family History

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