The task of unearthing your family history in Scotland is made easier by the records kept at the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS). The registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages was made compulsory in 1855, and the GROS holds these records, as well as earlier parish registers. Their new ScotlandsPeople website allows you to search the parish register, civil registration and census records for Scotland – there are approximately 40 million records including a fully searchable index of Scottish births from 1553-1903, marriages from 1553 to 1928 and deaths from 1855 to 1953, plus indexed census data from 1881 to 1901.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), also known as the Mormons, have copied vast amounts of information into their databases, including the parish registers for Scotland, which is available through their FamilySearch website. The website of David R Wills features an extensive list of parish numbers and microfilm numbers to help you while doing Scottish research at any LDS Family History Center worldwide.

The UK & Ireland Geneaology project (GENUKI) is a vast mine of useful information for tracing Scottish ancestors. It features a county-by-county guide of where to find different kinds of records, a list of libraries and archives in each area, and contact details for the local family history societies. Another website that gathers together useful links is the Scottish page of Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites .

Many books have been published on the subject of tracing your Scottish ancestors, and you will find a small selection of recommended books on the right-hand side of this page. A “must have” is the Scottish Record Office‘s own Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors: The Official Guide. Written by Cecil Sinclair – a custodian of records at the Scottish Record Office – it gives an overview of all the material held there, and leads you step-by-step through the processes necessary to find your ancestors.

If the thought of finding your ancestors is a little daunting, there are several companies that specialise in helping. Ancestry.com is one of the best known companies, and gives you access to nearly 2 billion names, with the offer of a free 14-day trial to get you started.

There’s also a UK arm of the company called Ancestry.co.uk offering access to the

1841 Scotland Census
1851 Scotland Census
1861 Scotland Census
1871 Scotland Census
1881 Scotland Census
1891 Scotland Census
1901 Scotland Census

Ancestry.co.uk also provide extensive message boards (arranged by county) for people searching for ancestors in Scotland.

The Origins Network can give you access to over 400 million names, and their specific Scots Origins section now offers some free services including enhanced IGI searching and extensive place name searching, in addition to a “Sighting service” which allows access to original Scottish documents from 1700 up to 1990.

Another well-respected genealogical research company is OneGreatFamily who have an introductory 7-day free trial for you to try out their database.

GenesReunited is the UK’s foremost family history site with 9 million members, and offers you the chance to create your family tree online and search for your ancestors in 671 million family trees, as well as in census, birth, marriage, death and military records. It is also designed as a community site so that you can interact with other members and seek advice from the UK’s largest family history community.

The links below will take you to some of the websites mentioned above.

BorderArt have a whole host of Scottish products, many featuring clan
names, such as maps, kilt pins, cap badges, belt buckles and sgian dubhs.