Some of the most distinctively Scottish icons are kilts, bagpipes, the highland cow, and the Loch Ness monster, Nessie. If you have ever eaten Scottish shortbread or enjoyed the Scottish games you know exactly what makes Scotland unique. Like many of you, I am a descendant of Scottish ancestry.
If you want to trace your Scottish family history, Scotland’s written historical records date back to 1513. The government of Scotland has made these primary records available in online digital images on the site ScotlandsPeople. ScotlandsPeople has a variety of records including vital records, wills and testaments, Old Parochial Parish Registers, Catholic Church Records, Census records, and Coats of Arms. Their website is ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk. You can do initial searches on this site for free. A preliminary, free search allows you to see if they have any records for your family, and then payment is required to view and download a copy of an original record. The costs of the records will be discussed later in this post.
Some of the most popular and useful records found on ScotlandsPeople are the vital records. In this blog we’ll discuss details about what can be found on these records during different time periods.
ScotlandsPeople: Vital Records
Births: Prior to 1855, vital records were recorded in Old Parochial Registers (OPRs) by local parish priests. The information is limited. By using the OPR birth records alone it would be difficult to know if the information in the record is about your family member. The birth entries state:
- name of the child
- parent’s names
- christening date for the child
- birthdate of the child
If you did not already have the child’s date of birth or parents’ names from this record you might not know if this was your ancestor.
In 1855, the British government began a regulated, mandatory system for capturing Scottish vital records. The 1855 records contain:
- child’s name(s)
- sex
- date and time of birth
- address where born
- father’s place of birth and occupation
- mother’s maiden name
- mother’s age and place of birth
- usual address of parents if different from the place of birth of the child
- date and place of parent’s marriage
- number of children already born to the parents, and sex of the other children
- whether the parents were alive or dead in 1855
- signature or mark of the informant and relationship of the informant to the child
The vast amount of information that can be gained by researching a Scot born in 1855 is amazing. By 1856-1860 the captured information greatly decreased and each record often contained only the following:
- child’s name
- date and time of birth
- sex
- address
- name of father and occupation
- name of the mother including her maiden name
- name, signature, and relationship of the informant
After 1861 the information asked was the same, with the addition of the date and place of the parent’s marriage.
Marriages: Regular marriages in Scotland were those performed after the publication of banns in the parish churches of both parties, and must be performed by a minister of religion and in the presence of two or more witnesses. Banns were notices that were proclaimed in the kirk (the Scottish word for church) for three consecutive Sundays to notify the congregation of the upcoming marriage. Banns were posted for both the bride and groom if they lived in different parishes. Sometimes you will find two different dates for the banns, and even though banns were posted, the marriage did not always take place.
In 1834 the Marriage Act was passed. This act allowed Roman Catholic priests to preside over a marriage as long as the banns were proclaimed in the parish church. Marriages were legal for a female from age twelve and a male at age fourteen until 1929, when the age was raised to sixteen. Irregular marriages were marriages without the publication of banns, without witnesses, etc. After 1855, within three months of an irregular marriage taking place the couple could apply to the sheriff for a warrant to register the marriage. However, many irregular marriages were not recorded – especially during the nineteenth century. Just like with birth entries, marriage entries in 1855 provide researchers more information. An 1855 marriage certificate contains the following information:
- date and place of marriage
- the denomination of church where the ceremony was performed
- name
- birthplace
- occupation
- age
- any previous marriage and number of earlier marriages
- present and usual address of the bride and groom
- names and occupations of the bride and grooms parents as well as the mother’s maiden name and whether they were alive or dead at the time of the marriage
- name of the officiating minister, or warrant of the sheriff if an irregular marriage
In 1856, some information was omitted including previous marriages and children of these marriages, and date and place of birth for the bride and groom.
Deaths: OPR death records are extremely limited. Often the only record of death was an occasional payment for a mort cloth. After 1855 the recordings of death became compulsory. Like birth and marriage records in 1855, death records had added details including:
- name
- occupation
- sex
- age of the deceased
- address where the death occurred
- usual residence
- name of spouse (if any)
- birthplace
- name of the father, his occupation and if alive or deceased
- name of the mother and if alive or deceased
- name and ages of the children in order of their birth and if living or deceased (including age at death)
- date, time, and cause of death
- burial place
- informant and relationship
In 1856-1860 details about the spouse and marital status, the birth of the deceased, and information about the children were left off the form. In 1861, the name of the spouse was added back onto the death certificate.
Tip: If you have a sibling of your ancestor in the family you are searching who was born, married, or died in 1855, be sure to go to ScotlandsPeople for their birth certificate, marriage certificate, or death certificate. It will be worth the money!
ScotlandsPeople: Census Records
Another useful source are census records. Census Index and original images can be found on ScotlandsPeople. The Scottish censuses with genealogical value are 1841-1911. Scottish censuses were taken every ten years and are released 101 years after they are taken.
Tip: Microfilm copies of the censuses are available in archives including the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the National Archives in Scotland.
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, if you find records on ScotlandsPeople it is a pay-per-view charge. The indexes cover birth, death, and marriage registers, census returns, church registers, valuation rolls, and legal records including wills and testaments and coats of arms. ScotlandsPeople uses credits, which are sold in batches of 30. The number of credits and costs are different for different image types. They accept credit cards. Here is the cost breakdown on their website as of 10 November 2017:
- Statutory registers of births (older than 100 years), marriages (older than 75 years) and deaths (older than 50 years) cost 6 credits (£1.50)
- Census returns and church registers of births and baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials and other events cost 6 credits (£1.50)
- Valuation rolls cost 2 credits (£0.50)
- Wills and testaments (including soldiers’ and airmen’s wills) cost 10 credits (£2.50) – this is the cost of the entire document, which is usually two or three pages, but can be more than 100 pages long
- Military Service Appeals Tribunal records cost 20 credits (£5.00) – this is the cost of the entire document which is usually about three or four pages long but can be much longer.
- Coats of Arms (entries from the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland) costs 40 credits (£10.00)
Each record is a valuable treasure and it is wonderful that they have been preserved and made accessible. Legacy Tree Genealogists is not affiliated with ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk, but we’ve found this site to be very useful in researching Scottish ancestry, and we enjoy sharing our professional genealogy research methodology. Put on your kilt, listen to some bagpipe music and begin your search into one of the world’s best archives.
If you have Scottish ancestry and don’t know where to start, or need help accessing ScotlandsPeople records, our professionals and onsite agents are ready to help you learn more about your family history. Contact us today for a free consultation to discuss your specific projects goals and determine which of our project options is best for you!
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I would like to know how the early Scottish people arrived: where ported from, to, and names of vessels boarded. Also, what American ports most landed. Mine settled in the Northern section of North Carolina and Wilmington, N.C.
Scottish people have immigrated to the US as early as the 1600s. Some settled in New England but most settled from Pennsylvania southward. Hundreds of ships sailed from Scotland to North America from the 1600s through the 1800s. There are resources available to find the ship names and ports if you are looking for a specific vessel including “Ships from Scotland to America, 1628-1828” on Ancestry.com. We would be happy to assist you with researching your Scottish ancestors. You may request a free quote here.
Perhaps for your next Scottish research blog you would take a step back to a period from about 1800 to 1854.
Perhaps for your next Scottish research post you would write on the period from 1800-1854.
Thanks for the suggestion–we may just have to do that! Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you can receive our weekly research articles and tips.
Hello, A dna test has shown about 6% iberian, my mother and i are very curious to know more about this…..there have been rumours in the family about a spanish connection……would you be able to help with this research or not? any useful hints to help us find out more?
Kind regards
Bronwen Ellingham
Yes, we can certainly assist with this. You may request a free consultation here to have a member of our team contact you regarding your research goals. Ethnicity admixture results analyze the mutations and segments of DNA and determine in which populations those mutations and segments are most often found, but it’s important to note that these results are estimates, reporting a general region of the world where your ancestors may have lived 300-1000 years ago. By conducting detailed and exhaustive genealogy research, we can trace your ancestral lines to determine where this connection may exist. We’d be happy to help!
My maiden name is Kerr. Family tradition says we are from the area of Orkney Islands. Could this be accurate?
My name is Smith and reported to be from Scottish heritage.
Mother has auDNA, Daughter has auDNA & mtDNA, Son has Y-DNA.
Can these be triangulated to find the Father of the Mother? Father of Mother is deceased and no male descendants of this line. All DNA test done through FTDNA. Thank you for your advice. JAL
No, unfortunately through the available tests it is not possible to reconstruct the Y-DNA of the mother’s father.
Any DNA the children will have inherited from the unknown father will have come through the mother and will be a subset of her DNA. Therefore, in this case, if the goal is to identify the father of the mother then the mother’s DNA test results will be the most useful. If the mother of the mother is known, then known relatives of the mother’s mother should also be invited to test since their test results will help to filter genetic matches into possible maternal and paternal categories. Finally, Family Tree DNA is currently the smallest autosomal DNA database, so I would recommend at least transferring test results to MyHeritage. Also, I would recommend testing at AncestryDNA.
Autosomal DNA testing is frequently sufficient to identify an unknown parent or grandparent. However, it may be necessary to perform additional testing once candidates to be the ancestor have been identified.
No, unfortunately through the available tests it is not possible to reconstruct the Y-DNA of the mother’s father.
Any DNA the children will have inherited from the unknown father will have come through the mother and will be a subset of her DNA. Therefore, in this case, if the goal is to identify the father of the mother then the mother’s DNA test results will be the most useful. If the mother of the mother is known, then known relatives of the mother’s mother should also be invited to test since their test results will help to filter genetic matches into possible maternal and paternal categories. Finally, Family Tree DNA is currently the smallest autosomal DNA database, so I would recommend at least transferring test results to MyHeritage. Also, I would recommend testing at AncestryDNA.
Autosomal DNA testing is frequently sufficient to identify an unknown parent or grandparent. However, it may be necessary to perform additional testing once candidates to be the ancestor have been identified.
Here my problem my birth Father name isnt my true father I no very little about my real fther have his army picture I no his family was from Scotland His name was Ivor Andersen went by IkeI no where he lived in 1960
I have the record of my mother coming by ship from Scotland and very little documentation of her family there and here in Canada. She died in 1942 in Hamilton, Ontario Canada. How do I go about finding our history.
We would love to help you learn more about your mother. You may request a free consultation here.
I am a Maltese citizen, but wish to find someone, in order to help me to find my Scottish root, which is truly my grand – grand father, who was in the military and stationed in Malta, for a quite a long time. His surname is Mc Kelvie and probably, his name is William. He served here in the early 1800’s , and left an orphan boy. He fled back to Scotland, and the boy was adopted by a Maltese family, which then the boy’s name changed to Bezzina. Can anybody, please, give me a clue, of how to start my findings, about my grand – grandpa and his true originality. Thanks.
We would be happy to help you! You may request a free consultation on our homepage: https://www.legacytree.com
I know one Scottish branch of my family were the Livingstones. They fled the British from Scotland to Ireland where they took the name “Boggs” from Bogg Hall. They were there a couple of hundred years before they came to the Colonies in the early 1700s. But so many of my Scots ancestors are hard to trace because of all the upheaval. They took different names or different spellings when they left Scotland, either because they didn’t want to be traced or because they themselves didn’t know how to spell their last names. Or there were so many with the same name. My friend maintains that HER McDonalds are Irish and will not be disuaded, whereas I suspect that they fled from Scotland originally. It’s fascinating, and I love the history. Thank you for contributing to our knowledge of our Scots ancestors, wherein I take great pride.
We’re glad you enjoyed the article!
Hi Amber, firstly I wish to say a big thanks for sending me this interesting article. It seems that both of us, me and Abigail are tracing, a difficult track of past family history, but surely with your help we can finally hit the point of truth. Obviously, when someone flee away from his country and change his name and surnames, it becomes more difficult to trace, but I am convinced that all is recovered and found. As with my search, it is seemingly not that much difficult, since we know his true surname. What is so important for me to do, now, is first, I have to call at the parish priest, in his hometown, where the boy was adopted and brought up, and secondly find more and more information about his parents, of which we only know of his Scottish father, but as with his mother we do not have a clue, if she was Maltese, or Scottish. I have to start from here, right away, as otherwise, I will be caught in an utter confusion. This was the reason, Amber, that I am retarding to call for your help, but surely, as I will have all of the true evidence and proper information, regarding his parents, then I will turn to your help. I am hopeful, that I will find information from his hometown, since there are persons who wish to help in the find out, but I need to find some more free time, from my work. The original article I gave you is only, an outline, since the information we had goes back to the early 70’s and came by chance, as from one of our uncles living abroad, and left us with the least information, unfortunately. Before that, none of my family members, knew we had a Scottish ancestor ! Wish to say thanks again, and hope we will get in touch, sooner or later. THANKS — Joseph.
No problem, Joseph! Good luck with collecting the additional information–we’ll be here when you’re ready!
Would love to know my family history . My mother grandfather is from Scotland and their sername is Barrett
Hi Debbie, we’d love to help you learn more about your Scottish ancestry! You may request a free quote here.
Thank you for the excellent article on ScotlandsPeople. My 3x Great Grandmother was born in Paisley, Scotland, on 01 Mar 1832 per her tombstone. Her place of birth has been referenced in every newspaper article about her and in every US Census taken during her lifetime in the US. What I would like is to find official documentation or proof of her birth in Scotland. Is there a book that references all of the parishes in Paisley, Scotland, in or around 1832? Also, she was married in Virginia on 22 Feb 1854. I have that record. I would like to know how and when she arrived in the US. Is there also a book or source of the migration routes from Scotland to the US about 1850 – 1854 that you could recommend? Thank you.
My great grandfather by name Mr. George Hoesct Patterson Lyall who was a gold Merchant buying his gold dust from Gold Coast now Ghana upon his last trip the heat from the docket of the ship hit on him and collapsed which made him lost his life and was buried in Saltpond,Ghana. Please he came along with his friend merchant by the name John Banks Elliott. Mr. Lyall wife gave birth to six children (all are deceased) please I want to trace the family because we the children and grandchildren needs their aid. thank you.
Hi Georgina, Legacy Tree Genealogists has a dedicated probate research division who have the record access and necessary skills to build the family tree of a deceased relative and then trace the living descendants who may ultimately inherit from an estate. To get started, you may request a free quote here: https://www.legacytree.com/forensic-probate-research.
My great-great-great grandfather William Garrett Ainslie would never tell anybody who his parents were. And told different stories about where he was born. I recently found out that his parents should be Alexander Ainslie (1732-1794) and Isable Spears. Who married in July 16, 1763.
But I can’t find a birth certificate for William. He was born either April 1, 1782 or February 23, 1792.
I am also confused because it looks like Alexander Ainslie also married Elizabeth Grierson in December of 1763. Which was 5 months after he married Isabel. So not sure if he was married to 2 different women at the same time.
If I could just get a birth record for William. And find out about Alexander’s marriages. Maybe I could figure out why William ran away from home.
Hi Donna,
Sometimes family histories can seem confusing, especially without detailed research. Our team conducts detailed, personalized research in millions of family history records, spanning hundreds of years to tell you who your ancestors were, where they lived and much more. Please consider scheduling a consultation with one of our professional researchers on our Get in Touch page. They can point you in the right direction or set up a research project if needed.