Where Do I Start?

One the best and simplest ways to get started is to draw up a small chart of your family as far back as you know it. Once you've gone as far back as you can, ask relatives, especially parents and grandparents, to add what they can to it. This provides you with a useful starting point and reference, as well as at a partial history of your ancestors which will probably go back at least a hundred years.

What is the Best Source?

The Scots Origins index of the General Register Office for Scotland's official births, deaths, marriages & census records contains nearly 30 million records extending back to 1553 and is on the Web at www.origins.net/GRO

The Scottish Genealogy Society, founded in 1953, is a registered charity and aims to promote research into Scottish family history. The Society has a library and Family History Centre at 15 Victoria Terrace in Edinburgh. More information on the society can be found by clicking here.

One of the world's most well known genealogy sources is managed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (The Mormons) and is found at www.familysearch.com.

An excellent general source of genealogy information is census records. Census records go back quite a long way in North America and usually contain thorough information.

Another good source is any family records you may have, such as photo-albums, old family trees, diaries/journals, letters, etc.

What are Some Other Sources?

As well as family and census records, there are some other useful resources. Two on Tartans.com, The Gathering of the Clans website are Your Ancestors and Scots on the Net. Both are online databases in which people can enter themselves  or their ancestors, and also search for people who may be related or have useful information.

If you're lucky, you may also discover another relative is already researching your family tree, or at least their branch of it. If so, collaborating with them can often be very helpful.

Some other resources worth checking include:

bullet Wills, Deeds, Etc.
bullet Certificates and Awards
bullet Armed Forces Records
bullet Marriage Records
bullet School Records
bullet Church Records (baptism, membership, marriages, deaths, etc.)
bullet Burial/Cemetery Records
bullet Libraries
 

Newspaper archives also often contain such things as marriage and birth records, as well as obituaries.

What are some tips?

bullet Be persistent. It will most likely take a bit of work as well as trial and error to compile a detailed family history. Don't let yourself get easily discouraged, if you find one avenue of research closed off, simply try another.
bullet Be patient. Patience is one of the most important genealogical tools you can possess. Some things that may seem boring, unproductive or time-consuming at first may turn out to be very rewarding later.
bullet Memories can be faulty. While jogging people's memory can often provide you with good information, human beings are still fallible and it is a good idea to double-check information from such sources.
bullet Older the records, greater the chance they're not completely accurate. Record keeping wasn't always as accurate as it is today and some details in older records may not be as specific as you might wish. Also, there were many names with no exact spelling, people often spelled their name however they thought it sounded, so don't limit yourself to one spelling in your searches.
bullet Keep clear, detailed, and accurate records. The reasons for this tip are obvious. These records can provide you with a quick over- view of all the research you've done, and if you find out somewhere down the road that you've made a mistake, they can help you to see where you made it and how to correct it.
bullet Keep an open mind. Your research will generally be a lot more productive if you go into it looking to learn all you can, than if you go into it with a lot of pre-conceived ideas. Pre-conceived ideas have the unfortunate tendency of causing people to ignore pieces of information that don't fit with those ideas, sometimes important pieces of information.

Reprinted with permission from Tartans.com, The Gathering of the Clans

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