Search tips for ScotlandsPeople
If you have discovered that some of your Irish relatives made their way to Scotland and you have, of course, perused my "Settling under the Saltire" page for advice, you will no doubt be grappling with the ScotlandsPeople website to try to find their records.
Whilst it is relatively straightforward to use it is not without its quirks and, quite frankly, problems and inconsistencies. A recent upgrade immediately prior to the welcome release of the 1921 Scottish census has not gone swimmingly to say the least and has been fulsomely picked apart on the Old Scottish blog. There is some seriously good advice born of diligent fruitless searching in this and earlier blog posts also referenced, so have a good read if you are experiencing similar confusion. Some of the inconsistencies actually go well beyond annoying, especially if you are trying to find folk in Coupar Angus! There has been a healthy clamour for a user group for this site for many years but the National Records of Scotland remain shy of engaging with their paying public in this way ...
That said, there is still plenty of content that does work well. The generic first screen, pictured above is very simple and good for casting your net very wide to begin with. However, once you get to the search screens specific to each source, then there is quite a lot of technical flexibility for searching. However, I'm not going to picture every screen and give you a step-by-step lesson in how to use them. What I can do, as ever, is give you some practical advice based on my own experiences and observations. There are quite a few of them listed under bold headings and with wee bits of the screens to illustrate what I mean - be sure to scroll to the bottom to see them all.
Whilst it is relatively straightforward to use it is not without its quirks and, quite frankly, problems and inconsistencies. A recent upgrade immediately prior to the welcome release of the 1921 Scottish census has not gone swimmingly to say the least and has been fulsomely picked apart on the Old Scottish blog. There is some seriously good advice born of diligent fruitless searching in this and earlier blog posts also referenced, so have a good read if you are experiencing similar confusion. Some of the inconsistencies actually go well beyond annoying, especially if you are trying to find folk in Coupar Angus! There has been a healthy clamour for a user group for this site for many years but the National Records of Scotland remain shy of engaging with their paying public in this way ...
That said, there is still plenty of content that does work well. The generic first screen, pictured above is very simple and good for casting your net very wide to begin with. However, once you get to the search screens specific to each source, then there is quite a lot of technical flexibility for searching. However, I'm not going to picture every screen and give you a step-by-step lesson in how to use them. What I can do, as ever, is give you some practical advice based on my own experiences and observations. There are quite a few of them listed under bold headings and with wee bits of the screens to illustrate what I mean - be sure to scroll to the bottom to see them all.
Tips
The search screens have a little slider switch in blue prefixed "Turn Off Tips". Don't. This is a useful little feature that only activates green information boxes when you chose an option from a drop-down menu. Some of the advice is a bit bland, but some of it can be a very useful reminder of what there is, and what there is not, in the underlying data. If you are not finding what you hoped, check the tips and see if that might explain things. As in this example, you might be directed to more help too e.g. surname guidance which is very informative. |
Name Searching The default is to search for exact names. I recommend that you make a conscious effort to use several different choices for the same search in order to find as many candidates as possible. There can be a lot of variation in spellings, especially in the old parish registers. See my page on Wildcard Searching for some tips for this option. Phonetic matching can be quite good for overcoming transcription errors. Name Variants is a good one for educating yourself on just how much a name can vary and you are reaping the benefit of lots of contributions from staff and online users. It is also a good one to use for forenames which have been abbreviated in a way that wildcards might not always pick up. That same surname guidance page will tell you more about these options. |
Gender
You can narrow down searches immediately by gender - the default is to search for both. I recommend that you leave this as it is for initial searches as there may well be several candidates that are marked as "U" for Unknown.
There may be no forename for example, often the case for the burials of babies and infants or for widows, who may just be noted as "Widow McLeod" in the very oldest registers. Another reason for this may be that transcribers may have been unfamiliar with some more unusual Scottish names and have not been able to assign a gender to the record - Grizzell is one of my favourite old names for a girl! Also, did you know that both Christian and Stewart were quite common forenames for girls in some of the earlier records? You can always narrow down a very large group later to just recognisable males or females, but don't forget about the unknowns.
Married Woman and Widows
Once you start buying a few post 1855 records, you will quickly be delighted to discover that maiden names are diligently recorded in many registration districts and have often been indexed too. If you are searching for the death of a married or widowed female relative, the search screen will give you an option to search with another surname which can be her maiden name - great for narrowing down long candidate lists when the married name is not uncommon.
If you are still struggling to find her under her married name then search for her with just her maiden name in the surname field and then try again to find her married record by using the combinations of year, forename, registration district that come up in the new list of results. Compare the age at death and the reference numbers to see if they match and you've probably found your woman. Here's an example of what I mean - this is the same woman:
Once you start buying a few post 1855 records, you will quickly be delighted to discover that maiden names are diligently recorded in many registration districts and have often been indexed too. If you are searching for the death of a married or widowed female relative, the search screen will give you an option to search with another surname which can be her maiden name - great for narrowing down long candidate lists when the married name is not uncommon.
If you are still struggling to find her under her married name then search for her with just her maiden name in the surname field and then try again to find her married record by using the combinations of year, forename, registration district that come up in the new list of results. Compare the age at death and the reference numbers to see if they match and you've probably found your woman. Here's an example of what I mean - this is the same woman:
Drop-down Choices
The drop-down choices generally apply to place names - counties, parishes and registration districts for example. I recommend that you do an open query - no names - for the place you are interested in to establish whether there are actually any records of the type you want. This particularly applies to deaths and burials in the old parish registers for example which are very sparse. For example. you can legitimately choose the parish of Banchory Devenick for the county of Kincardine but there are in fact no burial records online - you'll be a long time faffing about with trying to find your relative with no success before that dawns on you, trust me! I just wish that ScotlandsPeople would tell you they don't have any records of that type for the parish instead of just telling you to keep recomposing your search criteria.
For more detailed observations and advice, then do visit my Searching Scottish Parishes on ScotlandsPeople page.
The drop-down choices generally apply to place names - counties, parishes and registration districts for example. I recommend that you do an open query - no names - for the place you are interested in to establish whether there are actually any records of the type you want. This particularly applies to deaths and burials in the old parish registers for example which are very sparse. For example. you can legitimately choose the parish of Banchory Devenick for the county of Kincardine but there are in fact no burial records online - you'll be a long time faffing about with trying to find your relative with no success before that dawns on you, trust me! I just wish that ScotlandsPeople would tell you they don't have any records of that type for the parish instead of just telling you to keep recomposing your search criteria.
For more detailed observations and advice, then do visit my Searching Scottish Parishes on ScotlandsPeople page.
Sorting Results
Once you have a set of results for any search, click on any of the column titles to sort them in either ascending or descending order. This will help you identify groups of records that might reveal interesting patterns e.g. groups of siblings being baptised in the same parish or to the same parents in the old parish registers. Sort by gender to group together all the "unknown" records so you can study these separately and understand why there was no gender assigned. Sort by year to reveal perhaps an older sibling who must have died for your ancestor to be given the same name.
Once you have a set of results for any search, click on any of the column titles to sort them in either ascending or descending order. This will help you identify groups of records that might reveal interesting patterns e.g. groups of siblings being baptised in the same parish or to the same parents in the old parish registers. Sort by gender to group together all the "unknown" records so you can study these separately and understand why there was no gender assigned. Sort by year to reveal perhaps an older sibling who must have died for your ancestor to be given the same name.
One other thing to watch out for in Scotland, is that widows sometimes reverted to their maiden names. If you cannot find your widowed ancestor in a census, then try searching for her under her maiden name - I've found a couple of ancestors this way. Incidentally, although there are no monumental inscriptions on ScotlandsPeople, this was also a very common practice on Scottish gravestones - you will often find the wife engraved with her maiden name.
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2022
