Search tips for Scotland's People
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 Scotland's People website to try to find their records.
The generic first screen, pictured left, is very simple and good for casting your net wide to begin with. However, once you get to the search screens specific to each source, then there are more features to refine your searching. I'm not going to highlight every screen, but as ever, I will share some practical advice based on my own experiences and observations. There are quite a few of them listed under bold headings below and with wee bits of the screens to illustrate what I mean - be sure to scroll to the bottom to see them all.
A word of caution...
Before diving in though, it's worth pausing to reflect on some of the quirks and, quite frankly, problems and inconsistencies that may still be ingrained in this website. There have certainly been past upgrades that have not gone swimmingly to say the least - the release of the 1921 Scottish census for example generated a flurry of errors which have been fulsomely picked apart on the Old Scottish blog. Some of the inconsistencies actually went well beyond annoying, especially if you were trying to find folk in Coupar Angus!
September 2024 saw another refresh of the site, with a new logo and layout. I've blogged my opinion (spoiler alert - I'm not impressed) and updated all my pages that use screen shots from the site * sigh *. It's not clear whether any underlying data issues have been corrected (I don't think so - sorry Coupar Angus folk!) and there is nothing in the press release about new functionality or improved indexes. It's also possible that new problems may have been introduced with this upgrade that we have yet to discover.
All that being said, here is my advice on grappling with what we have to work with.
The generic first screen, pictured left, is very simple and good for casting your net wide to begin with. However, once you get to the search screens specific to each source, then there are more features to refine your searching. I'm not going to highlight every screen, but as ever, I will share some practical advice based on my own experiences and observations. There are quite a few of them listed under bold headings below and with wee bits of the screens to illustrate what I mean - be sure to scroll to the bottom to see them all.
A word of caution...
Before diving in though, it's worth pausing to reflect on some of the quirks and, quite frankly, problems and inconsistencies that may still be ingrained in this website. There have certainly been past upgrades that have not gone swimmingly to say the least - the release of the 1921 Scottish census for example generated a flurry of errors which have been fulsomely picked apart on the Old Scottish blog. Some of the inconsistencies actually went well beyond annoying, especially if you were trying to find folk in Coupar Angus!
September 2024 saw another refresh of the site, with a new logo and layout. I've blogged my opinion (spoiler alert - I'm not impressed) and updated all my pages that use screen shots from the site * sigh *. It's not clear whether any underlying data issues have been corrected (I don't think so - sorry Coupar Angus folk!) and there is nothing in the press release about new functionality or improved indexes. It's also possible that new problems may have been introduced with this upgrade that we have yet to discover.
All that being said, here is my advice on grappling with what we have to work with.
Context specific Help
Whenever you see an i in circle above a search field, I encourage you to click on it to get some context specific help. This will appear in a pop-up box as illustrated right.
Some of the advice is a bit bland, but some of it can be a very useful reminder of the extent of the underlying data. If you are not finding what you hoped to find, check the tips and see if that might explain the lack of results.
As in this example, you might be directed to more help too e.g. surname guidance.
Whenever you see an i in circle above a search field, I encourage you to click on it to get some context specific help. This will appear in a pop-up box as illustrated right.
Some of the advice is a bit bland, but some of it can be a very useful reminder of the extent of the underlying data. If you are not finding what you hoped to find, check the tips and see if that might explain the lack of results.
As in this example, you might be directed to more help too e.g. surname guidance.
Search Tools for Name Searching
If you see Search Tools as a hyperlink above any of the name fields, this means you can vary the matching method. 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 transcribed spellings, especially in the old parish registers. That same surname guidance page will tell you more about these options.
See my page on Wildcard Searching for some tips choosing how to assemble combinations of letters. Phonetic matching can be quite good for overcoming transcription errors.
There used to be an additional option, Name Variants, which I see has now disappeared. This used to be a good one for educating yourself on just how much a name can vary and you were reaping the benefit of lots of observations from staff and online users. It is also used to be a good one to use for forenames which had been abbreviated in ways that wildcards might not always have picked up. I wonder what has happened to all that valuable data?
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. 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.
Child and Sibling Deaths
Post 1855 statutory death records record the names of both parents, including the mother's maiden name. The latter has mostly also been included in the indexes and can be searched for. This is invaluable when searching for the deaths of children and their siblings.
It is not always indexed though, so I recommend doing a search with the box checked to include unrecorded mother's maiden surnames first to cast your net wide and seeing what comes up. You can then sort the results by Mother's Maiden Surname to see if there are patterns emerging e.g. several infant deaths in one registration district perhaps.
Married Woman and Widows
Did you know that married women and widows also have their own maiden names indexed? If you put this surname into the box called
"Other surname" it is a great way of narrowing down long candidate lists when the married name is not uncommon. The maiden name will not show up in the result list, but you can prove to yourself that you have got the right woman by reversing the names in the query boxes - put her maiden name in the Surname box and her married named in the Other surname box and repeat the query. Compare all the other information returned by the 2 queries and you should see that it is the same. Here's an example of what I mean - 2 index results for the same death record:
Post 1855 statutory death records record the names of both parents, including the mother's maiden name. The latter has mostly also been included in the indexes and can be searched for. This is invaluable when searching for the deaths of children and their siblings.
It is not always indexed though, so I recommend doing a search with the box checked to include unrecorded mother's maiden surnames first to cast your net wide and seeing what comes up. You can then sort the results by Mother's Maiden Surname to see if there are patterns emerging e.g. several infant deaths in one registration district perhaps.
Married Woman and Widows
Did you know that married women and widows also have their own maiden names indexed? If you put this surname into the box called
"Other surname" it is a great way of narrowing down long candidate lists when the married name is not uncommon. The maiden name will not show up in the result list, but you can prove to yourself that you have got the right woman by reversing the names in the query boxes - put her maiden name in the Surname box and her married named in the Other surname box and repeat the query. Compare all the other information returned by the 2 queries and you should see that it is the same. Here's an example of what I mean - 2 index results for the same death record:
You can also use a variation on this technique to find out if a woman married. Query her death in her maiden name and note any promising candidates, particularly if the mother's maiden surname was indexed and the age at death and registration year allow you to calculate an approximate birth year that make for a good match.
Now query again but this time don't include a surname, just a forename, age, year and registration district. If this query returns a pair of records like those above, then you will have discovered her married name and can go hunting for the marriage. Be warned though, this is not foolproof - I've found women I know to have been married only appearing in the indexes in their maiden names, which suggests that the corresponding married name record is missing from the index.
One other thing to watch out for in Scotland, is that widows sometimes reverted to their maiden names in the censuses. If you cannot find your widowed ancestor in a census year, then try searching for her under her maiden name - I've found a couple of ancestors this way. Old Parish Registers might also record the burial of widows as simply that - "Widow Gerrity" for example. Transcribers have invariably recorded 'Widow' as the forename so be sure to search on just the surname in your chosen parish too to make sure you don't miss out on a possible match for your woman. Incidentally, although there are no monumental inscriptions on Scotland' s People, this was also a very common practice on Scottish gravestones - you will often find the wife engraved with her maiden name.
Now query again but this time don't include a surname, just a forename, age, year and registration district. If this query returns a pair of records like those above, then you will have discovered her married name and can go hunting for the marriage. Be warned though, this is not foolproof - I've found women I know to have been married only appearing in the indexes in their maiden names, which suggests that the corresponding married name record is missing from the index.
One other thing to watch out for in Scotland, is that widows sometimes reverted to their maiden names in the censuses. If you cannot find your widowed ancestor in a census year, then try searching for her under her maiden name - I've found a couple of ancestors this way. Old Parish Registers might also record the burial of widows as simply that - "Widow Gerrity" for example. Transcribers have invariably recorded 'Widow' as the forename so be sure to search on just the surname in your chosen parish too to make sure you don't miss out on a possible match for your woman. Incidentally, although there are no monumental inscriptions on Scotland' s People, this was also a very common practice on Scottish gravestones - you will often find the wife engraved with her maiden name.
Place Name Choices
There are lists of place names in hierarchies that you can chose to refine your searches - counties, parishes and registration districts for example. For parishes in particular, 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 Scotland's People would tell you they don't have any records of that type for the parish instead of endlessly telling you to keep refining your search * sigh *.
For more detailed observations and advice, then do visit my Searching Scottish Parishes on Scotland's People page.
There are lists of place names in hierarchies that you can chose to refine your searches - counties, parishes and registration districts for example. For parishes in particular, 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 Scotland's People would tell you they don't have any records of that type for the parish instead of endlessly telling you to keep refining your search * sigh *.
For more detailed observations and advice, then do visit my Searching Scottish Parishes on Scotland's People 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.
Finding Maiden Names of Mothers of Young Children
Perhaps you have found a man of interest in the next census who now appears to be married with a clutch of young children under 10. Who did he marry? With common names it might not be immediately obvious which marriage to choose as the most likely one from the indexes - there could be several John Scott's all marrying a woman named Mary in the local area in the right time frame. You could buy all the likely candidates until you lucked upon the right one, but here's a technique to narrow down the possibilities when there were several children born after 1855 who appear in the censuses.
You're going to have to work forwards and backwards with different types of records, but that's the challenge isn't it and why you are reading this advice?!
Perhaps you have found a man of interest in the next census who now appears to be married with a clutch of young children under 10. Who did he marry? With common names it might not be immediately obvious which marriage to choose as the most likely one from the indexes - there could be several John Scott's all marrying a woman named Mary in the local area in the right time frame. You could buy all the likely candidates until you lucked upon the right one, but here's a technique to narrow down the possibilities when there were several children born after 1855 who appear in the censuses.
You're going to have to work forwards and backwards with different types of records, but that's the challenge isn't it and why you are reading this advice?!
- Note the registration district that the family were living in from the census record you have found.
- Working on the assumption that the family have been living in the area for a few years, focus on the youngest child and search for them in the birth indexes in the same registration district. Remember, especially in urban areas where families flocked together, there could be several Helen Scott's all born in the same timeframe named for the mother of the brothers who all moved to Glasgow to lay gas pipes! Note down the mother's maiden name for each candidate. Remember to use wildcards too, to make sure you don't miss any likely entries.
- Now search for any other older siblings by name within a suitable timeframe using the maiden name(s) you have found. Start by restricting your search to the same registration district and be sure to check the box that will include any records where the mother's maiden surname has not been indexed too. Hopefully, you should start to see a pattern building up that matches the siblings found in the census. Perhaps the older siblings are not showing up? Remove the restriction on the registration district and see if they start showing up in another registration district. Remember, it was very common for women to have their first child or children surrounded by the support of their mother and sisters at home perhaps. This might also be a very useful pointer as to the registration district or parish in which she married.
- Follow the family forward into the next census and note any further children and repeat the technique to further corroborate the mother's maiden name you think is the most likely one. Check back to your list of marriage candidates and choose the one that matches this name.
- One thing to watch out for though is where a man may have been married briefly to another woman and had a child or children with them, all of whom have died in between the censuses! Yup, I've found this!
- Another bonus of hunting for patterns of childrens' names with matching mother's maiden names is that you will also find the children who were born and died without ever appearing on a census (remember, mother's maiden surname is usually in the death indexes too and you can corroborate your findings this way.) This can reveal incredibly sad stories - I found one family who had lost 7 of their 10 children as infants.
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2024
