Ancestry uk

[thomsos]

I have just registered for free 6 mths membership on Ancestry uk, which is a great offer, but I am quite disappointed about how little Scottish records they have, can any one tell me there is any plans for them to update and add some more Scottish files soon, hopefully in the next 6 mths!

Sandra

[nelmit]

I have just registered for free 6 mths membership on Ancestry uk, which is a great offer, but I am quite disappointed about how little Scottish records they have, can any one tell me there is any plans for them to update and add some more Scottish files soon, hopefully in the next 6 mths!

Sandra

Hi Sandra,

Sorry can't help with Scottish records update but I'd be interested in how you managed to get 6 months free as my subscription is up soon!!

Regards,
Annette

[thomsos]

Sorry can't help with Scottish records update but I'd be interested in how you managed to get 6 months free as my subscription is up soon!!

Regards,
Annette

I bought the new Family tree maker for mac, and the 6 mths free, was included, so a good buy.

Sandra

[morgano]

I'm fairly amazed, not to say dismayed, that no-one explained the problem with Ancestry to you. Firstly, it is not a problem of Ancestry's own making. All Scottish census, Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic parish records and statutory (post-1855) records of births, marriages and deaths are available on scotlandspeople.gov.uk, which is a pay-site. You can enter a search for free, but you pay to view the list of results and pay more to browse the actual records.

The quality of the scanning of the records seems to vary quite a lot. If the Edinburgh archives are going to continue to charge for their service, they need to improve the legibility of what they provide. Struggling with James VI-era handwriting is one thing, but I can't believe nineteenth-century census forms are as poor as some of the ones I have seen (and paid quite a lot of money to find) on Scotlandspeople. Having said that, when I have had occasion to question the reading of names in records, the people at Scotlandspeople have been unfailingly polite and usually helpful.

Regarding the relationship between Scotlandspeople and Ancestry, Scotlandspeople is a monopoly. I am not sure that that is even legal, but it is the case, nevertheless. Ancestry can publish transcripts of Scottish census forms, but not facsimiles of the forms, and has no access to parish records, or to the post-1854 BMD records. With regard to censuses, if the Scotlandspeople images were of high quality, this system might be defensible, but, until the 1911 census, they haven't been very good and they still are no better than the images of English and Welsh records from Ancestry. With its small population, Scotland led the way in putting parish records and BMD records on-line and Scotlandspeople deserves credit for that. There aren't actually very many of those records, though. One of the reasons for introducing statutory registration in Scotland was the complete breakdown in parish records.

[trish1]

Hi Morgano

If you contact SP about bad images - from my experience they will rescan and email you a much better copy (took me awhile before I realised this but even when I complained about an image I had downloaded many moons ago it was replaced). If you have trouble finding records - because of bad transcriptions they will often refund credits - but you have to contact them. As you noted - they are helpful when contacted.

In terms of access to civil registration records - excluding a few states/counties in the US who have some images online at no charge, I have found SP to provide cheaper access to such records than any other country I have researched. I have not found any ancestry records with images of civil registration records - they do have church records, some of which match civil records (e.g. LMA marriages post 1837). Most civil authorities in the world have retained the right to "sell" their registration records - in my country you can't even get a copy of your own records without paying - albeit you (or your family) are legally obliged to provide the information (free of charge) in the first place.

Trish

PS If you ever wish to purchase England/Wales civil registration records - don't do it through Ancestry or any other 3rd party. You will pay a hefty surcharge.

[thomsos]

Thanks Morgano,
I think I will just stay with SP, at least I found out Ancestry uk's not for me before I paid a full years subscription.

Sandra

[Ann In the UK]

Hi Sandra,

Sorry no one replied to your query sooner; all I can suggest by way of explanation is that the site has undergone some difficulties recently and your post must've got overlooked while they were being sorted out. Today's certainly the first time I've seen your post.

I've been with Ancestry for 4 years or so now on a full sub. But I hardly use it at all these days for either my Scottish (or Irish) research as their resources in these areas are pretty scant to say the least (which I've complained in writing to them about several times - there must be other documents they can add that could be useful, such as the poor law records/indexes for example!). I exhausted them for my research yonks ago, sadly. However, having said that, I did find Ancestry's Scottish census transcriptions very useful in narrowing down people I was searching for in Scotland. SP indexes can be very vague and you can zip through credits in the blink of an eye before you've even figured out whether you have the right family or not! So I find them on Ancestry first, then nip over to SP to buy.

I've not heard of any new Scottish records being added to Ancestry any time soon (and I do keep my eye out) but there are rumours that SP are about to add some of the Kirk sessions which should prove useful - hope they're well indexed though, or it could cost another fortune!

Regards
Ann

[thomsos]

Thanks Ann,
I agree with you about searching Ancestry first, then going to SP, but that works out quite expensive too, if you are paying a years subs with Ancestry

Sandra

[morgano]

Trish,
That's useful information about the willingness of SP to supply new scans. I have a barely legible census form for my G-G-mother, born in Edinburgh, who was in Glasgow in 1871. I've been to Glasgow a few times, but can't claim to know the place and can't begin to guess the address at which my ancestor lived back then. A superior scan would help a lot.
Thanks, too, for the advice regarding the ordering of English & Welsh records via Ancestry. As it happens, not all that many of my ancestors were English and they took the precaution of living in a well-documented parish in Norfolk, but I do have a lot of Welsh ones.

Sandra,
Best of luck with your research. As I said before, SP led the way in providing genealogical data and, as you implied, Ancestry provides nothing for Scottish genealogy apart from census transcripts. I did manage to find another Scottish G-G-mother there, though (one of the things which got me started on this stuff). She was called Margaret and, luckily for me, was born in a tiny place in rural Perthshire, not in Edinburgh, or Dundee. Tracking her down in SP could have cost me a bob or two.

Best wishes to all and good hunting,

Owen

[thomsos]

Thanks all,
As alway, TS is the best place for answers

Sandra