newbie help

thomsos · Post by **thomsos** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:41 pm

I am a newbie at searching for my ancestors,and as far as I know all my ancestors came and stayed in scotland, I have been using Scotlandspeople on line. I have gone back as far as I can with the Statutory Registers, but don't seem to find out much from the Old Parish Registers as they don't have any images, can someone tell me where I can go from here, and should I be searching any other sites.
My family name are Clarks from Polmont, and Wason from Dailly.

Post by **joette** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 8:35 pm

Hi & Welcome to TalkingScot.You are now in the hands of good/bad luck.
If your ancestors came from Parishes with well maintained records which have survived then you are in luck.
The place to view the images is NRH in Edinburgh.If that is not feasible then it is a trip to your nearest LDS Family Histoyr Centre who will order in any films of the OPR you require if they don't have them on hand.
Some areas are online with archival data-Wigton for example has a range of on-line data.
The IGI is a good source too but be cautious of entries that are not extracts of the entries(from one who has submitted some inaccurate data over the years & there is no wy of correcting it.)
Keep your questions coming & somebody will always have a bash at helping.

Montrose Budie · Post by **Montrose Budie** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:24 pm

Hi there

Have you fully exploited the information on 1855 and later death register entries?

In the Scottish civil BMD death registers, these records most often include the names of the parents of the deceased, unlike in England.

Sooo.. if you can locate, say, the death of an 80 year old in 1860, this could take you back to a birth ca. 1780, and a marriage 20 to 40 years before that ........

David

thomsos · Post by **thomsos** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 7:57 pm

I have fullt exploited all 1855 information and later, and have managed to reach back to 1780, but where do I go from here, with no images on the OPR's. i take it I have to leave the comfort of my own home and venture out to Edinburgh or LDS

Post by **AndrewP** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:13 pm

thomsos wrote:I have fullt exploited all 1855 information and later, and have managed to reach back to 1780, but where do I go from here, with no images on the OPR's. i take it I have to leave the comfort of my own home and venture out to Edinburgh or LDS

It depends a lot what area of Scotland your ancestors were from. There may be somewhere nearer to home. If your people were from Stirlingshire, then the main library in central Falkirk is not so far away from you. Or if your people were from counties around the Glasgow area, then there is the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. Or the Motherwell Heritage Centre for material concerning North Lanarkshire (and South Lanarkshire where the material covers both sides of that modern boundary).

Click on the "Libraries" button at the top of this page for a directory of Local Studies Libraries and the like. Then check the websites of these libraries to ascertain their holdings.

All the best,

Andrew Paterson