Free BMD records

[Beverley]

Is there any internet site which has free birth marriage and death or census records for Scotland? I have tried Scotlands People to find info for my ancestors and have had no luck. I have used the rootsweb equivalent for England and Wales and find it usually quite good. Just hoping there may be something similar for Scotland.
Thanks

[AndrewP]

Hi Beverley,

There is nowhere else to download the records from.

There are indexes on the LDS site (familysearch) for the IGI for pre-1855 births (baptisms) and marriages (banns); and statutory records for births 1855-1874 and marriages 1855-1875.

All the best,

AndrewP

[Hibee]

Hi Beverley

I use this a lot.........

http://freecen.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl

Hibee

[JustJean]

There is actually now access to further Scottish Vital Record indexes via the Family Search labs website. https://labs.familysearch.org/
Through the now active Family Search Beta project you can access the following transcription indexes:

Scotland Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950 9,396,518 records

Index to selected Scotland births and baptisms. Only a few localities are included and the time period varies by locality. This collection contains 9,431,034 records. Due to privacy laws, recent records may not be displayed. The year range represents most of the records. A few records may be earlier or later.
---------------------------------
Scotland Marriages, 1561-1910 2,056,888 records

Index to selected Scotland marriages. Only a few localities are included and the time period varies by locality. This collection contains 2,058,305 records. Due to privacy laws, recent records may not be displayed. The year range represents most of the records. A few records may be earlier or later.
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As nearly as I can tell these indexes contain all the Scottish records originally available in the British Isles Vital Record Index and then some. I have that original CD set and it claimed at that time to contain 2,453,319 births and christenings and a further 41,080 marriages. As you can see the numbers have grown quite a bit! It's possible that some of this data might be taken from original sources such as family records/bible records and the such....not sure on that. I really think that mostly it is taken from original source records held by GROS. I've not utilized the database all that much so can't really comment on the ease of searching and transcription accuracy. I guess the main difference between this database and the IGI would be the chance to find newer records than the cut off years of 1874 and 1875. It's certainly worthwhile to add it to your list of Freebie sites!

Best wishes
Jean

[Beverley]

Thank you all very much for those replies. They are so helpful and I'll certainly try the links given. Much obliged.
Kind regards.