THE JOYS OF SCOTLAND’S PEOPLE WEBSITE

If you have ancestors from Scotland this site is invaluable.  I’ve been using it for several years.

WHAT DOES THIS SITE CONTAIN?
You can find vital records, census records, valuation rolls and other helpful information.

Here is a screenshot of the home page.  
(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)


Create an account to be able to use the site.

Once you’ve entered your names you can use basic search criteria like soundex, wildcard, fuzzy searches etc.  You can narrow down the year range and even the county and district areas.  There is also an advanced search option, which I’ve rarely used.

Searching for statutory marriages 1855-2013, I entered two surnames and narrowed the years to 1855-1870 just to get fewer matches.

This is the result of that search.



You can see that I have 8 matches and the cost to view them is 1 credit.  When you click on “view 1 credit” you will be taken to a screen that says “this will cost you 1 credit, are you sure?” Yes or No.

When I click on “Yes” this screen comes up.


You can now see more information, such as the year, both names, district and city/county.  This allows you to decide which one if any, might be worth viewing. If I know that my couple lived in Moray, then I have one choice.  If Aberdeen, then I have more choices.  It’s up to you, based on what you know about the person or couple you are searching for.

Viewing the image will cost you 5 credits.  The images are usually very readable and contain LOTS of great information.  
You may get a record that look like either one of these.

1872 MARRIAGE RECORD

1850 MARRIAGE RECORD

That first record you see is one I pulled just yesterday.  The great thing about those later records is that they give you the names of parents (and whether they are deceased), residence addresses, occupation of the groom and/or bride and the occupation of the parents AND the maiden name of all the women.  That’s what I call a FIND!

HOW MUCH DO THE CREDITS COST?
When you click on “Buy Credits” you are taken to this screen.  There is a drop down list to give you choices as to how many credits you want to pay for.  The cost is listed in British Pounds.  You can use your search engine and find a currency converter to determine how many U.S. dollars are equal to how many British Pounds.  Right now 7 British Pounds is equal to $10.84 is U.S. currency. 



This means that each credit will cost you about 36 cents.  That converts to $1.80 for 5 credits to view an image.  I don’t know about you, but that’s much cheaper than any records I’ve ordered.  Other than free records, the price is hard to beat.

Using this site has allowed me to expand my family history tremendously.  Having access to the actual images is fantastic.  You can get the indexes on sites such as Ancestry.com, but they still won’t contain all the important information.

I hope this post has been helpful.  Please let me know if you have used this site and what your results have been.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
SCOTLAND - Aberdeen & North-East Scotland Family History Society

MY TRIP TO SCOTLAND - What I did right & What I did wrong

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

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