Tracing Ancestry

[AyrTroopMajor]

Has anyone on here ever taken the time to do this? Is it easy/worth the money etc?

Thinking of getting it as a gift for a family member so any advice would be appreciated.

[cmontheloknow]

Have done a lot of it. The success of it is much dependent on family names, amount of moving about and the records where people have lived.  Also what's also important is the amount of existing family knowledge.

With membership, Scotland's People provide free access to indexes of their records. For a quid you can view the very much historical scanned documents - you will pay more for records closer to present day. Can't recall off hand the exact cut offs, 100 years for births, 75 for marriages, 60 for deaths...? In other words, you can't see a birth record for anyone born after 1919 etc... without ordering it at great cost (£10 a throw or thereabouts).

Ancestry is the package I use for researching in England and Wales, but any of these other sites are less useful for Scottish research due to the lack of Scottish records on them.

If you have any Irish ancestry, they have their own site again which is good for various historical bits n pieces. I have got hold of censuses, births, marriages and deaths available on a similar basis to those on Scotland's People.

If you do do it, you will come across blanks and dead ends fairly regularly - my advice to make this worthwhile is to follow hunches but avoid leaps of faith. Never commit to a dubious connection. Try and get a second source for anything.

The Scottish BDMs are great - for all of these records after 1855 you will get the names of parents and their occupations, as well as the ages and addresses of the person the record is about. This can help join dots.

For anything pre 1855, you will be reliant on the very patchy Scottish baptismal records, 1851 census apart. 1841 census semi useful but quite limited information.

If using trees on Ancestry, look for corroboration - lots of guesses and bad research therein.

Edited July 16, 2019 by cmontheloknow

[Cosmic Joe]

I've been researching mine for years and have just about exhausted every avenue, tracing my Scottish ancestry back to the 17th century. The Irish side of my family has proved more problematic, although I've narrowed it down to County Cavan...

[Richey Edwards]

My great-aunt did a lot of research into the history of the paternal side of the family, and my maternal grandfather researched his side. Both sides were traced back to some time in the 18th century, It was quite interesting.

It turns out I'm descended from Irish and German immigrants on the paternal side, and people who fought for and against the Jacobite cause on the maternal side (the ones who were against the Jacobite cause were of Clan Campbell, who were known for being bad b*****ds).

[Hillonearth]

My mother-in-law got into it and traced her family back a few centuries. They originally were from up Buckie way so naturally a lot of them went to sea, with a disproportionate amount seeming to bring back wives they'd met abroad.

Consequently, my missus discovered that rather than being 100% Scottish as she'd hitherto imagined, she has Icelandic and Spanish in the mix through various grandmothers a few greats ago.

[Raidernation]

I know one of my cousins managed to get my father’s side of the family back to the 15th century (aye the 1400’s for the uneducated)

[invergowrie arab]

If you can stumble onto a bit of, even minor nobility, you can basically go back as far as when people arent even sure if the people mentioned were real people or not.

I have a 4 x great grandmother from Kincardineshire who was the 7th daughter of the Duke of Gordon so after that all the records are there.

Robert Bruce was my 20th or 25th GG but then again just about every living Scottish person will be descended from him in some way. You have potentially more ancestors at that level than people who had lived. Into the 10s of millions. So in some respects that bit of it is bollocks but it was fun to find.

More interesting, to me, is the more recent stuff. Scotlands People is a great resource. You could do it all from there but it does cost. The advantage of something like ancestry.com is you can piggy back on work of others.

If your ancestors came from the highlands or ireland you arent getting back much beyond the 1790s.

If they came from the lowlands there are really good burgh records and you can potentially get back to 1300/1400s and as i said, once you find some posh lads there is no end to how far back yoi can go.

[I'm Brian]

1 hour ago, invergowrie arab said:

 

Robert Bruce was my 20th or 25th GG but then again just about every living Scottish person will be descended from him in some way. You have potentially more ancestors at that level than people who had lived. Into the 10s of millions. So in some respects that bit of it is bollocks but it was fun to find.

 

Hi brother.

My sister took it seriously for a while and discovered the Duke of Hamilton or Bothwell or some other nob around that area had a liking for banging the servant girls back in the day. So I am descended from the illegitimate child of some Duke. It was pretty well hushed up apparently

I imagine that kind of thing will be quite a common occurrence

 

Edited July 17, 2019 by I'm Brian

[invergowrie arab]

1 hour ago, I'm Brian said:

Hi brother.

My sister took it seriously for a while and discovered the Duke of Hamilton or Bothwell or some other nob around that area had a liking for banging the servant girls back in the day. So I am descended from the illegitimate child of some Duke. It was pretty well hushed up apparently

I imagine that kind of thing will be quite a common occurrence

 

In Hamilton? Certainly

[DeeTillEhDeh]

If you can stumble onto a bit of, even minor nobility, you can basically go back as far as when people arent even sure if the people mentioned were real people or not.
I have a 4 x great grandmother from Kincardineshire who was the 7th daughter of the Duke of Gordon so after that all the records are there.
Robert Bruce was my 20th or 25th GG but then again just about every living Scottish person will be descended from him in some way. You have potentially more ancestors at that level than people who had lived. Into the 10s of millions. So in some respects that bit of it is bollocks but it was fun to find.
More interesting, to me, is the more recent stuff. Scotlands People is a great resource. You could do it all from there but it does cost. The advantage of something like ancestry.com is you can piggy back on work of others.
If your ancestors came from the highlands or ireland you arent getting back much beyond the 1790s.
If they came from the lowlands there are really good burgh records and you can potentially get back to 1300/1400s and as i said, once you find some posh lads there is no end to how far back yoi can go.

My brother has just done the same thing.

Robert the Bruce is my 24th Great Grandfather.

The lineage is on my mums side via her maternal grandmother Margaret. Most of the people uncovered are fairly ordinary, however in 1729 my 7th Great Grandmother Jean Stewart was born and her ancestors are a plethora of Earls, Countesses, Sirs, Lords and Ladies, that eventually lead to Robert III King of Scotland who was Robert The Bruces great grandson. He's had great fun tracing back and checking dates / names and arriving at people famed in our country's history.

Work it back and there are a few more Kings of Scotland we are descended from - David I, Malcolm III (Canmore), Duncan I and Malcolm II. Before that is the Kings of the Picts (Alba) Kenneth II, Malcolm I,
Donald II, Constantine I and Kenneth I (Kenneth McAlpine).

Then there's the link to the English monarchy.

David I's mother was St Margaret of Scotland who was the granddaughter of the English King Edmund Ironside - his father was Ethelred the Unready.

Ethelred was descended from Alfred the Great (his Great-Great Grandfather) - a line of Kings of England - Edward the Elder, Eadred, Eadwig and Edgar I.

I'm sure, as you say, that others could do something similar.

[Shandon Par]

10 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

My brother has just done the same thing.

Robert the Bruce is my 24th Great Grandfather.

The lineage is on my mums side via her maternal grandmother Margaret. Most of the people uncovered are fairly ordinary, however in 1729 my 7th Great Grandmother Jean Stewart was born and her ancestors are a plethora of Earls, Countesses, Sirs, Lords and Ladies, that eventually lead to Robert III King of Scotland who was Robert The Bruces great grandson. He's had great fun tracing back and checking dates / names and arriving at people famed in our country's history.

Work it back and there are a few more Kings of Scotland we are descended from - David I, Malcolm III (Canmore), Duncan I and Malcolm II. Before that is the Kings of the Picts (Alba) Kenneth II, Malcolm I,
Donald II, Constantine I and Kenneth I (Kenneth McAlpine).

Then there's the link to the English monarchy.

David I's mother was St Margaret of Scotland who was the granddaughter of the English King Edmund Ironside - his father was Ethelred the Unready.

Ethelred was descended from Alfred the Great (his Great-Great Grandfather) - a line of Kings of England - Edward the Elder, Eadred, Eadwig and Edgar I.

I'm sure, as you say, that others could do something similar.

I’ve got a couple of paintings by the Earl of Elgin’s (your 24th cousin) wife. 
 

Think my ancestors came down from the aisle of Skye. They were MacLeod of Dunvegan. Pretty sure that makes me related to the lad from Highlander.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

1 minute ago, Shandön Par said:

I’ve got a couple of paintings by the Earl of Elgin’s (your 24th cousin) wife. 
 

Think my ancestors came down from the aisle of Skye. They were MacLeod of Dunvegan. Pretty sure that makes me related to the lad from Highlander.

Are you no very big and awful shy?

[Sergeant Wilson]

3 minutes ago, Shandön Par said:

 

Think my ancestors came down from the aisle of Skye. 

Were they no' very big and awfy shy?

Eta.

If it wasn't for correcting auto correct I'd have been first. Technically I win!

Eta 2 the word is awfy. I win, I win!

Edited December 16, 2020 by Sergeant Wilson

[Rob1885]

I come from a long line of big, handsome rides. My father was a ride and his father before him.

[Shandon Par]

8 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Are you no very big and awful shy?

 

8 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Were they no' very big and awfy shy?

Eta.

If it wasn't for correcting auto correct I'd have been first. Technically I win!

Eta 2 the word is awfy. I win, I win!

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Simple things amuse great minds. Or something.

[101]

Just remember it should be less off a tree and more of a diamond with yourself and the bottom and Adam and Eve at the top.

HTH

[Shotgun]

My sister did it a couple of years ago and dug up some pretty interesting (to us) stuff about those who went before. She hit a number of dead ends, often due to people not using their birth names for whatever reason. However, she was able to find information about several ancestors, including an aunt of my Dad's, who we kids had never heard mentioned. Our family name is one of the more common ones, which made the patriarchal line a challenge but she dug up quite a bit following branches of our Mum's people. She also had one of those DNA tests done and while I'm still not entirely convinced of their legitimacy, it did for the most part, correspond with what we already knew.

I enjoyed reading her updates but I'm not sure I would have had the time or energy to do it myself. 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Shotgun

[Academically Deficient]

My mother did a bit of research into this before she died. She did really well, and got to about the 1880s where the records ran out. Typical entry: signature X. Occupation miner or farm labourer.

There's something really sad about seeing your ancestor couldn't write their own name only 4 generations ago.

[coprolite]

On 17/07/2019 at 08:25, I'm Brian said:

Hi brother.

My sister took it seriously for a while and discovered the Duke of Hamilton or Bothwell or some other nob around that area had a liking for banging the servant girls back in the day. So I am descended from the illegitimate child of some Duke. It was pretty well hushed up apparently

I imagine that kind of thing will be quite a common occurrence

 

More likely that the servant girl was generous to all the boys and was already impregnated by some stable boy by the time the Duke had a shottie. But the Duke wasn't to know and paid her off just in case.