RootsChat.Com
Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Topic started by: harrisj on Thursday 23 June 16 07:18 BST (UK)
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All my ancestors are Scots. I think my searching will be limited to great great grandparents. Further back is too remote.
just spent £14 on Scotlandspeople in an hour for little reward, very little. Now feeling I shouldnt have.
anybody get tose waste of money moments?
Johann
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In my limited eperience Scotlands Poeple is good value for money. Hes, there are times when I get no results or the results are the wrong people, but generslly I love the site.
Have you tried looking on Familysearch first, then using that information to get the record from SP? Familysearch don't have everything of course, but you can get lucky.
You could also ask for assistance from rootschatters who may be able to steer you in the right direction before you use your credits.
This is a long thread, but it is probably worth reading as it gives lots of hints and tips:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=562668.0
Good luck.
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Just 14 pounds, lol. I live on the other side of the world and each time paid triple that each time.
Best way to save money, get experienced people on here to help narrow down your search field. This will save you credits.
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Thanks both. I had IGI and Freecen open at same time. Followed the search guidance you mentioned. Och weil
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anybody get tose waste of money moments?
Johann
Yes, in the beginning I did, but there are times like Ruskie has said, no results or wrong people. Please don't let the money moments with no results put you off ... we have all been there and learn from experience on how to get results, and the Rootchatters on here are great to learn from.
Cheers
KHP
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I'm lucky to live in Scotland so I save up my searches and visit a Scotland's People Centre for the day. There, for £15 I can view as many pages of search results and images as I can fit in for the day making it very cost effective. Especially so when searching for a David Smith.
My advice for people who have to rely on the website is to start their search as broad as possible to allow for location and spellings from being slightly out. However look at the number of results before clicking to use a credit. If there are a lot of results (more than 2 or preferably if more than 1 page) gradually narrow down the search parameters before selecting to view results.
Another tip I have is that registration district borders vary and an event may be registered in one place but for example but named as another as place of marriage on birth certificate of children or on census so have a map handy when searching to compare locations. while in England an event must be registered at the registration district where the event occurred in Scotland it can be registered at either the registration district it occurred or the one where the person was ordinarily resident. For example, my Dad died after being transferred to a hospital in Glasgow but his death was registered in the registry office that covers our village and shows up as such in the search results page. So keep this in mind when searching.
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thanks to all for replies and suggestions.
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On the link I provided it is suggested that even if you narrow down a search to one or two possibles, you might as well get a whole page of results as it still costs you one credit.
Makes sense I suppose.
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On the link I provided it is suggested that even if you narrow down a search to one or two possibles, you might as well get a whole page of results as it still costs you one credit.
Makes sense I suppose.
That's why I start wide and then narrow down until you get 1 or 2 pages of results, sometimes you find other relatives that way.
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Johann, the majority of my ancestry is Scottish and I thank the stars it is as their records are fantastic. I have two lines back to the 1600's, one mainly by my own efforts and one mainly with the help of a friend on here. However in both cases I would never have done it without RootsChat and will echo KHP's advice and say put any questions you have to the great researchers on here, they will be glad to help and point you in the right direction as we have all at one time been where you are now.
I will add however, research will cost, but the journey makes it worth it.
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Ancestry UK has the transcripts of Scottish census, marriages etc.
I traced the records of family members that I was sure were correct, then paid for credits on Scotlands People to buy the images I really wanted.
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thanks for your posts. Good advice.
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I started my genealogical research in the early 1980s when you had to go to Register House in person, queueing outside on the steps in the morning waiting for the doors to open, then all the hassle of looking up big heavy indexes, putting your name down on the clipboard to be taken into the stack by a grim-faced attendant who watched you like a hawk to make sure you didn't tear pages out of precious registers. Sometimes I would risk going upstairs to wind a microfilm onto a reader and look for a lost ancestor while I waited my turn downstairs, hoping I'd get down to the ground floor again before my name was called out. And although you had paid to research until 4.30, by about 4.15 the attendants were already putting covers over the microfilm readers and clearing their throats ominously, meaning 'go home so we can lock up!'
All of which is a long-winded way of saying, it's great to be able to sit at home at your own computer spending Scotlandspeople credits like a drunken sailor on shore leave blowing his wages. Not only is it dead easy and relatively cheap - facilities like "fuzzy matching" and "wild card" enable you to widen the parameters of your search and you can find out so much in such a short time. But of course the golden rule still applies, that you should come to the search having gathered as much information as you can in advance, from headstones, elderly relatives, etc. so that you don't inadvertently end up researching someone else's ancestor Joe Bloggs and not your own!
Harry
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SP will only give you results from the info you input
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Scotland's People one of the best sites to use so much information on certificates and as pharma said even better to use Scotland People centre £15.00 for a full day search
Rosie
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Thanks for the memory hdw. Those were the days!
Isobel
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RCer's will agree, take advantage of when SP gives you 20 free credits, it is not often, but it does help, when you are down to just one credit, and have found (just maybe) that elusive name you have been looking for.
Cheers
KHP