waste of money and tìme - Scotlandspeople

[harrisj]

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

[Ruskie]

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.

[whiteout7]

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.

[harrisj]

Thanks both. I had IGI and Freecen open at same time. Followed the search guidance you mentioned. Och weil

[kiwihalfpint]

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

[pharmaT]

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.

[harrisj]

thanks to all for replies and suggestions.

[Ruskie]

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.

[pharmaT]

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.