Tracing your ancestry

Finding your ancestors in Scotland can be tricky business, especially if you’re not based in or live in the country. Fortunately, plenty of institutions, both on and offline are set up to help you in your quest. The first place to turn is the National Records of Scotland, they’ll be able to help you with the most basic of requests and if the information is easily available, they’ll find it.

Of course, in many cases, you’ll have to look a little bit further afield for the information. The more background information you’re able to gather, the easier it will be. This list of towns and cities in Scotland makes an excellent place to start since it will give you a basic idea about what you’re looking for and information about the local authority you’ll want to contact for any town. If possible, do a little bit of your own family research by asking questions of relatives or others who might know a few details of your family’s history that you don’t. Useful questions can. Include

• The parts of a town that they lived in,
• When they left Scotland (if you know that they did) to go and live elsewhere,
• Whether they left any relatives or family behind in Scotland,
• How old they were when they left,
• What port they sailed from,

The last question may not seem that obvious but it’s one of the most pertinent things that you can ask. The UK’s National Archives service keeps lists of almost all long-distance passengers who left from UK shores during periods of mass emigration. Unfortunately, many passengers chose to travel under new or false names as well as adopted different names when they arrived in their new country – this can sometimes make tracing details from these passenger lists more difficult than it otherwise would be.

Of course, in many circumstances, you’ll eventually want to visit Scotland yourself to continue the search and to learn more about your heritage and culture. Of course, the weather in Scotland can be very variable – so it’s well worth checking out a reliable weather forecast before you visit. You may also want to consider whether one of these raincoats for women should be part of your packing list.

Once you arrive, you’ll want to have a plan for where to go in the country. Outside of the central belt, where most of Scotland’s big cities are, public transport is poor, so you’ll almost certainly want to hire a car and bring a friend with you who can if you don’t.

Tracing your Scottish ancestry can be a very rewarding experience – although you should be prepared for the odd setback. We wish you the best of luck in your search.