Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 12 on 19/1/2004.

This article is 59 months old and some information provided may be time sensitive. Please check all details of events, tours, opening times and other information before travelling or making arrangements.

Do you have Scottish Ancestry?

If so, there's a website that will allow you to trace your Caledonian heritage and find out exactly where your forefathers came from, and what they did as Martin Vousden reveals

Scotland has exported some wonderful things to the rest of the world – whisky and golf to name but two. But its greatest, and certainly most successful export has probably been its people, with the result that many corners of the globe (if a globe can, indeed, have corners) are now peopled by the descendants of those hardy pioneers.

They sailed to mysterious lands as engineers, military men, administrators and much else besides. The result is that, wherever you live, and especially if you come from the USA or Canada, there’s a good chance that you have Scottish forebears.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that if you try and explore your family tree, you may well end up saying ‘Och’ a lot and giving birth to ginger-haired children.

But if you are prepared to risk it, a genealogical website is now available that, while not making such an undertaking easy, nevertheless gives a great deal of assistance as it offers access to all parish and statutory records of births, deaths, marriages and christenings in Scotland since time immemorial – or at least since records began.

The site is http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk and it is the ‘Official government source of genealogical data for Scotland’.

And whether you love or hate governments and bureaucracies, they do tend, at least, to keep good records. The problem for me undertaking a search like this is that I am not Scottish and neither do I have any Scottish bloodlines in my family - but I do sleep with a woman who does.

S.....

To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue or subscribe to Scotland Magazine to have every issue delivered direct to your door.

By Martin vousden

Section : Scottish Ancestry

Page number : 23