Scotlands People Charges

[Paulc]

Apologies if this subject has been covered before, but I've only recently started posting on here, but is it just me, or does anybody else think that the charges on the scotlands people site seem very excessive compared to many other sites. I have a number of searches to do, but feel that it will be rather excessive to use this site.

[champagnegal]

I for one have no problems paying the scotlands people charges, so much information is on the certificates, so much better than the English certificates.

[herky]

I think the best policy is to try to narrow things down 1st by using the IGI at family search, if you can. Freecen can also help.
The credits can run away if you have a common name but careful research of area, age etc can help to narrow things down.
The information on a Scottish cert is very good (the SP site will give more info).
Also remember that the cheapest English cert is £7 but you could buy many more in Scotland plus the possibility that more than one entry is a family member on the same page of certs.
Just in case, why not give us some names as you never know we may be able to help.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Oooh, no, I don't think SP is expensive at all, compared with English research!

You can, if you search cleverly, narrow things down till you are almost sure you have the correct cert before you buy. You cannot do that with English bmd certs.

OC

[Paulc]

Hi,
Thanks for the advice. As a typical example I would be looking for a John Kirk Jack born in Kilmarnock in 1915 (+/- 1 year). How easy would it be to find him and how quickly would I be using the credits to achieve this bearing in mind this is one search for one person? If you consider Ancestry at the moment offers unlimited researches for the year for £41.
Thanks,
Paul

[herky]

Your main problem here is this person is too recent.

There is only one John Kirk Jack b Ayrshire in the period 1910 - 1920 - to allow for a few years either way.
The problem is that with a 100 year privacy rule for births you wouldn't get this cert on-line anyway and would have to send for it.
Another way would be to look for his death - if he died before 1958 then his death cert would be available. However I don't see his death with the full name. Probably too many without the middle name.

Just had another thought - it is a fairly unusual name combination, and i don't usually make leap frogs across generations BUT - if you do a search on SP for John Kirk Jack - for the whole period there are only 3 in total - 2 in Ayrshire and 1 outside.

Here they are -

JKJ - 1888, Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, 598/00 0079 - this one is available on-lone
JKJ - 1915. Riccarton, Ayrshire
JKJ - , poss still living, (details deleted as could be living)
The last 2 are too recent to be viewed on line.

Do you think that this could all be part of the same family?

Sorry if I am not much help but I will keep thinking.

Do you live near Edinburgh? A full day search at New Register House only costs £10 for the day.

[Paulc]

John Kirk Jack in Ayrshire in 1915 (He died in 1966 in Essex.) is a possibility also his father was another John Kirk Jack but I have no other information on him, but this would fit the 1888 birth and would fit the father and son. Unfortunately I live in Cheshire, a bit too far from Edinburgh.

Thanks for all your help.

[herky]

The 1888 birth is on-line and this would give the parents names and the date of their marriage and the mother's maiden name - all for 6 credits, 30 credits cost £6 so pretty cheap to get back a generation and all the information.

[Paulc]

yes it doesnt seem so bad now when you point that out, im still a little bit green to all of this, scotland is a new area of research for me

[Dancing Sheila]

Paul, have you noticed you are this week's winner on WDWTYR?

[herky]

My only reservation about all this is about progressing to the 1888 generation without establishing the 1915 for certain. It is something I would personally never do so in the end of the day you may have to purchase the 1915 cert - oh UNLESS you have a sibling (one that you are certain about) that has a birth prior to 1908 and you could look at that.
I usually go to Edinburgh at the end of the year - if you are still stuck then feel free to mail me in November and remind me of all this and I will have a look.
Perhaps someone else will manage before me.

[herky]

Oh congratulations Paul - lucky you.:D

[Olde Crone Holden]

Paulc

You cannot really compare Ancestry and SP.

Yes, you can do unlimited searches on Ancestry for a year's sub - but you cannot view certs on-line, and Ancestry do not have Scottish bmds anyway.

As Herky says, with something as recent as 1915, you cannot see the cert online at SP either, so you will just have to bite the bullet and order the certificate.

If you get his marriage cert then you can use his father's name as a checkpoint when you order.

Also - have a look at our WIKI and see if there is anyone willing to do lookups at New Register House.

OC

[Joy Dean]

At someone's suggestion, I found the marriage of my great-grandmother's sister in Glasgow; wonderful, it was.

Why they went from Galway to marry, I shall never know

[BEARGER]

Apologies if this subject has been covered before, but I've only recently started posting on here, but is it just me, or does anybody else think that the charges on the scotlands people site seem very excessive compared to many other sites. I have a number of searches to do, but feel that it will be rather excessive to use this site.

If you don't do your original research it can be easy to just click away hoping you have the right person. I know I've done this on a few times myself.

[Olde Crone Holden]

I started my Scottish side on 1st January 2006 and had got it back to the late 1700s by the 5th of January, lol!

I too wasted a lot of credits by trying to use SP census to "jump the gun" and work out who married who. I quickly learned that for ME that was a waste of money - their names were too common.

I did it the "proper" way, getting death certs, marriage certs and birth certs and then going back to the previous generation.

I also took out a month's sub to Ancestry and used that to find them on the census (no mean task, Ancestry's Scottish census transcriptions are absolutely diabolical) and then used SP to download the image without wasting any credits.

I increased my tree by over 300 names - not all direct descendants but sibs etc as well, for a total cost of about £100-£150. English research would have cost £700-£1000 and taken months, if not years.

I am left with one insurmountable brick wall - a surname never heard either before or since. I need to gather my strength (and some money too, lol) and I will then tackle the pre-1800s, although I struck lucky with one line whose church records are on Familysearch back to the early 1600s.

To be perfectly honest, the speed at which I did this almost felt like cheating - the urge to download "just one more cert" was irresistable and at the end of the five days I felt what can only be described as genealogical indigestion!

However, I learned so much about my Scottish ancestors and I was absolutely amazed to find they were not the collection of drunken sots my mother had said they were, but were fine upstanding people and respected tradesmen.

One of my 4 x GGMs was widowed three times, brought up nine children, then brought up untold numbers of grandchildren and at the age of 93 was still climbing 120 stone steps everyday to light the Torrie beacon - she was lighthousekeeper. She died at the age of 97 of "old age" lol.

OC

[herky]

What a wonderful story OC.You must be very proud of your lighthouse keeper granny (4X).
I agree totally - you have to get the certs before you can move on.
When I started on MY family it was all new and took time.
Then I decided to have a go at hubby's family (mostly Aberdeenshire and an unusual name) - well, by this time I knew what I was doing and progressed really quickly in just one week. One week is about the time it would take to get one English/Welsh BMD cert.
I am now at the difficult stage despite my annual visits to New Reg House in Edinburgh but at least my tree has a fairly stable base with lots of certs.
I just love it if someone asks me to have a go at their tree from scratch but that doesn't happen too often. it is great to have a new challenge.
Just going off topic a little - last year when I was staying in a old mill cottage on holiday I decided to research it prior to my holiday using the censuses - it was just great to stay in the cottage knowing about the family and all their children and that dad was a shoemaker after leaving the mill etc I was tempted to leave my research in the cottage for others to view but I chickened out just in case I had made errors (this was highly unlikely as the street was in a small village and had a very unusual name). I just wish now that I had left it for the people who let the holiday cottage.
Sorry, I am now rambling - bad habit of mine.

OC - I am in Aberdeen fairly often so if you need anything re your relative let me know.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Herky

By one of those really odd coincidences, I was talking to an old friend last week, who mentioned she had just had a week in Scotland (she has no connections there). I asked her where she went and she said "oh, we rented a cottage in a little place called Buckie, you won't have heard of it"

Um, well, actually, I HAVE heard of it...and the cottage too. It was where one of my 3 x GGFs was born and grew up!

If you EVER come across any mention of the name SMEAKIN, anywhere, I shall be delighted to hear about it!

OC

[herky]

A very unusual name and not one I have heard of before.
I have heard of Smeaton but not Smeakin.
But I will certainly keep my eyes open for it.
What wonderful names we come across and funnily enough it would appear that it is easier with unusual names but it is not always the case. Perhaps this name was changed after a few generations.
Some people I know have family that changed their name to something totally different in the middle of the 1800s.
Are your Smeakins from the North east of Scotland?

[Olde Crone Holden]

Herky

Too right it is an unusual name, lol! I have tried many possible variations - Smeecham, Smechum, Meakins etc but nothing ever comes up except this one family.

They married in Berwick but had settled in Nigg by 1841. They only had daughters, so the name died out.

What makes it super-infuriating is that one of their daughters was born in 1855 which makes her birth cert a goldmine of information. The mother died the same year and her cert too is very detailed, saying "Born Berwick on Tweed but lived Nigg these last 39 years".

However, I must remember in compensation, all my Scottish relatives with surnames as middle names - makes tracing them SOOOOO easy!

OC