Scottish BMD records....where to start..help please!

[chinamonkey]

Hello all,

Im new to this site and to researching the family tree. I have hit a hurdle from the beginning! It turns out scottish records are a nightmare to access.

Can any one help me?

My great grandfather, William Lang, was married on 10 Feb 1922 in Bothwell, Lanarkshire to Margaret Youngson. After this he moved to Newcastle (according to my mum) and had My Grandfather John (2 June 1922).

Im trying to find a date of birth for William so I can start my search...

Can any one help? Im completely confused about accessing scottish records and it seems so expensive! Im at the end of my maternity leave so money is super tight! I have tried freeBMD and all sorts of other apparently free sites but William Lang is a veeeeeerrrrry popular name in scotland!

Any help, pointer or advice would be VERY much appreciated!

Thanks

Alex
xx

[PhotoFamily]

I believe the experts will tell you: the next step would be to buy the marriage record. Civil Reg record should give you the bride and groom's parents' names. One record, four new ancestors. Sounds like a good deal!

[Olde Crone Holden]

I agree. You will have to buy the marriage cert in order to get the names of his parents (and his wife's parents). Once you have done this, Scottish records are very cheap compared with English records and are immediately acessible on SP.

Don't forget the good old IGI (familysearch) which has a lot of extracted Scottish records.

OC

[herky]

Scottish birth records are very very cheap - less than £1.50 for an instant record you can download from the net.
The problem that sometimes occurs is that, with a common name, you will have to narrow the options down so you know you are going for the correct cert and not waste money on many wrong ones.
The site to use is "Scotlands people".
60 credits cost £7. It costs 1 credit to view a list of up to 25 indexes and 5 credits to view the cert which you can download and print off.

I would not have thought a Lang/Youngson marriage to be names that would be common in combination and in checking - without costing anything on SP - there are only 2 such marriages for the whole of Scotland for the whole registration period. Adding on the date you give plus Bothwell and there is one hit which should be yours.
For £7 you will be able to get this cert and probably the certs of their parents.
Let me know how you get on and good luck

Edit - OC and PhotoFamily are correct - the marriage cert will have the parents names and the maiden names of both mothers.
It would be really well worth getting this cert to start you on your way. Let me know if you need any help on the Scottish side.

[stevie2006]

Hi I had a few credits left and found the marriage on February 10th 1922. The parents were listed as John Lang (Coalminer) and Marion McAuley (deceased) and the other parents were James Youngson (coalminer) and Catherine Taylor (also deceased). PM me your email address and I will send you the image.

I also found his birth as 26th March 1895 in Hamilton and on the extract it gives his parents marriage as November 19th 1880 in Hamilton

Steven

[chinamonkey]

Thank you so much for all your help!

Ive not registered for the scotlands people site yet as i have been reluctant as im a little confused as to how the credits work....

If i do a search and the results list comes up...if i click on a name/date does that cost me a credit? or does it give me enough detail to know its the correct record and then i can click for more info and THEN cost me a credit?

Thanks again everyone!

Alex

[stevie2006]

A search costs nothing but to view the possible matches costs 1 credit per page and to view an image costs 5 credits. It can cost a wee but depending on how large your tree is but well worth it I think as the extracts can give you loads of information

Worth registering and even making a start and see how you get on. The next stage would be obtaining the marriage of he parents I mentioned as that will give you another generation further back

Good luck

Steven

[herky]

Hi,
You will have to spend credits to get results but in your case the chance of a correct hit is almost certain and in fact Steven has kindly proven that for you.

Looking at the results Steven got....................I have had a look.............now there isn't a match for a John Lang and Marion Mcauley.................however Marion is a name that could have variations...............I omitted the first name all together of Marion and got only one result...........she turns up as Maria Mcauley. The marriage was in 1880 in Hamilton. That marriage cert would get you another generation back.

Another way to help narrow marriages down is on a child's birth cert. in Scotland, for most years, a birth cert includes the date and place of the parents marriage as well as all the other details. Now this is backed up by Stevens information - he got the info from I child's cert and I got it from searching SP for a marriage. ( This was made a lot easier due to the fact that the name combination was not that common).This is particularly handy if, say, a couple married outwith the country. I have one Scots marriage that I couldn't find and it turned out that they spent a few years in the USA where they married but none of the children or the couple were were born outwith the UK so it would never have shown up in a census.

The credits work as follows.........do your search and it will tell you how many matches you have and that you need to spend one credit to view the list of matches. This will then give a little information, eg the Lang marriage gave the following details

"1880 LANG JOHN MCAULEY MARIA HAMILTON LANARK 647/00 0167"

At the end of the line of info it will ask if you want to spend 5 credits to view the image - it will say "VIEW 5 CREDITS" - just click on that to see the image whick you can save and print out.

[herky]

I have had a look at a census - 1881, just after the marriage and came up with an interesting one.
I would certainly get the cert though as it would be such a shame to go along the wrong line.
However..............I saw this census which I thought may well be your couple......let me know what you think.

1881 census, Bent Rows Hamilton
John Lang born c 1857, Glasgow, Coal miner
Maria Lang, bc 1862 Gibrlter
James Mcauley bcc 1866 Lodger - now although this is a lodger, it could well be a relative given the name.

1891 census, the couple now have 3 children and Maria is listed as from Malta, British Subject.

1901 census, as before but now 6 children, including a William c 1896

[chinamonkey]

Hi Herky,

Thanks for that, Steven kindly sent me the certificate for william and margaret so will get the certificate for Maria and John Lang.

Thanks so much for all your help! I have already found one distant relative on here!!

Alex
xx

[Youngson]

Hi chinamonkey

Bent Rows was in the Bothwellhaugh if that helps you any. Also you can research Bothwellhaugh online (it was a mining community) There are some census available on the website also the name Lang appears on the website.

Youngson

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

And the mining/social history side of things might lead you to the mining museum I volunteer at, there are no family history records available but there is a huge resource detailing the mines and the working lives of the men, women and children along with accident reports, images and reports etc. A new website is due soon but resources and contact details can be found at www.scottishminingmuseum.com