Monica Milton Genealogy - Family History Research

27/09/2025

From Scotland, a daily news blog about genealogy, family history and personal heritage.

26/09/2025

DNA testing site, Ancestry.com, has taken legal action to access millions of Scottish family records held by the National Records of Scotland (NRS).

21/09/2025

Can’t wait to go back!

Researching Your Scottish Ancestors at the National Records of Scotland and Saving Money!

Hi ,

If you’re tracing your Scottish roots, you’ve probably used ScotlandsPeople, the website where the National Records of Scotland (NRS) provide access to digital records. But did you know that visiting the NRS in person can save you money and unlock records you won’t find online?

📍 General Register House, 2 Princes Street, Edinburgh is the place to go. Here’s what you’ll find:

🔍 ScotlandsPeople Centre (Ground Floor)
For just £7.50 (half day) or £15 (full day), you can view unlimited birth, marriage, death, census and church records. These images aren’t automatically saved to your online account, but if you find something important, you can choose to pay and add it to your account later. This flexibility is especially useful if you’re searching for a common name like John Smith or working through a long list of possibilities. You can also view modern certificates that aren’t available online. Compared to paying per image, it’s excellent value.

📚 Digital Archive Search Room (Upstairs)
Here you can access the prison registers, wills and testaments and valuation rolls which are on ScotlandsPeople. These are free to view along with other digitised records, such as sasines, maps and plans.

📜 Historical Search Room (Also Upstairs)
This is where you can view original records: estate papers, deeds, court records, and more. If you’ve used our indexes for mental health or prison records, this is where you can see the full documents. The Historical Search Room is also free to access.
Even if you live too far away to visit regularly, it’s worth planning a trip. The NRS is a treasure trove for family historians and a brilliant way to stretch your research budget.

05/09/2025

Many Scottish families - but not all! - followed a traditional naming pattern, well into the 19th century at least.

Knowing about the pattern won’t always help you to identify entries you’re looking for, but it can still be very helpful, particularly with older records.

06/08/2025

I am looking for 2 or 3 people who would like their family tree researched.

For one family name £60 instead of £200
For two family names £100 instead of £350

I do ask that once I complete the research and report that you can provide feedback that I am able to use on my page.

If you are interested please drop me a message

Thank you!

27/07/2025

Many names that would strike people as traditionally Scottish originate from France.

Bruce, Bissett, Boyle, Corbett, Gifford, Hay, Fraser?

All Norman names, appearing in Scotland from the 12th century.

Find out more about Scottish surnames 👇

bit.ly/SurnamesSP

16/07/2025

Have you ever wanted to know the history of your surname

Many common surnames are derived from an ancestor’s trade.

“Baxter” comes from “Baker”, “Stewart” from “steward” and all of “Cordiner,” Soutar” and “Grassick” meant “shoemaker”.

Find out more about Scottish surnames

bit.ly/SurnamesSP