Ancestral Roots Genealogy

20/10/2022

My website is currently offline, but you can message me on this page meantime.
Thanks

14/01/2021

Love it when you get an 1855 record. So much fantastic info.

If you’re just starting out researching your family history, a good reference point is the year 1855 – what professional researchers in Scotland call “the golden year”.

1855 was the first year of compulsory registration and far more information about each person registered was recorded that year than has been since.

In addition to the information you’ll find in entries from later years, ones from 1855 include the following information on birth records:

- Names of other children and whether they were living or deceased
- Ages of both parents
- Birthplaces of both parents
- Parents’ usual residence
- Baptismal name (if different)

Because of these additional fields, entries from 1855 cover two pages.

They’re especially valuable to researchers and they can help you to add foliage to your family tree by identifying twigs and branches you might otherwise have missed.

This example image shows entries 11 to 15 from the 1855 statutory register of births for Cruden in the parish of Aberdeen. (Ref. 1855/185/11-15)

1855 wasn’t just a golden year for birth entries however – further information was also recorded for marriage entries (birthplace, and when/where registered; number of former marriages; number of children by those marriages) and for deaths (Deceased's place of birth; how long resident in the district or parish and children by order of birth, with names and ages).

You can find out more about searching our records and tracing your ancestors at the ScotlandsPeople website, with detailed guidance on all of our record sets.

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides

24/11/2020

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

19/09/2020

17/04/2020

Fancy trying a new hobby during lockdown?

By John Paul Holden

11/12/2019

That's a lot of research. Love it!

20/05/2019

Really enjoyed BBC Scotland's new genealogy show The Generation Frame which tonight featured my fellow Strathclyde University alumni Lorna Kinnaird.

15/05/2019

A colleague of mine will be featuring in this show. Should be really interesting.

'Generation Fame' a new family history programme will be airing on the BBC Scotland channel for 4 weeks beginning Monday 20th May at 8 pm. The programme is WDYTYR for ordinary people and tells the extraordinary stories of their ancestors. We will keep you posted when Glasgow City Archives is set to feature.

24/03/2019

How to use the Genealogical Proof Standard to ensure the accuracy of your own family tree

14/03/2019

Whilst doing some genealogy research we found this entry in the Ardrossan Old Parish Register in 1854. John Miller was registering his family's births but it was then scored out because he refused to pay the session clerk for entering it in the register!

Compulsory Registration was being introduced in Scotland in 1855 and, prior to that, there was no obligation for people to register. Many chose not to, often because they had to pay for it to be entered into the register. However, with the introduction of compulsory registration many decided that they would like to have their births etc registered. 1854 saw an increase in the number of people registering the whole family at one time, just like John did here. However, John clearly did not realise that he still had to pay - how frustrating if this is your ancestors!

09/03/2019

A treasure trove of documents signed by Mary Queen of Scots and revealing the “everyday reality of ruling the country” in the 16th century has been unearthed in a council storage facility on the Royal Mile.

15/01/2019

Wednesday 23rd January 2019 | 6-8pm | 54 Bell Street Coinciding with the exhibition of the same name, Karen Mailley-Watt will tell some of the the stories of ordinary women in Glasgow and what they did during the First World War.