Tracing your family tree - Where to start?
The first thing to do is simple.
Write down everything you know about you family tree.
Then ask all your family what they know. You will be surprised how much
information you have already. Rough dates and places of birth, marriage and
death can all be useful. You can then start to look for official records.
The way it works in most places is like this.
1. You start with a birth certificate. From this you can see the parents
names and marriage date.
2. You then look up the marriage certificate. On this you can see the age the
couple were when they married. You can then work out the year each of them was
born. The parents names are also on the marriage certificate. So from calculated
date of birth, and parents names, you can look up the birth certificates of
the
couple (Basically go back to step 1). You then repeat this process.
Other useful documents are death certificates from which you can work back to birth certificates.
There are also lots of other avenues to follow such as census records which can detail all the members of a family and ages.
Luckily lots of this info is now on the internet. If your search is in Scotland you can use the General Register house records as detailed in the links below
Scottish Genealogy Society A good starting point
General Register House Where Scottish records are kept
Searching Service run by Dr Brian Thomson Also has good links
There are also lots of good books to help you. I recommend:-
Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry by Kathleen B. Cory.................ISBN 0-7486-6054-2
Tracing your Scottish Ancestors by Scottish Record Office.....ISBN 0-11-494118-1
If you need more help, please email me..
Also, let me know how you get on,
Good Luck,
Robin