| If you have heard stories of your distant Scottish | | | | site allows you to enter the names of your |
| ancestors and are curious to find out whether | | | | ancestors and it will search its records to see if it |
| you are related to famous Scotsmen such as | | | | can match your ancestor's details. If someone has |
| Sean Connery, Ewan McGregor or Andy Murray | | | | already entered details of your ancestor then it |
| then tracing your Scottish family history is a lot | | | | could provide you with a pedigree chart showing |
| simpler and cheaper than you might think. The | | | | the names of your ancestor's parents and |
| demand for genealogical data has increased | | | | children. |
| significantly over recent years as more and more | | | | The problem with some of the free genealogy |
| people are becoming aware of how easy it is to | | | | sites is that their records may have been entered |
| access genealogical data these days compared to | | | | by incorrectly and therefore even if you do find |
| 10 years ago. No longer do people have to | | | | details of your ancestors it is still worth viewing |
| actually visit Scotland to trace their Scottish | | | | the original birth, marriage and death certificates |
| ancestry instead all they need is access to a | | | | to ensure the details on these match with details |
| computer and hey presto they can view a lot of | | | | shown on other family member's records. |
| their family history records online. | | | | There is nothing worse than identifying someone |
| Sites such as Scotlandspeople allow you to view | | | | as an ancestor and then going off and tracing |
| birth certificates, marriage certificates, death | | | | their ancestry to find out later you have been |
| certificates and census returns which can aid you | | | | tracing the family history of an unrelated person |
| in tracing your family tree. While sites such as | | | | who happened to share the same name as you |
| Scotlandspeople and Ancestry require some form | | | | ancestor and to have lived in the same area. So |
| of payment to view their vast databases these | | | | make sure you double check all the people you |
| costs are significantly lower than the cost of | | | | trace as being related to their family records to |
| actually visiting Scotland if you stay in the USA, | | | | ensure they are in fact related. |
| Canada or Australia and so can be seen to be | | | | Genealogy is an interesting past-time which is |
| relatively cheap. If however you do not want to | | | | becoming more and more popular and as the |
| incur any costs then there are other family | | | | demand increases more and more information will |
| history sites which allow you to view records for | | | | be supplied online and hopefully this competition will |
| free. | | | | bring down the costs still further whilst at the |
| One of the most popular free online genealogy | | | | same time this extra information will make it |
| sites is the FamilySearch site provided by the | | | | easier and easier to trace your ancestors. |
| Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This | | | | |