keep an open mind How successful you are in researching your ancestry is determined by a number of factors, many of which are outwith your control, for instance: the survival of records; how common your surname was; your family's mobility; their social status; the level of literacy; and errors of transcription.
However, success can also depend on your own tenacity, keeping an open mind and not taking anything for granted, by being methodical, approaching problems from more than one angle, and corroborating any evidence you may find.
documents and photographs Most families can lay their hands on old documents or photographs, which can be of use to the family historian. Examples of things you might find are:
birth, marriage or death certificates, obituaries, family Bibles, school leaving certificates, apprenticeship papers, university/ college graduation certificates and awards, military service records, business papers, immigration papers, diaries, address books, birthday books, letters, postcards, newspaper cuttings and memoirs.
Old photographs may jog the memory of an elderly relative, and it is important to ask them to identify as many faces as possible, since there may be nobody else who is able to do so. Any information that can be gleaned from within the family can help to establish a foundation on which to build your own history.
What do you want to achieve?
Before you begin your research, it is a good idea to focus on what you want to achieve. Do you wish to pursue the paternal (male) line, with its continuity of surname, or the maternal (female) line, or perhaps even verify a family legend? You may find that the decision is made for you if the research proves difficult, but if you decide to pursue more than one family line, always file the results separately to avoid confusion.
Begin at home The golden rule in family history research is to try to work backwards from what you already know. As such, family history truly does begin at home. You may be surprised at how much you already know or have access to within your own extended family. It is not necessary to have a lot of detail to start with, but it makes sense to log whatever information is readily available and to seek out further details from living relatives.
Start With Yourself Begin by recording your own details - date and place of birth, marriage, spouse, children - then the details of parents, grandparents, and so on, as you recall them.
Living Relatives and Anecdotal Evidence Relatives, especially elderly ones, can help to fill in the gaps, but be tactful and patient and don't interrogate. Most elderly people are delighted if someone shows an interest in the past, but some subjects - like illegitimacy - may still cause anxiety. There may be lots of anecdotes and perhaps a family legend or two, and while they may not be entirely accurate, they should be noted for later verification.
Get online People researching Scottish ancestry are particularly fortunate because, thanks to websites like ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk, a huge variety of parish registers, civil registrations and Census records are now available via the internet for a small fee. Containing nearly 40 million records, the ScotlandsPeople database is one of the world's largest resources of genealogical information and one of the biggest single information resources on the web.
The site provides a fully searchable index of Scottish births from 1553 to 1903, marriages from 1553 to 1928 and deaths from 1855 to 1953. In addition, indexed Census data is available from 1881 to 1901. To respect privacy of living people, internet access has been limited to birth records over 100 years old, marriage records over 75 years, and death records over 50 years old.
From the results of an index search made on this site you may view, save and print images of many of the original documents, and order extracts of any register entries. Such requests are forwarded automatically to New Register House, and the requested extracts are mailed to you.
ON THE WEBSITE Log on to the internet and visit www.sundayherald.com/genealogy for our online companion to this guide. There you will find a variety of useful links designed to help you with your research. Also available are a host of ready-made genealogical templates and a variety of software tools aimed at making the process of building your family tree as straightforward as possible.
GLOSSARY You may be unfamiliar with some obsolete occupations. Here is a list of some of the more common terms you might come across.
Ag lab: agricultural labourer Annealer: treats metal or glass - or bach: bachelor Baxter: a baker Beadman/bedeman: a licensed beggar Calenderer: operates machine giving cloth a pressed finish Coal grieve: mine overseer Colzear: miner Drover: driver of cattle or sheep to market Drysalter: a dealer in salted or dry meats, pickles and sauces Fencible: militiaman or volunteer soldier called to fight in a local or regional crisis Flesher: butcher Girnalman: a person in charge of a granary or meal store Gutcher/gowcher: grandfather Hecklemaker: flax comb maker Husbandman: tenant of a dwelling and land on an estate Independent: a person who lives without the necessity of working, or help from others Japanner: a person who applies a varnish to furniture Lorimer: maker of metal horse harness parts Loun: boy Mouterer: a miller, person who receives a fee for grinding grain
MS: male servant, maiden surname or merchant service Orraman: a farm odd-job man Outworker: a person engaged in outdoor work Pendicler: the tenant of a pendicle, a small piece of ground forming part of a larger holding or farm, often let out to a sub-tenant Piecer: a person employed to join broken threads in a spinning factory Queyn/quine: a young woman (northeast Scotland) Reeler: put the yarn on to reels in preparation for weaving Residenter: inhabitant, especially one of long standing Rivetter: a person who joins metal plates together with rivets Scrivener: a scribe employed to draw up contracts Seceder: a member of the Secession Church, which broke away from the Established Church in 1733 Tapsman: a head servant; the person in charge of a drove Tenter: a mechanic who repairs power looms Wadsetter: a person enjoying the use and tenure of part of a landowner's estate under a mortgage arrangement Winder: a person who windsthe warp thread from bobbinson to large spools, or theweft thread on to cops, in preparation for weaving
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