I'm Scottish on both sides of my family...........?

Question

I'm in the US and was wondering if anyone has idea's for how to trace my ancestors?

Thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

You could try this excellent  site it's  dedicated to Scotland, http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

hope this helps.

Answer 2

Scotland's people  excellent site

Answer 3

So, both of your parents were born in Scotland?  Both have UK citizenship?  If the answer to these quetions is no, then sadly you can't say you have Scottish on both sides of your family.  You are American, that's how it is.  I for instance have on my Mum's side Irish ancestry.  This doesn't make me Irish though, I am as Scottish as they come.

If you do have definitive proof tha you are in some way connected to Scotland you could always try various parish registers etc.  You can see this information at:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/

Don't know how much it would cost though.

Answer 4

This website is very good. It lets you look up some stuff free, but I suppose if you were really keen you could pay for using the whole site. Good luck.

http://www.ancestry.co.uk/

Answer 5

try genes reunited its a good website

Answer 6

Genes reunited

Answer 7

Start with yourself and work back, one generation at a time.  Don't try to get into Scottish records before you get all the information on your family in the U.S.

Interview family members, particularly old folks like me.  Tape them if they will let you. It might turn out they are confused on some things but what might seem to be insignificant story telling might turn out to be very significant.  

Find out if any family has any old family bibles. Ask to see and make copies of birth, marriage and death certificates.  Depending on the religious faith, baptismal, first communion, confirmation, marriage certificates can be helpful.

Once you get as much information from your family, then go to your public library and find out what all they have. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com you can use.  Ancestry.Com has all the U.S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet.  They also have U. K. censuses.

Don't take as absolute fact everything you see in family trees on ANY website, free or paid. The information is subscriber submitted and mostly not documented. Even when you see the same information repeatedly by many different subscribers on the same people, that is no guarantee at all it is correct. A lot of people copy without verifying.  The information can be useful as clues as to where to get the documentation.

A Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church has records on people all over the world, not just Mormons.

They are free to use.  You just need to call them or visit their free website at FamilySearch.org to find out their hours for the general public.  

In Salt Lake City, they have the world's largest genealogical collection. Their Family History Centers can order microfilm for you to view at a nominal fee.  

I have never had them to try and convert me or send their missionaries by to ring my doorbell.  They are just very nice and helpful.

Now, I don't know if your Scottish ancestors were colonials that were here before the nation was established or immigrants that came after the nation was established.  It is possible, they were both.  

The National Archives in Washington, D.C. has lots of records that can be helpful in tracing immigrant ancestors.

Answer 8

---First of all, both Scots in the Auld Country and descendants of Scots in the Colonies* should get as much primary information as possible from family bibles, letters, wills, and other primary source records as well as United States, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, or United Kingdom Censuses.  For Americans, this should with any luck take the researcher back to at least 1850, at which point the census takers list all family members rather than just heads of families.  US Census records are available at most university reference libraries as well as many public libraries in the government document section.  Remember that it's important to know as much as you possibly can before taking as gospel information found in online web sites, including Ancestry.com.  

---If you can venture back to the mid-19th century, this should also tell you just where your family members originally settled after they immigrated.  For example, I've found that many of my ancestors originally lived in the Cape Fear area of North Carolina (a hot spot for early Scottish settlement).   You'll also most likely find (if your ancestors are like mine) that many Americans of Scottish descent seem to have moved across the Continent in family groups, primarily marrying others with Scottish surnames.  

---In my case, most Highland Scots came either slightly before the American Revolution or around 1800 (about the time that the Napoleonic Wars were occasioning the draft of troops from the Highlands), although I have found documentation of distant relatives coming to the United States up through most of the 19th century.  Lowland Scots and the Ulster (Scots-) Irish usually will usually have immigrated slightly earlier [from about 1730 onwards].  If Daughters of the American Revolution membership in your family are few and far between, your ancestors may have been Loyalists (as most Scots were).   Most Scots-Irish, however, sided with George Washington rather than George III.  

---Splurge and take out a membership in Ancestry.com, but at the same time, don't forget online family message boards and clan genealogy services where if you officially join a clan, you are asked to submit your genealogy.  The Internet will also allow you to access information from clan members all over the world.  

---Understand that you may not be able to trace some fairly common names like MacDonald, Henderson, or Johnston any further back than about 1800.   For example, I've traced two lines of my paternal grandmother's family back to Archibald McDonald and Margaret Duncan (born in Moore County, North Carolina in 1798 and 1800 respectively) and to a Sophia Tait (born in Georgia in 1815) and hit a brick wall.  

---Then again, continue to surf various message boards because  you might come up with some answers.  Nancy McLachlan, a maternal ancestor who died  in Alabama in 1838, for instance, immigrated from Argyll, Scotland,  around 1790.  Her grandfather, Christian, fought and died at the Battle of Culloden, and her great grandfather, Daniel, was a Church of Scotland minister--information that has just surfaced within the last month. (I'm still working on the identity of Nancy's husband, a John Henderson).

---Now that you've crossed the Pond back to Scotland, you may run into trouble.  Again to take a personal example, (another maternal ancestor), a John Macquarrie, who (again) fought at the Battle of Culloden, and who was transported to the Colonies in 1747--John had a paternal grandfather surnamed McKinnon.  The Macquarrie genealogist doesn't have an explanation for this name change, but it's not the only surname change I've come across. Of course, in the US, "Mac" names often shorten to "Mc" within a generation or two after immigrating.

Oh, in contrast to the relatively incomplete Highland parish records that usually don't go back much beyond 1700, baptismal records in Lowland Scotland extend back to the High Middle Ages, so you might be able to trace some branches of your family tree to the 14th or 15th century.  Since most given names tend to repeat themselves (the first son named for the paternal  grandfather, the second son for the maternal grandfather, and the third son named for the father), it's fairly easy to trace family relationships.

Good Luck!  Tracing family history is a fascinating hobby.

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*Incidentally, Jock, I've run across both Canadian and American records of descendants of Scots which list their ethnic identity as Scottish.

Answer 9

I don't know but I bet your a right tight ****.