Trying to trace my family tree . Any idea of the best way to trace Irish and Scottish ancestors?

Question

Trying to trace my family tree . Any idea of the best way to trace Irish and Scottish ancestors?

Answer 1

There are websites that have family details on the

Ancestry.com

Answer 2

There's a new guide for researching just that topic available for free on familysearch.org

Answer 3

Scotland is pretty much a monopoly at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.  Ancestry have some Scottish things indexed, but the actual images of the certificates and census can only be viewed at the official government site or in person at New Register House in Edinburgh.

Irish genealogy is a complete minefield.  Most of the good early stuff was destroyed (either deliberately by the government or accidentally in a huge fire in Dublin in 1922), and not a lot of any use is online.  You have to apply through either Belfast or Dublin depending on whether it is North or South Ireland or before or after independence.  I've never had course to try and order an Irish Birth/Marriage or Death certificate yet so I don't know how easy or hard it is to get one.  The indexes certainly aren't as freely available as the English, Welsh and Scottish ones.