Genealogy is a hot hobby these days; every other person seems to be looking into the history of their family. The first place to start looking into your ancestry is to talk to your parents and grandparents while you can and to find out all you can from them. After that you can get a lot of information from various genealogical sites on the Internet. There are many places to start your research on the Internet; some are free, and some are not. Especially if you live overseas, starting research on the Internet is the cheapest and best way to go.
I have found that Scotland's People is one of the best places to visit when you are looking for documents relating to your Scottish ancestors. It is “the official government source of geological data for Scotland.” There are over 80 million records contained in the Scotland's People database. You can search statutory registers such as births, death and marriages from 1855 to 2006. You can also search old parish records, census records, wills and testaments, and Catholic registers.
You don’t have to subscribe to Scotland's People but you do have to register in order to search. But, unlike sites such as Ancestry.com, you do not have to pay a monthly fee to access the database. You can search the records for free but to access them you must buy credits at thirty for £6. To see what your search found costs one credit, to view the documents (if they are available) costs five credits and if you wish to order paper copies that is a further charge. I have searched the system quite a bit and got a copy of my grandmother's marriage license for a reasonable price; census data has also helped me to move back a couple of generations in my family tree. My genealogical research got a huge boost when I used them.
When you start off your genealogy search for Scottish ancestry you can first start with many free sites that include census records and church records; they will certainly get you started in the right direction. However, if you want to see the legal documents and get copies of them, you need to use a site like Scotland’s People. Owning copies of, or original documents, is vital in writing your family tree.
