Home > Uniquely Unspoilt Magazine > Issue 23 > Roots
~~ Going Back to Your Roots ~~
There are 28 million people of Scottish descent worldwide, more and more of whom are tracing their family history using the vast range of increasingly accessible resources. So how can you find out more about your ancestors - and discover once and for all if you're a distant relative of Robert the Bruce or Rob Roy?
How to get started
Internet searches are an excellent place to start, with websites like Scotland's People, the official government source of genealogical data for Scotland, which has almost 50 million records to access.
These even include documents like wills and testaments or census extracts for famous Scots like Robert Burns and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Another useful site is Ancestral Scotland which has various means of investigating your family tree, and you can search by clan name, surname or place name.
Places to visit
Plans have recently been unveiled for a £1.6 million Family History Centre, in Edinburgh. Opening in December 2006, it will be a one-stop-shop for genealogy research bringing together the services of:
In the meantime, there are also specialist centres across Scotland including the Genealogy Centre in St. Andrews or the North Perthshire Family History Group which is located in Moulin Kirk, Pitlochry, Perthshire, and provides access to census records, gravestone inscription and map data.
Information you'll need
A surname will be enough to start a search but it is worth bearing in mind that names are a grey area for several reasons.
Your own name may differ in spelling from that of your ancestors, for example, because, for example, in past centuries many people were illiterate and or the concept of standardised spelling of names was not common practice.
Alternatively, an emigrant may have changed or altered their name on arriving in a new country or the immigration officer may have even simply misheard the name. Furthermore, many people also adopted the name of a clan chief without actually being a blood relative.
Origins of surnames
There are some guidelines, however, as a Scot's surname can derive from the father's name, for example Anderson meaning Andrew's son (the Gaelic equivalents begin with Mac or Mc), or occupations like Webster meaning weaver.
Many names were also derived from local places, like Murray, which derives from the region Moray, or Blackhall in Aberdeenshire, and Lachlan was formerly the slang term for a person with Norwegian roots as Norway was known as the "land of the lochs", or Lochlann.
Documents like birth, marriage or death certificates will inevitably come in handy too, as well as things like the family Bible as this was often used to record the dates of major events, and even school reports, graduation documents or photo albums could prove very useful.
Other options
If all else fails, then there's always the option of DNA testing. Several firms now offer this service, and a growing bank of DNA profiles for family names has been established, so this may be the best way to find to get a more definitive answer on your family's origins.
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