Scotland’s People

[SingaporeSlinky]

I need to find a lot of information for ancestors in Scotland, and I know I need to use Scotland’s People, but I can’t quite get my head around the best way to do this. Is there ever a sale on buying a bulk lot of credits or do I need to bite the bullet and buy a load to begin with?
Also, from what I read, death certificates should have the person’s birth details with parents names on, plus any names the person has previously been known by, so presumably the best value would be to buy those, rather than birth certificates?
Appreciate any advice before I start wasting money. Many thanks.

It's a while since I used it, but I think you can check the indexes free of charge. If you have a confirmed date (year) and an unusual name - or at least, a surname that's not common in a particular parish or county - then you can narrow things down a lot before spending money to view & download the actual certificates. But I don't recall any sales or bulk discounts unfortunately. Also, details on the certificates varied over time. Some of the early ones had more detail than later ones. Good luck.

It can be really expensive. There is no discount for buying in bulk - 40 credits is £10 (so 25p a credit), 160 credits is £40 which also works out at 25p a credit. Searching the indexes is free and MIGHT be enough to determine you have the right person if you are working with a fairly unusual name. Indexes just give the year for the event not the quarter or the date though, so if you are looking for the birth of a Mary McDonald in Lanarkshire in 1870-71 you are going to get 40 possibles (just searched).

The only way of getting it cheaper is to pay for a seat at the Scotland's People centre in Edinburgh, costs £15 a day and you can look at as much as you want, BUT you can't save the images to your account, or take photos of them, or save to a memory stick. It's very frustrating.

One point on death certificates - yes they are supposed to have parents' names, date and place of birth. But it's always important to remember that (obviously) it's not the deceased who is giving that information. If it's a spouse or child then they may be fairly accurate. A nephew/niece, maybe not so much. A random neighbour or friend, pretty useless.

Thank you. Maybe I’ll start fresh in the new year.

They do give away free credits occasionally, but I can’t remember when. Maybe try looking at the website occasionally, like at Hogmanay, for example.

Agree the best way would be to book a day at a centre. You can't take copies so you'll need to take templates with you to record the details you need. There are lots of examples online.