Genealogy Chat

Here's my two bobs worth.I am Scottish with mainly Scottish -a few stray English, more Irish & living in England. I love SP once I learned how to use it(when all else fails read the instructions!) I managed to find people I had searched for for years in minutes on SP. I have spent numero money-couldn't put a figure on it & I usually have some credits there. Any problems reading images,wrongly indexed have recieved a prompt reply with usually a paper copy within 2/3 days plus the refund of my credits. In contrast my few foraries into the English BMD has sent me little result for lots of money-good grief you even have to know the quarter of which year they were Born,Married or Died!Now that I call complicated & I must confess has put me off searching further. As to Ancestry-haven't got the time or patience to trawl through all that data.IGI is useful as a searching,narrowing tool but as a conributor myself with what I now know to be inaccurate info it is not 100% Kosher but a great help notheless.

Hi Sally You have to save it as a tiff, but remember to rename the piece and browse to save it to somewhere on your computer so that you can find it again. You can open tiff's in paint if your running windows you just have to remember to drop the box when looking for the piece to 'all files'.......from paint I resave them as jpegs. Also with SP you never actually lose anything you have previously looked at, as they will be in your 'viewed images'. Hope this helps

Just reading this thread and wondering where I am going wrong with SP.....before I could view the image I had paid for AND download it.....now before the image appears there is a flash and I cannot print off what I have paid for and viewed..... I have tried saving it to a PDF but it will not let me save it either.... what I am doing is viewing the info.....writing it down on paper, and want to put BMDs onto blank forms.....but cannot find blank forms on web..... I have asked about blanks and have been given useful info on how to make these up myself.....except I don't know how to do anything......but I will wait for OH..... Is it me.....I can view the image, but cannot download as before....on SP....

I cant say i agree with you Elizabeth, i think SP it great and i dont think it only 'becomes' great after you've found the right family. You cant search all the records on ancestry using dob, only deaths after a certain period (unless they've changed that recently). And you can search SP on area and even district just like you do for English/welsh bmd. I understand that lots of people have problems using SP in the beginning but thats what the help section is for, there are also tonnes of people out in the world wide web who would be willing to assist anyone having problems with the site. SP is never going to go subscription, they'd loose out and frankley i dont mind buying credits every now and again, the money that we are putting in is surely going towards the digitalisation process of newer/older records which in the long term is helping genealogists. Finally (dont take this the wrong way, i'm just giving my suggestions), you dont have to use SP Elizabeth. No one is forcing you. If you arent having much luck with it then maybe your money would be better spent on a privet researcher. Currently the GRO are digitilising the English/welsh records for the DOVE project. I am waiting to see how much it will cost us to view one of their certs, no doubt people will be moaning about that as well, when it launches. Mhairi

Scotlands People is good ONCE you have found the correct person/family. However, I found it very difficult to get started. It was only with the help of GR members that I traced my grandmother's mother. With Ancestry you can search according to dob and place of birth - you can't with SP and you end up having to view all sorts of inappropriate records. I am trying to find my great-grandfather's death. All I know is that he died between 1901 and 1939. With a name like Robert Johnston it could cost me a fortune until I come across the right one. Why can't they do a yearly subscription like Ancestry. I have writted to them to complain, but they just brushed it off. I just wish I didn't have to use them.

Helen are you related to Alexander Brown b 1795? (Well you never know!) I've just spent the afternoon doing Scots research. I even struck lucky with my Ggrandfathers birth. I narrowed down his birth to 1878/9 using the ancestry transcriptions then it was just a matter of guessing which John Cochrane born Glasgow he was. If your wondering who Alexander was he was Johns Ggrandfather. I'd have to say that although I used the free credits to get this info (I have 4 left) I will be back spending my money there very soon.

I did a lot of research on Scotland's People just over 3 years ago and got hooked. I spent over 120 pounds on doing my mother's side of the tree, and even with a common surname like Brown managed to get it right almost every time! Just instinct I suppose! As I live in Holland it was the only way to do the research on the net. However last year I managed to travel to Edinburgh and spent half a day doing research in person and was amazed at what I found in only a couple of hours, am now researching my Dad's side of the tree, will definitely be paying another visit this year soon, well worth the 17 pounds! The Scottish Tulip!

Denis I forgot about the trains to Glasgow! :) The bus can sometimes be cheaper though and less crowded. Mhairi

Anyone who is seriously interested in how Scotlandspeople does or doesn't work might be interested in the following: www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/images/minutes10.pdf This reveals, amongst other things, that SP are seeking the approval of the Catholic Church in Scotland to adding Catholic registers to SP This group takes feedback from users. The details of how to provide this feedback are available on the site. Denis

Marion What bad luck? Success in using Scotlandspeople is related directly to the amount of common sense applied in using it. There's loads of advice on there to be read BEFORE searching. From what I've seen on GR it's clear many don't do that but blunder around wasting credits. Reminds me of those who buy medal index cards online from Kew and then come on to GR asking what this and that means when the Kew site has illustrations of the different types of cards and the answers to the most obvious of the questions. Everyone has a view on these things that relates to their own experience but I would say that what Mhairi has to say above is a pretty fair assessment, and that from someone who has all the advantages of staying in Edinburgh (including, Mhairi, regular trains to Glasgow!). Denis

I have just been reading all the comments about Scotlands People sight. All my people are from Scotland so the English & Irish on G.R. hasn't got me any where. I was going to buy credits to look up S.P but after reading the bad luck you have all had I wonder if it is worth it. I have all their Births Deaths & Marriages so maybe it would be better for me to find some one in Scotland to look them up for me. Marion from Oz

Joan Have you tried going to 'My Details' and changing your image viewer to 'Direct Download'. That worked for me. April

Well I am Scottish and Scotlands People is a good website but it is a ripoff. I have spent hundreds of pounds on that website and not a lot to show for it either. I would prefer a website like Ancestry where you are charged a fixed fee for all the BMD and census searches. Last year alone I spent £150 on SP and as someone said the 7 days to use the credits, well I'm glad that has changed now. Betty

Hi, Totally agree with you Willow I think SP is a brill site. Yes you can waste units, as I myself have. But come on lets be fair we have a choice to try and access the records on SP or NOT. In England we do NOT have that choice, and boy we would love it!! So lets be fair I have recently accessed the OPR on SP for an Ancestors birth and marriage and to see that copy online, was a wonderful feeling. WISH I COULD DO IT WITH MY ENGLAND SIDE OF THE TREE Only my opinion. All the best Jane.

Chrispy Noodle You havent offended me nor have I the hump with anyone...I was watching a film England and Wales are desperate for a system the same as scotlandspeople.... and I never suggested that anyone sat on their backsides all day...what I was pointing out was the scotlandspeople have most if their OPR online, not one county in England could boast that.

Looking at the costs of things i wouldnt say we are being ripped off by Scotlandspeople,i do believe however that there should be more search perameters eg mothers maiden name for births, wifes name on male death certs ect. I have common names in Scotland, i do know the problems there are in searching for them on SP. When you look on a whole though you arent spending as much, well i dont think you are. It costs £6 to get 30 credits. Even if you only gain one cert from this result, it has still cost you less then ordering an english one from the GRO. If you pull up one wrong cert on SP you've lost 5 credits (£1 or £1.20 including the one credit used to search) while if you send for the wrong cert from the GRO its either £7 or £3. On the time problem. I know that a few people have 'lost' credits this way as they have let their time run out but personally my credits never last me more than a day. This has been extended though perhaps it might be better for SP to look into non expiring credits or those that expire after a long period of inactivity. Census searches are a problem on Scotlandspeople but can be solved by searching for two people you know (hope) are together and matching ref numbers. With any luck ancestry will have up more scottish indexs which will help with census searching. Events 1875 and before, their searches are helped by info from the IGI. We are lucky to have this site, a few years ago we didnt have it. What did people do before that? A trip to Edinburgh? (or other places that have BMD) Think of the cost for that. Travel there and back, accomodation ect or hire a researcher or enquire directly to the GRO (who'll only search in a five year radius for something like £13 for one search) In a way i am lucky that i live in Edinburgh. I have access to the NAS, the Central Library (OPR's, Trade Directories, ect) and Registry House. It still costs £17 to spend a day searching (not to mention bus there and back, £2) in Registry House Edinburgh and although it is great for looking for those hard to find rellies or those common names i still use Scotlandspeople to print out my certs, suppose it helps as i now know where to find them. Those with English/Welsh ancestors are a little spoilt with ancestry, if you where researching 10 or more years ago though you wont have it or any of these other sites and you'd be forking out a tonne of money looking for your ancestors and i'm going to bet it would be a lot more than what your paying today. Mhairi p.s apologies if any of the above is confusing, spelt wrong, doesnt make any sense at all...had a tipple or two or...

I think it's a great site & have always found the staff really helpful when I have emailed them, it worked out expensive at first until I found my way around. I have even had an A3 copy of a certificate sent to me free when an image was hard to read. The only thing I wish is that they had a yearly subscription like Ancestry. Georgina.

i am beging to agree its a rip off as i found nothin and it annoys me grately

Must turn in for the night....regards to all!

Joan, it would be nice if SP were at least to offer some help, especially as they are earning money hand over fist. Computers are very annoying sometimes. Chris