Getting to the Roots of Your Family - RootsWeb - Ancestry.com

INTRODUCTION
PATRON CLASS HANDOUT
“Aye, it’s a well known fact Sonny Jim”:
Getting the most out of ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk
ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk is, with FamilySearch, one of the two most valuable resources for Scottish research on
the internet. It has changed the face of Scottish research by bringing together almost 80 million records in to
one location. It is a government website managed by the General Register Office of Scotland (GROS). You can
access it be going to www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.
COST & METHOD OF PAYMENT
ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk is a pay site. The cost depends on which records you access.
Old Parish Registers (OPR’s), Statutory Registers (Civil Registration) and Census
The cost is similar as follows:
• To search the indexes and view images you must buy page credits and time in increments of 30 credits
and 90 days. The cost is £6 or about $10.00 US.
• To view the results of an index search will cost 1 credit per page. As many as 25 records will be listed
on one index page. Your search results will indicate how many hits and how many pages resulted.
• To view a document, such as a birth, marriage or death certificate, census page or OPR page from your
list of index search results will cost 5 credits.
• When you run out of credits or time, you have to buy 30 more credits and 90 more days. If your 90
days run out and you have 10 credits left, for example, you will not be able to use those credits until
you buy 30 more credits and 90 more days.
• You can view an 1881 Census transcription, not the actual image, for only 1 credit.
Once you have paid credits for the results of an index search or to view an image, you can access them for
free by logging on to the website. You can keep them as long as you want so long as you don’t delete them.
Wills & Testaments and Coats of Arms
• Searching the wills & testaments index and the Coats of Arms index is free. However, it costs £5 or
about $8.50 US to view a document. You do not use your credits for these but pay for them separately.
Payment
You pay for your credits by using a debit or credit card. Acceptable cards include: Visa, Mastercard, Visa
Debit, Switch, Solo, Delta and JCB. Though there is always a risk in submitting credit or debit card
information via the internet, this is a government website rather than a private company and considered very
secure.
GETTING STARTED
Register
If you are a new user, register by clicking on “Register now” on the top right side of the screen.