Children with the same name

I should have added this in the Scottish naming patterns post.

If, for example, you have done a parent search on familysearch.org and found 2 children with the same given name, it usually means the first one has died and the next child born of the same sex is also given that name.

If the age of a child in a census is younger than you were expecting, this also may indicate it is a second child with the same name and you should look for another birth.

Ordering certificates from scotlandspeople

When you have found the record you were looking for you will usually see 2 options. View 5 credits or Order.

You don't need to order a certificate, just download it for 5 credits. The certificate won't give you any more information anti will cost you £12. The downloaded image at 5 credits is £1.50.

 You only need to get a certificate if you need it for legal purposes or if the other option is not available, eg a modern record a 1918 birth record. This is because it is too recent. There's a 100 year cut off for births. However if you can bear to wait till next January, you will be able to download it then!

Your other option is to visit one of the scotlandspeople hubs where for a day you can look up as many certificates as you like for £15.

The hubs are in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Inverness.

Register House in Edinburgh

The Mitchell Library in Glasgow

Burns Centre, Kilmarnock

Highland Archive and Registration Centre, Inverness
Hawick Heritage Hub
Clackmannanshire Family History Centre in Alloa

Always phone first to check computer availability and opening hours.

Enhanced family stories

Family stories get embellished or distorted over the years.

My grandfather "drove the first bus in Edinburgh" or that is what I remembered.

Today I found his licence

As he was driver no 258 he certainly wasn't the first, but he does appear to have been one of the first drivers on the Mound to Corstorphine route.

James Rolinson at the wheel

Both of these photos appear in the 1976 staff magazine of the Scottish Motor Group and I suspect my father or my uncle supplied the information. So it is a secondary source and should be viewed with some suspicion.

Valuation rolls

Scotlandspeople have lists of valuation rolls online now for several years, namely 1855, 1865, 1875, 1885, 1895. 1905, 1915, 1920, 1925, 1930 and 1935

These records are  free to search!  The search will give you the name of the householder, either tenant or owner and the address, so you don't need to pay a further 2 credits to see the page.

Here are all the Flemings in Cumnock.

The page gives more information on who owns the property and the occupation of the householder plus all the neighbours, so not a bad result for 2 credits!
Here is part of the page showing Glengyron Row with at least 5 of my relations!

While this is not nearly as good as a census, it does fill in between the censuses, and they cover more recent records (post 1911) for which not much else is available.

So you have nothing to lose by typing in even just a surname and a county, as often as you like and see what comes up!

1930 valuation roll on scotlandspeople


updated 8 March 2018

Using the censuses

Censuses are a great help to family historians. They give so much information about a family. Where they lived the occupations they followed, where they were born, who the family members were - often uncles, grandparents, in laws, future spouses can be found in the census. And do check the neighbours too - they may be relations!

National censuses started in 1841 and were taken every 10 years. The latest one available for viewing in the 1911 census.

1841 census of Scotland was taken on 6 June 1841
It gives limited information. Family relationships were;t given but nevertheless they are ordered like the later census with head of household usually the father first, then the mother, and children in order of age.
Ages were supposed to be rounded up to the nearest multiple of 5 - e.g. 15, 20 25, 30 but often the proper ages were recorded. Someone aged 15 could be 15-19 years old.
Birthplace was yes if born in the county of residence or no if elsewhere in Scotland. If born elsewhere the country was recorded e.g. I for Ireland or E for England.

1851 onward censuses gave birth town or parish as well as relationships and whether deaf and dumb or blind and how many rooms with at least 1 window the house had.

1871 -1901 censuses also record whether 1. deaf and dumb 2. blind 3. imbecile or idiot and 4. lunatic. They didn't mince their words. I'm not sure what the difference between imbecile, idiot or lunatic was.

The 1911 census records if Gaelic was spoken, and gives more information against the wife's name as to the length of the marriage and the number of children born in the marriage and how many were still living. I realised from this census that I was missing a child of my great grandparents and eventually  found him being born and dying in Rotherham, Yorkshire in the 1880s. The only place you can see the 1911 census for Scotland is by getting it from Scotlandspeople.

If you need to see the original image for any census you need to pay for it at Scotlandspeople.  All other censuses apart from 1911 have been transcribed and you can find the transcriptions on subscription sites such as ancestry and findmypast.

There is also freecen.org - good for 1841 censuses in Scotland.

But the 1881 census is free to view. You can access it via findmypast. You will have to be registered but you don't need to subscribe.

http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-Records/1881-england-wales-and-scotland-census

Timeline

Making a timeline of events in your family is very helpful especially if the family moved around a bit.

My own great grandparents were in Cumnock in Ayrshire, Scotland in 1871 and 1881 but the 1881 census revealed that children in the 1870s were born in England. This puzzled me a lot and the only way I could make sense of it was to do a timeline. My great grandfather and his father were miners from the Dudley area in Staffordshire.

I even colour coded the timeline for places. You can really see how much they moved about to find work.

James Rolinson (great grandfather)

1852 born in Dudley, Staffordshire

1861 census Darlaston

1871 census Cumnock, Ayrshire

1873 married In Dudley

1874 Alice born Tipton

1877 Jessie born Dudley

1880 Delilah born Cumnock

1881 census Cumnock

1883 James born Rotherham, Yorkshire

1885 Frank born Rotherham

1886 Rachel born and Frank died Rotherham

1890 in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire (father John’s death cert)

1890 Frederick born and died Cambuslang 

1891 census in Calderbank, Lanarkshire

1891 Herbert born Calderbank

1892 mother Jane Holmes died Calderbank

1893 Herbert died Calderbank

1894 Clifford born Calderbank

1901 census Jacks Land, Holytown, Lanarkshire

1911 census Stone Row Calderbank

1920 valuation roll Stone Row Calderbank

1925 valuation roll 61 Main St Calderbank

1930 James died 61 Main st Calderbank

1931 widow Emma Ball died Calderbank

free census

As well as familysearch.org there are some other good free sites such as

freecen.org.uk

This has transcriptions of UK censuses. In Scotland there are mainly only 1841 and some 1851 ones available.

I use it a lot for 1841 and I like it because you can click on the previous or subsequent households to check out the neighbours and neighbouring addresses.

Search either on Census Place or Census County.

You can also try searching on street name if you don't get a result using the surname.