Suggestion on how to grow your Scottish family tree by visiting old churchyards
by Tim Wilson
Churchyards can be a really rich source for information about what happened to your ancestors. Church documents and census can give you the facts but you might find an extra facet or personal statement on a gravestone that simply doesn't exist anywhere else. Although Scotland has many great online resources for building your family tree getting out will bring you closer to your ancestors.
So what kind of benefits can you expect to get from heading out into the great out doors. Well grave markers will give you some of the information that could be lacking in the years between the censuses. You'll also find that where records don't exist for registrations of deaths and births gravestones can give you that key information. Exploring the graveyard itself will give you an understanding of the community that your family would have been living in and the gravestone itself will give you an understanding of how wealthy your family were based on its quality and size.
Locating your ancestors grave
The first likely thing to do is to try and find where you think the graves might be. The usual way for this is first of all to establish where the family stayed. Find the census records for the particular person, and then find out what district or parish they were in. Ancestry or Find My Past have census records and in Scotland you can look at the Scotland's People website.
As soon as you've found the parish you'll probably have to switch websites to find one that has the related parish documents. A very good list of parish webpages is at the Scots Family website. These vary as to just how much has been digitised but using this list may help you contact the right parish.
Before you actually head outdoors or if you're on the other side of the planet then bear in mind that you can always ask for help from local history societies or from professionals who you can pay to do the legwork for you. Once when I was researching why a great grandmother had vanished from the census I approached a bulletin board for a local history society. One helpful individual went out and found the grave and emailed me an photograph of the headstone. It was superb. Now you may not be as fortunate but it could be worth a shot.
Tools of the trade
1) Diligence and persistence
2) A pad and a pen or may be an iPad if you like.
3) A small camera
4) A soft brush
5) Torch
6) Walking shoes and gloves
This list isn't rocket science but the brush is useful for carefully removing moss or leaves. Having the torch to hand means you can use it from an angle to highlight the relief of the carved text. .
Be careful when you're in a churchyard because of the heavy headstones. They can topple easily and can be dangerous. The warm gloves and solid footwear will probably prove essential especially if you're trudging through a Scottish winter.
Good luck in your Scottish family tree research.
To really grow your <a href="http://ancestryscotland.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/tips-and-tricks-for-finding-your.html">family tree in Scotland</a> be sure to visit <a href="http://mazzerwake.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/how-to-locate-your-families-past-in-scotland-by-exploring-old-gravestones/">familytreescotland.co.uk</a> for more tips and tricks.
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New Unique Article!
Title: Suggestion on how to grow your Scottish family tree by visiting old churchyards
Author: Tim Wilson
Email: mazzerwake@mac.com
Keywords: family tree scotland, ancestry research, scottish family tree,ancestry, ancestors, family history,family, personal, hobbies, history
Word Count: 510
Category: Hobbies
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