any complications can come into it such as divorce, re-marriage and so on.

However in Scotland statutory registration started in 1855 and prior to this the recording of Births, deaths and marriages was the responsibility of the church and this record is called the Old Parish Record (OPR) and

What makes us the sort of people we are? It is certainly not only our environment or our upbringing but it’s the attitudes and traits that are passed on to us from generation to generation and it’s by understanding our genealogy and family History that we come to understand ourselves.

So how do we go about doing this? The first step is to find our own birth certificate and from this we will find out where we were born, who our parents were and when they were married and so on. From our parents marriage certificate we can trace our grand-parents and again from their marriage certificate this will give where they lived, how old they were on marriage, what trade they followed and so on and then by using this information we can then find our great-grandparents and so on back into time. Also by using this information with the help of the many genealogical online sources we can trace without too much difficulty if there were children of these unions. I must add although not difficult the tracing of siblings can be very time consuming. There is certainly no royal road to success just perseverance. Further, I must admit that I have over simplified the above process for clarity as many complications can come into it such as divorce, re-marriage and so on.

However in Scotland statutory registration started in 1855 and prior to this the recording of Births, deaths and marriages was the responsibility of the church and this record is called the Old Parish Record (OPR) and

do we go about doing this? The first step is to find our own birth certificate and from this we will find out where we were born, who our parents were and when they were married and so on. From our parents marriage certificate we can trace our grand-parents and again from their marriage certificate this will give where they lived, how old they were on marriage, what trade they followed and so on and then by using this information we can then find our great-grandparents and so on back into time. Also by using this information with the help of the many genealogical online sources we can trace without too much difficulty if there were children of these unions. I must add although not difficult the tracing of siblings can be very time consuming. There is certainly no royal road to success just perseverance. Further, I must admit that I have over simplified the above process for clarity as many complications can come into it such as divorce, re-marriage and so on.

However in Scotland statutory registration started in 1855 and prior to this the recording of Births, deaths and marriages was the responsibility of the church and this record is called the Old Parish Record (OPR) and

this will give where they lived, how old they were on marriage, what trade they followed and so on and then by using this information we can then find our great-grandparents and so on back into time. Also by using this information with the help of the many genealogical online sources we can trace without too much difficulty if there were children of these unions. I must add although not difficult the tracing of siblings can be very time consuming. There is certainly no royal road to success just perseverance. Further, I must admit that I have over simplified the above process for clarity as many complications can come into it such as divorce, re-marriage and so on.

However in Scotland statutory registration started in 1855 and prior to this the recording of Births, deaths and marriages was the responsibility of the church and this record is called the Old Parish Record (OPR) and

ithout too much difficulty if there were children of these unions. I must add although not difficult the tracing of siblings can be very time consuming. There is certainly no royal road to success just perseverance. Further, I must admit that I have over simplified the above process for clarity as many complications can come into it such as divorce, re-marriage and so on.

However in Scotland statutory registration started in 1855 and prior to this the recording of Births, deaths and marriages was the responsibility of the church and this record is called the Old Parish Record (OPR) and

any complications can come into it such as divorce, re-marriage and so on.

However in Scotland statutory registration started in 1855 and prior to this the recording of Births, deaths and marriages was the responsibility of the church and this record is called the Old Parish Record (OPR) and the earliest known record of this dates back to 1555.

So taking Scotland as an example everybody can trace their family back to 1855 and most back to the 18th century and some to the 16th and 17th century and there are many reasons for this. In the first place the spellings of names change through time only becoming the accepted version in the later part of the 19th century but despite this various spellings of family names still exist to the day. So unless we know the form of spelling of the family name we won’t be able to find the ancestor we are looking for. A further problem is the actual record itself and that is as good or as bad as the person who originally made the record in the first place. Some Session Clerks of the Church of Scotland were first class at recording and so they will record for example, for a marriage, the names of the people being married, parents and witnesses along with their trade and where they lived etc. However in some OPR’s all we have are the names of the people being married and that is it. Apart from this records can be lost, destroyed, defaced, and can be simply wrong or confusing and if the family historian isn’t absolutely sure about ho