For over a decade I have been providing family tree research in Scotland. Outwith my work as a professionally qualified Genealogist as I go around my daily and social activities here in Perthshire I often get asked what I do for a living?
‘’I am a qualified genealogist’’ provokes a variety of interested and interesting responses which can be summarised as follows;
‘’I would love to research my family tree like on Who Do You Think You Are, can you do this’’
‘’ I have been online and tried to research my Scottish family tree but there is not much to see on Ancestry and I tried searching online Scotland’s People but couldn’t see my Grandmother’s marriage, there were too many Stewarts. Can you help me?’’
‘’What is a Genealogist?’’
Taking the last question first… I answer
‘’I trace Scottish family trees and descendants using a variety of public and private records available online and in archives. I advise upon and undertake bespoke historical research for my clients.’’
These conversations outwith work take place outside the school gates/nursery, at parties, at the pub, on aeroplanes, at church and in my local community and so on. ‘’Yes I could research or help you to research your Scottish family tree’’ is my response and over the past decade I have lost count of the number of family trees I have provided for friends or friends of friends. They don't have hundreds of pounds to spend on professional research of their Scottish family tree, don’t have the time to do this themselves or are living too far away from Edinburgh/Glasgow/Hawick/Inverness to access Scotland’s People to do this at a reasonable cost.
There must be a way to make fully documented and evidenced professional Scottish family tree research available. In April last year we formed OldScottish.com with the purpose of making Genealogy and Family History Research more accessible. Your Family Tree Research is now more affordable as over the past 9 months we have been researching and developing a number of introductory services to do this. We are extremely excited to launch a selection of Introductory Scottish Family Tree Packages to celebrate Homecoming 2014.
Find out more about our Homecoming 2014 special offers here.