If you have Scottish ancestors and have never visited the ScotlandsPeople website, now may be the time to do so. ScotlandsPeople – the website which helps people search for their Scottish ancestors online, has been revamped and relaunched with a new look and a number of new features.
National Records of Scotland (NRS) operates ScotlandsPeople, which has on average 3.4m site views a year and around 1 million unique users since its launch in 2002.
As part of the most extensive upgrade to the service since 2010, for the first time users will not be charged as they formerly were to search an index relating to the birth, death and marriageregister, old parish register, and open census records. If you do not have an account with ScotlandsPeople, all you need to do is set up a free account. You will only be asked to buy/use your credits if you want to view or download a record image.
The cost to use this Scottish government website, however, has increased slightly from £7 for 30 credits to £7.50 ($13CDN, $10US) for 30 credits. Thirty credits enables customers to purchase five images at cost of £1.50 ($3CDN, $2US) per image of a document.
The new site also features an improved web design which allows customers to access ScotlandsPeople across digital devices, and an enhanced search function which allows them to locate and view records with greater ease.