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Looking up your Family History on the Internet

What is it?

The Partnership

Who are we?

ScotlandsPeople is a partnership between the General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon enabled by Scotland On Line a leading provider of web-based business solutions.

What exactly can you find on the Website ?

Containing around 100 million names, the ScotlandsPeople database is one of the world’s largest resources of genealogical information and one of the largest single information resources on the Web. We provide a fully searchable index of Scottish births and baptisms from 1553 to 1907, marriages from 1553 to 1932 and deaths from 1855 to 1957. In addition, indexed census data from 1841 to 1901 and a free index search of wills and testaments from 1513 to 1901 are available. You can download, view, save and print many of the digital images and you can also order official extracts of any register entries of interest from the website.

To respect the privacy of living people, internet access to the digital images has been limited to birth records over 100 years old, marriage records over 75 years and death records over 50 years.

How much does it cost ?

You can log onto the homepage of the website by going to www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. Once registered on the website, users only need to enter their username and password each time they return. For a fee of 6 GBP payable by credit or debit card, you can access the index database and images (where available) with 30 “page credits” over a period of 90 days. Each page of index entries you download costs 1 credit, and each image costs 5 credits.  Once you have downloaded an image you are free to refer to it again as often as you like.  In addition, if you want to order an official extract of any General Register Office for Scotland register entry found in the index, you can do so online for a fee of 10 GBP.  Your request will be fulfilled by the General Register Office for Scotland who will post the extract to you. To view a will or testament will cost 5 GBP. 

Convert these prices to your local currency using the FXConverter on Oanda's website.

For customers who do not hold a credit or debit card, ScotlandsPeople vouchers are now available to buy at a cost of 6 GBP per voucher which offer 30 credits (for details see website).