Newsletter – 8th October 2025
Ancestry vs National Records of Scotland
What next for Scottish records?
Scottish BMDs at Ancestry (and other sites)
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A number of members have contacted me regarding Ancestry’s attempt to obtain access to information held by National Records of Scotland, including historic registers of births, marriages, and deaths – they are rightly concerned that allowing other websites to publish images which are currently exclusive to ScotlandsPeople could undermine the finances of ScotlandsPeople, with negative consequences for researchers. The genealogist and writer Chris Paton enunciated the concerns most eloquently in his blog post on 26th September (which was written before he had an opportunity to study the decision of the First-Tier Tribunal).
I don’t have any Scottish ancestry (yet) so, whilst I have used the ScotlandsPeople website from time to time since 2003, my experience of purposefully searching for Scottish records is limited. However, having spent two decades encouraging and cajoling the General Register Office (which holds the BMD registers for England & Wales) to provide a better service for family historians, I feel qualified to comment.
Scotland has a different legal system from England but, perhaps most relevant to readers of this newsletter, is that – whereas The National Archives in England has a policy of licensing records to subscription websites such as Ancestry, Findmypast, and The Genealogist – the only online source for images of the records held by National Records of Scotland is the ScotlandsPeople website.
Ancestry vs National Records of Scotland
For the past 10-15 years Ancestry have been trying to license the historic records held by National Records of Scotland (NRS), which runs the ScotlandsPeople website – a one-stop shop for Scottish records.
Their approaches were continually rebuffed and it seems that in 2022 they despaired of ever being able to negotiate a licence. In October of that year they submitted a request under section 6 of the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015. This request was refused in December 2022, and they submitted a complaint in May 2023, which the NRS rejected the following month.
In August 2023 Ancestry complained to the Information Commissioner, who decided the following year that NRS were entitled to refuse Ancestry’s request. In May 2024 Ancestry appealed against the Commissioner’s decision but this appeal was also rejected in July, following which Ancestry appealed to the First-Tier Tribunal, an independent judicial body which hears appeals against certain government and regulatory decisions.
On 11th September the decision of the tribunal was published – you can read it in full here, but there’s a useful summary on Chris Paton’s Scottish Genes blog. In short, Ancestry didn’t get what they were looking for: the tribunal found that NRS were acting within their powers in refusing Ancestry’s request.
For many years family historians with ancestors from England & Wales envied their counterparts with Scottish ancestry: whereas ScotlandsPeople provided instant online access to historic birth, marriage and death registers, ordering certificates from the General Register Office in Southport (GRO) cost 5 times as much and involved a wait of anything from 2 to 6 weeks, depending where in the world they were being posted to.
Summary: one public body recognised that the needs of family historians are very different from those of executors, lawyers, and heir hunters and created a service that met those needs very well; the other felt constrained by the legislation in force, a barrier that was only broken in 2015 with the passing of the Deregulation Act, thanks to the amendment proposed by Baroness Scott.
However ScotlandsPeople was, and remains, a pay-per-view site. I have a dislike of pay-per-view genealogy sites – one that I acquired in the course of spending £150 in a 12-month period at the 1901 Census website, a good part of it wasted because of the very poor quality of the transcriptions. It was twice what I was paying for an annual subscription to Ancestry, which had the 1891 England & Wales census (properly indexed) amongst their collection of British records.
The 1901 Census website was a joint venture between the Public Record Office, now The National Archives, and Qinetiq (a government-owned company which was later privatised). In its wisdom Qinetiq gave the transcription contract to Enterprise and Supply Services (a division of HM Prison Service), a decision that was later regretted.
Everything changed on 11th April 2004, when the 1901 Census for England & Wales became available at Ancestry and was included in their UK & Ireland subscription – offering their subscribers unlimited access to the census at no additional cost. Ancestry’s transcription was not perfect (no transcription of a census can be), but it was a vast improvement.
Summary: sometimes the private sector can provide a more efficient and more cost-effective service.
Not only do ScotlandsPeople charge users to view each image, until 2016 they also charged for searches – which, to my mind, is a good way to discourage researchers from being as diligent as they ought to be! By contrast the GRO quarterly indexes have long been available online at numerous sites, including FreeBMD. Indeed, it was only in late 2016 that the GRO offered their own online indexes of historic births and deaths (and we still don’t know if, and when, they will make their own marriage index available online).
Historical note: the only reason that we can search the GRO indexes of births, marriages, and deaths at numerous sites is because until 2008, when the GRO was transferred from the Office for National Statistics to the Home Office, copies of the indexes were sold to record offices, libraries, commercial organisations, and anyone else who could afford the cost. One of the commercial organisations was Title Research, who computerised the indexes in order to provide a better service to their own clients, but also saw the opportunity to provide a service to others, including family historians. The website that Title Research set up was called 1837online – it eventually became Findmypast.
The GRO’s recompiled birth index includes the mother’s maiden name from the start of civil registration in 1837, but the original quarterly indexes didn’t include this key information until July 1911, 74 years later. The enhanced information for the earlier entries was a boon for genealogists, who might otherwise have ordered the wrong entry, but its full potential could not be realised because of the unnecessarily strict limitations on searches at the GRO site (which made it difficult or impossible to carry out some searches, such as a search on the maiden surname only).
It was, therefore, very good news for genealogists when Findmypast began adding the mother’s maiden name to their birth index entries for the 1837-1911 period (which are otherwise based on the original quarterly indexes). These entries can be searched free of charge by anyone who registers at Findmypast, whether or not they have bought a subscription.
Summary: genealogists benefit when the private sector is allowed to supplement services provided by the public sector.
Even though the GRO introduced their Online View service in July 2023, it’s still cheaper to view register images at ScotlandsPeople (6 credits, equivalent to £1.50) than to purchase a digital image from the GRO (originally £2.50, now £3).
On the other hand, this £1.50 charge also applies to images of Scottish census records, which are exclusive to ScotlandsPeople – whereas subscribers to commercial websites can view a virtually unlimited number of images of census records for England & Wales without any additional charge. There is significant danger that family historians will not pay to view the Scottish images, but will rely instead on the transcriptions of the 1841-1901 Scotland censuses at Ancestry and Findmypast
However, I doubt this is something that National Records of Scotland have seriously considered: they have an incentive to stay with a pricing system which works for them, just as the GRO had little incentive to develop an online service until a change in the law obliged them to do so.
Summary: whether they are public or private, organisations which have a monopoly are less likely to provide what their customers really want.
What next for Scottish records?
I suspect that most people who read the tribunal judgement will conclude, as I did, that Ancestry took legal action as a last resort. It’s not so very different from the way that the late Guy Etchells used Freedom of Information legislation to get us early access to the 1911 Census for England & Wales, which was clearly not covered by the provisions of the Census Act 1920 – yet officialdom claimed that it was subject to 100-year closure. Nor is it very different from the way that I and others used Freedom of Information legislation to get access to the 1939 Register for England & Wales, which government officials insisted was also covered by the 1920 Act, even though it was perfectly clear to any reasonable person that it wasn’t!
ScotlandsPeople probably take the view that the pay-per-view model they use is the best possible model given their financial constraints; others might venture to suggest that what was appropriate when ScotlandsPeople launched in 2002 is no longer the best solution. 1837online.com launched their version of the GRO indexes of births, marriage, and deaths in April 2003 as a pay-per-view site, but they introduced a subscription option in 2006 (by which time they were offering other records, including the 1891 Census).
When ScotlandsPeople relaunched their website in 2016 they indicated that there had been around 1 million unique users since 2002; in 2022-23 they had nearly 1.5 million users. These are quite high figures compared to the population of Scotland (5m in 2001, nearly 5.5m in 2022), but it seems a relatively small proportion of the 40 million plus members of the Scottish diaspora (this figure is taken from a Scottish government paper – other estimates range up to 80 million).
If I were advising ScotlandsPeople I’d suggest that they license some or all of their historic indexes to third-parties on the basis that the index entries link back to ScotlandsPeople – this a similar arrangement to the one between Ancestry and Essex Record Office (for parish registers), and between FamilySearch and Findmypast (for England & Wales censuses). And I’d make a similar suggestion to the GRO – they don’t benefit from people searching at their site, they only receive income when researchers place orders.
I don’t suppose either of them will take up the suggestions, but you never know….
Scottish BMDs at Ancestry (and other sites)
If you’ve read the tribunal judgment you’ll know that in 1989 the Genealogical Society of Utah, now better known as Family Search International, entered into an agreement:
“to microfilm the old parochial registers of the Church of Scotland, 1553-1854, the Scottish statutory registers of births, deaths and marriages, 1855-75, 1881 and 1891, the Annual Indexes to the statutory registers, 1855 – 1959, miscellaneous minor records, to 19th century and Scottish Census returns, 1841-1891, in consideration for which GSU might disseminate and make non-commercial use of microfilm copies of that data in its system and other facilities throughout the world, and might enter that data, except the information from the Census records, in its International Genealogical index.”
At both Ancestry and Findmypast you’ll find indexes that have been provided to them by Family Search International – here’s what they each show for an individual I picked at random:
Ancestry
Findmypast
FamilySearch
ScotlandsPeople (free index entry)
It’s interesting to compare the information provided by the 4 different sites for the same index entry. Everything I’ve shown is available free with the exception of the Ancestry entry, which – surprisingly – requires a subscription. I say “surprisingly” because I had always assumed that records provided free by FamilySearch to another site were free to all users of that site.
Note that only Ancestry and FamilySearch show the date of birth, and all of the sites except ScotlandsPeople show the full names of both parents – to find out more at ScotlandsPeople you would have to use 6 credits (equivalent to £1.50), though you get a lot more information for your money, including the time of birth, the precise place of birth, the father’s occupation, and the date and place of the parents’ marriage. You also get to see the actual signature of the person who registered the birth – in this case it was the father.
Of course, one of the advantages of finding records at a site like Ancestry or Findmypast is that they’ll suggest other records to look at – in this case both sites identify the correct entry in the 1871 Census. They won’t always get it right, but when they do it’s a bonus – especially if they’ve found your relative in a record set you hadn’t thought to search yourself.
For the past 21 years LostCousins has been using the 1881 Scotland census to connect members who share the same Scottish ancestors: it works whether you live in Scotland or are part of the Scottish diaspora, and it can even work if your direct ancestors left Scotland before 1881 (see the tip below).
You don’t need a subscription to any sites to connect with your Scottish cousins – the LDS transcription of the 1881 Census is free at ScotlandsPeople, and that’s all you need. You could use the transcription at Ancestry if you find this easier, but you can’t use Findmypast as your source because they don’t have the census references for the Scottish censuses.
Tip: ALL of your living cousins are descended from collateral lines, the lines that branch off from your direct lines, so the best way to find them is to enter the relatives from the branches. Start with your ancestors' siblings, if you can, then continue with their cousins. A good approach is to start with everyone you know about in 1841 – whether or not you can find them on that census – then track each branch and twig through the census transcriptions at Ancestry or Findmypast until you get to 1881.
Free UK Genealogy, the charity behind FreeBMD, FreeCEN, and FreeREG is planning to launch a probate site in 2026 – unsurprisingly called FreePRO. The aim is to transcribe probate calendars from 1853 to 1943 using OCR (optical character recognition) software, followed by manual checking.
Although it’s possible to search the probate calendars from 1858 onwards free at the official government website, anyone who has used the site regularly will be aware of its quirks: FreePRO will provide a more flexible and more powerful search.
OCR software is extremely good at interpreting printed records so, provided the source documents are in good condition, I doubt there will many corrections that the human transcribers need to make – which probably explains the optimistic launch date.
In March 1958 the BBC showed a documentary in the ‘Eye to Eye’ series about the Gladden family of Bethnal Green – I found it here, in the BBC Archive on YouTube. It’s a fascinating insight into post-war family life in London’s East End, and it’s well worth half an hour of your time.
Tip: you don’t need to pay to watch YouTube videos, and you certainly don’t any special equipment – but you will need to sit through a few adverts (even though it’s a BBC programme).
Having watched the documentary I couldn’t resist looking up the Gladden family in the 1921 Census and 1939 Register:
© Crown Copyright Image reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London, England and Findmypast
© Crown Copyright Image reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London, England and Findmypast
If, after watching the documentary, you decide to research the family further please post your findings on the LostCousins Forum in the Comments on the Latest Newsletter area.
Ancestry.co.uk reckon their sale price of £39 is the lowest of the year, and who am I to disagree? Although price shouldn’t be a consideration in your choice of test, getting the best price at half-price is a win-win opportunity.
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There is an additional cost for shipping, but it’s important to note that it covers shipping BOTH ways. Shipping works out a lot cheaper if you order more than one test at the same time, but they must be shipped to the same address. Also you could be offered the chance to get a 3 month World Membership for just £1/$1 - an amazing bargain, but you can only do it ONCE.
I looked up the following entry after watching this week’s edition of Have I Got News For You in which Sheila Hancock, one of the guests, mentioned that she could still remember the number on her identity card: CJFQ 29/4
© Crown Copyright Image reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London, England and Findmypast
I couldn’t resist checking that she was correct – after all, she is 92, and I’m getting forgetful at the tender age of 75. But she was absolutely spot on – the closed record is hers.
© Crown Copyright Image reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London, England and Findmypast
I’ve included this page primarily because it’s an example of an enumerator who seems to have been incapable of crossing his t’s. Perhaps surprisingly – given the conditions in which the transcriptions of the 1939 Register were carried out – Marlin, Whilby, Walls, Wheal, and Ralcliffe were correctly transcribed as Martin, Whitby, Watts, Wheat, and Ratcliffe – so full marks to the transcribers.
But also of passing interest is the entry for Caroline Makin, formerly Wheat. She married just months after the register was compiled and there’s just a solitary ‘M’ against the entry to indicate why the surname has changed. Contrast this with the entry for her widowed mother’s remarriage, which shows the number of the form (CR283); by this time the National Register had become the NHS Central Register, so the letters ‘CR’ could well stand for ‘Central Register’, and not ‘Civil Registration’ as one might have assumed.
Apart from Caroline Makin there are three other women in the image above who married in the 1940s. They have an ‘M’ but also a three letter code – which looks to me like the code for a registration district. Checking this table at the Findmypast site you’ll find that ‘RNH’ is the code for Hucknall registration district, whilst ‘RMA’ is the code for Nottingham. Could these indicate where the marriages took place? Apparently not, because Edna Radcliffe and the Martin twins all married in Nottingham registration district.
The 1939 Register is full of surprises – if it’s some time since you’ve read my special newsletter Inside the 1939 Register it might be time to read it again!
My wife and I got our flu jabs last week – and, having just turned 75, I was able to get a COVID booster too. According to this article on the BBC News website a lot of people are discovering that they don’t qualify for an NHS booster this autumn – so having to miss out (or else pay up to £100 for a private jab).
Another benefit of reaching 75 is that I’m entitled to the RSV vaccine (which is even more expensive if you have to pay). So there are some advantage to getting old – and it’s better than the alternative. Only a quarter of my grandparents and a quarter of my great-grandparents made it beyond 75, so I’m doing pretty well compared to most of my ancestors. Interestingly it was my paternal grandfather and his parents who broke the 75 barrier, whilst my dad almost made it to 95 – so there seem to be some strong genes coming down that side of the family!
THURSDAY 9TH 8.47AM: The GRO website is currently displaying this message: "Unfortunately the online certificate ordering service is temporarily unavailable due to technical difficulties."
Finally, I really must mention that a significant number of readers seem to have ignored my advice in the last newsletter to complete their My Ancestors page. So let me ask you this question: “Do you really have time to waste duplicating research that your ‘lost cousins’ have already done?”. I don’t think so!
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2025 Peter Calver
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