1. Where to start
When planning to research your family tree the best way to start is with those branches closest at hand. Relatives can be a gold mine of information and knowledge, and all you need to do is ask. It is when you first start to map your family history that you will discover your connection with the past.
An important aspect to this initial research is the importance of dates. Relatives will often recall the names of distant family members, but may not always recall dates of birth, marriages or death. The more information you start with the better, and so it can often involve looking through old family documents. It can also be easy when speaking with relatives to forget to ask certain questions. To assist you in this please feel free to use our Family Member Record Sheet. It can be downloaded here – Clan Grant Genealogy – Family Record Sheet.
Once you have spoken to living relatives, it is good to start your historical research with someone who was alive in the early 20th Century as birth, marriage, death and census information is readily available from back then. If you find you run up against a dead end, then select another relative from about the same time and start again with them.
2. Other resources are close at hand
A key first step in tracing your Clan Grant family history is to join your country’s own Clan Grant Society. There you will find people who either have or are looking to do exactly as you are. They are a wealth of knowledge, information and guidance on tracing your family clan connections as well as planning a trip to Scotland to see first-hand the country your relatives came from.
Below are the Clan Grant Societies currently operating.
The Clan Grant Society Australia
President Bryan Grant
The Clan Grant Society of Canada
Please contact The Clan Grant Society of the United Kingdom for contact information.
The Clan Grant Society of the United States
President: Dr Bill Grant
The Clan Grant Society of the United Kingdom
Chairman: Fiona Grant
3. Periods of Emigration from Scotland
The Scots travelled and settled all over the world, however information on people who left is sparse in Scotland itself.
People left Scotland for a variety of reasons seeking a new life abroad. This occurs up to the present day, however there have been periods in time when the number of people leaving rose significantly. The following are different types of emigrants who account for most people who historically left Scotland.
- Free emigrants. Beginning in 1630, emigrants left Scotland to promote trade or set up military outposts and waystations for merchant ships. Later, free emigrants sought opportunity in a new land or fled poverty or oppression in Scotland.
- Assisted emigrants. From 1815 to 1900, qualified emigrants received passage money or land grants in the destination country as an alternative to receiving poor relief. Many Scots from the Highlands emigrated to Canada in this manner. After 1840, New Zealand and Australia offered money or land grants to skilled workers to encourage immigrants.
- Latter-day Saints. Beginning in about 1840, many Scottish Latter-day Saints emigrated to the United States. Most settled in Utah. For more information, see Utah Emigration and Immigration and LDS Online Genealogy Records:Emigration and Immigration.
There was no initial legal requirement to record people as they left Scotland, they were only documented when they arrived at their first port in their new country. This means that in tracing your family’s immigration from Scotland, the documentation may reside in your own country. This will very much depend on the port, the period of time in which they arrived and the amount of information you have. There are fortunately a large amount of records available online, which means you do not necessarily need to visit the particular ports records office personally. There are however too many port’s and possible sources of information to mention here but we have listed some examples below of where you can start. Knowing when they arrived gives you a starting period for your research with Scottish family records.
United States Immigration Online Genealogy Records
New York, Ellis Island – Liberty Ellis Foundation
Family Search – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
4. Scottish Immigration Archives
Amongst the most useful websites is ScotlandsPeople which provides online access (for a fee) to Scotland’s official registers of births, marriages and deaths as well as census records from 1841 to 1911 and digitized wills and testaments from Scotland’s National Archives and Scottish Catholic Archives records.
For births less than 100 years old, marriages less than 75 years old and deaths less than 50 years old, it is only possible to view the index entries over the internet and extract certificates need to be ordered to view the detail on the certificates.
So if you know of an ancestor who was born, married or died in Scotland after 1553 – the date of the earliest records – you may very well be able find out about them online.
5. Scotland’s National Archive
Amongst the most useful websites is ScotlandsPeople which provides online access (for a fee) to Scotland’s official registers of births, marriages and deaths as well as census records from 1841 to 1911 and digitised wills and testaments from Scotland’s National Archives and Scottish Catholic Archives records.
For births less than 100 years old, marriages less than 75 years old and deaths less than 50 years old, it is only possible to view the index entries over the internet and extract certificates need to be ordered to view the detail on the certificates.
So if you know of an ancestor who was born, married or died in Scotland after 1553 – the date of the earliest records – you may very well be able find out about them online.
6. Scottish census records
The Scottish Census, taken every 10 years since 1801, can provide a fascinating snapshot of a day in the life of your ancestors. It can also provide details of anyone else who happened to be in the house at the time, including servants, lodgers and visitors.
Census records can also give you some idea of how your family lived, for example, recording how many rooms, with one or more windows, their house contained. Geographic mobility can be tracked through the given birthplaces, and social mobility through addresses and occupations.
The returns of most use to the family historian are those from 1841 onwards. Records may only be inspected after 100 years, so the census records currently available for public scrutiny are 1841-1911. You can access census records on the ScotlandsPeople website.
The population tables and associated published statistical reports can be viewed for free at www.histpop.org.
7. Scottish birth or death certificate prior to 1855
Civil registration (birth, marriage and death certificates) did not begin in Scotland until 1855. For the 300 years before that, records of births and baptisms, banns and marriages and deaths and burials were kept by the Church of Scotland – these are known as the Old Parochial Registers or Old Parish Registers (OPRs).
Parish ministers or session clerks usually assumed responsibility for maintaining the registers, but since there was no standard format employed, record keeping varied enormously from parish to parish and also from year to year. You can search the surviving 3,500 volumes of OPRs on ScotlandsPeople.
8. How far back can I get with my Scottish family tree?
That depends on how much time and resource you have, as well as on many factors such as the survival of records and mobility and social status of the family.
Theoretically, those using the ScotlandsPeople archives can get back to the 1500s. If you know your ancestors lived and died in Scotland, you should easily get as far back as the mid-1800s. Records before 1855 are less reliable so there is no guarantee you will find ancestors before this date.
9. Planning to come to Scotland to do some further research. Where should I start?
Whilst there is a great deal of information to be found online nothing beats actually walking in the footsteps of your ancestors. A trip to Scotland provides you with the opportunity to see the land of your ‘kin’ (family). Clan Grant has helped to shape Scotland throughout its history and you will find a large number of historical sites with Clan Grant heritage. Scotland also offers you the opportunity to visit National and Local Archives as well as to view parish records and visit the graves of long lost relatives.
Guidance on planning your trip to Scotland to researching your family genealogy can be found on our Planning Your Trip Section.