Hey David,

All the sites people mention are good resources. However, in my view, the best resource for finding Scottish forebears is http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/. It is the official Government of Scotland website and is a fee site. Compared to other countries, not suprizingly, it is cheap -- how else would the get Scots to use it LOL.

Anyway, you pay 6 pounds for 30 credits. It costs one credit to view a list of names derived from a search and either 5 credits (if it is a .pdf image of the actual registry/census document) or 1 credit (if it is a typed up pseudo replica of the registry/census document). All births, marriages and deaths after 1855 are online. I haven't found an exception yet. Census for 1881, 1891 and 1901 have been online for awhile and I think they added more. For births and marriages prior to 1855, it is possible to find records from the "old parish records". I have never had much luck with these. So, this site you are guaranteed to find anything after 1855.

Another nice thing about Scottish research (as opposed to English) is the completeness of records. Births, marriages and death records always include information on the persons parents (ie. parents occupation, age (or if deceased) and, if live, residence). English information is not that helpful. With all these, it is very easy to be sure you have the right record and easy to jump back to the next generation.

Be careful though. The day I discovered Scotland's People, I spend about C$100 and about 5 hours on line. It was like a video lottery terminal. Happy ancestor hunting!