Finding Your Scottish Ancestors
Techniques For Solving Genealogy Problems Kirsty F Wilkinson
The Crowood Press, 256 pages, £16.99
It’s a good time to have Scottish roots. After I reviewed Chris Paton’s Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records last month, now Kirsty Wilkinson’s appealing, well-produced and valuable book provides its own comprehensive insight into sources and research techniques.
The publication begins with an analysis of the main sets of records available and where to find them, and also includes information about the ever-increasing number of websites available that can benefit researchers working remotely.
The ‘Expert Tips’ boxes in the first six chapters provide succinct information, adding greatly to the detail contained in these chapters, and give the family historian wider guidance on the use of these resources. Research
techniques, suggestions on interpretation of records, and difficulties that the researcher may encounter when using these records are all discussed in impressive detail.
In later chapters, potential problems are considered, making use of the knowledge built up by the author, an experienced professional researcher. The ‘Solutions’ boxes contained in the final two chapters make numerous suggestions, which the researcher would do well to follow. These include consideration of Scottish naming patterns, name variants, and the use of records such as the minutes of kirk sessions, estate records and other less-familiar sources, many not online.
Kirsty Wilkinson’s guide is recommended for anyone with Scottish relations in their tree.