You don't need to head to Scotland to trace your Scottish ancestors. Many Scottish records are online and free to search. However, if you are trying to trace your ancestors in Scottish census records, then costs can add up if you use the pay-as-you-go website ScotlandsPeople. Luckily there are a few simple tips that will help you save money and find your family.
On 30 November 2022 the 1921 Scottish census was released on the Scottish government’s records website ScotlandsPeople. It was the ninth decennial census to be made available on the platform, which now covers 1841–1921. ScotlandsPeople is the only website to host digitised images of the enumerators’ returns from every census year, with each record free to search but costing six credits, or £1.50, to view.
The cost can soon add up if you are not quite sure which entry concerns your relative, but fortunately some simple steps can make searches more accurate and save you money.
8 simple tips to find your family in the Scottish census
- Go to the ‘Census returns’ screen on ScotlandsPeople and select the Scottish census you want to target. Search options include a surname, forename, gender, age range, the county in which registered, and the district.
- If you know the name of another individual in the household, use the ‘Forename of other person on that census page’ box, but bear in mind that this is literally what it means – another entry on the same page, not necessarily within the same household.
- If you still have too many results and know the names of other family members expected to be in the same household, try carrying out a search of the family surname only, without a forename and select the county and district where you expect to find them. When the list of results appears, click on the header ‘Ref’ to rearrange the results into sequential order. You can now browse down the list and look for your family grouped together, as they will share the same page reference number.
- Don’t forget that households in Scottish census records sometimes carry over to the next page in a register. If you find that your family’s reference is 559/ 10/ 9, check that there isn’t a possible family member at 559/ 10/ 10 also. However, this method may also flag up other households on the same page with people sharing the same surname, but who may not be related.
- If you can’t find your relation in Scottish census records, there may be an issue with how their name was recorded and/or how it has been indexed. Beside the name boxes are blue hyperlinks marked ‘Search options’ such as exact names, fuzzy matching, wildcards allowed, names that begin with, and phonetic matching.
- It is quite common to find married women, particularly widows, to be listed under their maiden surname, when when found with the rest of their family. Also check out our guide to Scottish naming traditions.
- Be flexible with ages, people didn't always know their exact age, or didn't want to share it.
- You can find more detailed advice at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/census-returns.
Free access to 1881 Scottish census online
A way to save money for a search of the 1881 census only is to choose the ‘1881 (LDS)’ option. This offers access to a free transcript, produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and permits additional search fields such as occupation, address and birthplace.
For the other censuses from 1841–1901, you can find similar search options in the Scottish census transcripts found on commercial genealogy sites such as Ancestry, Findmypast, MyHeritage and TheGenealogist. However, these transcripts are incomplete, missing data such as an ability to speak Scottish Gaelic, the number of rooms with one or more windows, boundary information, employment status, and medical information.
