N.B. In summer 2010 the Scotland's People site layout was significantly modified.  These Notes have not been updated since that event and may be out-of-date, particularly regarding the sequence of screens and their layouts.

Introduction and Overview for the Scotland's People website at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

• NB: These suggestions are personal, not official. Please note the caveats on the ScP initial page.

These are the pages currently available:

1. ScPOverview - Introduction and Overview [this page]
2. ScPStarting - Getting Started
3. ScPPayments - How to Pay, and what you get
4. ScPSearching - How to Optimise Searches
5. ScPImages - How to Download Images

The Scotland's People website is Crown Copyright, "a partnership between General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon".  It provides an index to and Images of these official Scottish records:

1. Old Parish Registers [OPRs] from 1553 t0 1854, where such record still survive

2. Statutory Certificates for Births, Marriages and Deaths registered in Scotland from 1855 to different cut-off dates

3. Decennial Census records from 1841 to 1901.  Unlike in England & Wales, the Scottish 1911 records will not be added before 2011.

4. Wills and Testaments 1513-1901, includes Inventories

5. Coats of Arms 1672-1907

These suggestions and tips are not intended to supplant the Scotland's People Help pages which are excellent.  Rather we hope to be able to provide a basic introduction to the site and give what we hope are useful tips on getting the best from it.

If you have any helpful suggestions you would like us to add to the site, or amendments/corrections, please use the Contact Us button on the left.

Caveats - Our purpose is to help amateur genealogists make best use of Scotland's People and possibly saving you money, although we think the site is one of the best value-for-money sites on the web.   We make no claim for accuracy in these notes. The Scotland's People site is continually being updated and our suggestions may be out of date.  We hope to avoid misleading anyone and apologise if you should feel that we have done so.