How to Trace Your Scottish Ancestry: A Beginner's Guide to Clan Genealogy

Have you ever wondered whether you have roots in Scotland that you don’t know about?

Many of us have a mixed heritage with ties to a number of countries and cultures. Over 40 million people on earth have some degree of Scottish ancestry or other roots or connection to the country.

In this blog, we’ll discuss why so many people have links to Scotland and how to explore your own heritage.

How Scottish People Spread Across the World

Believe it or not, Scots began emigrating in the 1600s. Many did so to find better opportunities. The most popular destinations were the other nations that would come to be collectively called the United Kingdom - Ireland, England and Wales.

In the 1600s, some Scots - who came to be known as Ulster-Scots or Scots-Irish - were forcibly resettled in Northern Island. In the 1700s many Scots went to British colonial North America. Others travelled across the world to Australia or New Zealand.

Scottish emigration increased in the 1800s, with 2.3 million people leaving Scotland between 1820 and 1930. This was driven by famine, a changing Lowland economy and eviction of Highlanders from their lands. Approximately 750,000 went to America, with Australia and Canada becoming other popular destinations.

As a consequence of this, many individuals born outside Scotland have unknown Scottish roots.

How to Find out if you Have Scottish Heritage

With internet access available to everyone, it has never been easier to find out more about your family tree.

The best and easiest way to do this is by taking a DNA test. This will highlight what percentage of Scottish DNA you have.

Websites like Ancestry and Findmypast can also be useful. These sites enable you to build a digital family tree and search records like historical newspapers and parish registers.

If you prefer to do the research yourself, you can interview your relatives about their parents and grandparents and work backwards. The online General Register Office and Free UK Genealogy databases can be helpful tools.

Building a Family History

Scotland is a world leader in providing family history information online. Written records go back centuries, with registers of birth, deaths and marriage starting from 1553, Census records between 1841-1911 and wills from 1500. Consequently, tracking down the area of Scotland your distant relatives resided in is very feasible.

These historic records are available through the genealogical website Scotland’s People. This amounts to over 100 million individual records, with more regularly added.

If you are in Scotland, there are some additional places you can search for records:

• You can visit the Scotland’s People Centre.
• The National Library holds the International Genealogical Index. This holds old church parish records, monument inscriptions and census data starting from the Middle Ages.
• You can find family, business, church records, testaments and registers of property in the National Records of Scotland.
• The Mitchell Library in Glasgow has extensive family histories, street directories, emigrant lists and voter rolls.

Whether you Have Ancestral Links to Scotland or not, you are Welcome Here!

If you do not have Scottish DNA, there is no need to be sad. If you have lived, studied in or visited Scotland, you are considered part of “Scotland’s Diaspora". This means you have an affinity or a connection with Scotland. So, whatever your background, you can still contribute to Scotland culturally.

If you’d like to create a more solid connection to Scotland, why not purchase a Scotland Title? By purchasing one of our plots of land in Fife, you can become an honorary Lord or Lady and preserve the land for generations to come.