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Step 1
Gather information that you have at your disposal now. This includes family documents like family Bibles, letters and similar items. Remember to include oral history that you recall from sitting at your grandfather's knee.
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Step 2
Start with the most recent Scottish ancestor and work backwards. Search your family Scottish name to find the history of the surname, plus alternate spelling. Realize that when people moved from Scotland, some changed the spelling of their family name. Count yourself lucky if you find your clan.
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Step 3
Check with the General Register Office (GRO) in Edinburgh for birth, marriage and death records. Unlike the many offices in the U.S. for vital records, this office holds all records.
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Step 4
Discover other Scotland ancestry sites to view at the United Kingdom Genealogy links page, GenUKI (see Resources). You'll find information about the locations of Family History Societies, libraries and archives of Scotland.
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Step 5
Go online to Scotland's People, a website with almost 50 million genealogical records available, once you've exhausted other sources. This pay-per-view searchable database of indexes can add up if you don't know what you're looking for. You'll find baptism and marriage information from 1553 to 1901 and other birth, marriage and death records from 1855.
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Step 6
Visit Scotland to do a bit of tracing your Scottish Roots at the same time. The New Register House can be helpful if you know what you want, such as a census or parish registers.
