To inform the debate - How Scotlands People works pros & cons

As users will probably be aware those of us that have Scottish Ancestors are blessed with two significant benefits. Firstly the records kept in Scotland were significantly more detailed than those in England and secondly we have had online access to the records for as long as I've been researching which is over 10 years.

So I thought it might be useful to highlight the features that are good about Scotlands People and those that are not so good. This might help inform the debate about not only what is possible but what might be desired as part of the English records being made more widely available.

Firstly I'd say being able to search and view the image there and then is extremely useful. Having the facility to print off and save the image for later use is also very useful.

With the Scottish records there is a clear distinction between viewing a record online and ordering a certificate. You can view an image and save it as I said but that is strictly for your "personal use/research" it has no legal significance. This costs 5 credits which at current rates is £1.20 for a "certificate". You can however also order a certified copy, this has special legal significance in that it comes on printed watermarked paper is stamped with a seal. The point is that this form of certificate which is the only thing you can currently get in England is legal proof of birth, marriage, death and is admissible in court.

It is this extra significance that adds to the cost. I would very very strongly say that there needs to be a clear distinction in the offerings from the GRO as a result of their review. They clearly still need to provide legally admissible documents and these can continue at the current or even higher cost. However for family history all we need is to see the details on the form it is very very rare that we would need legally binding documents to prove in court a relationship.

In Scotland a certificate is rather expensive and costs £12 whereas simply viewing and being able to save and print off your own copy of the image of the register page costs just £1.20 ten times cheaper.

 

One of the downsides of Scotlands People is that it is currently a pay-per-view site rather than a monthly or annual subscription. Note that the cost for the number of records you'd typically view is not that different from FMP or Ancestry however the fact that every single time you view anything it costs credits means you are acutely aware of racking up costs. With a subscription model you've already paid so don't notice the cost as much.

It's a subtle difference but it does significantly affect the attitude to using the site. I've experienced similar with pay minutes for mobile phones and pay per minute internet access. In all cases because you are aware of the price for using the service it tends to make you artificially limit what you do. Whereas a subscription model might actually mean you spend more but you feel liberated to search whenever you feel like it and don't feel the same "restrictions". It's a strange psychological thing but one to be acutely aware of.

I've argued that if the Scottish Parliament were to amend the regulations to allow Scotlands People to introduce a subscription model then they would probably see a significant jump in revenue as people would pay up front and use the service rather than holding back.

 

My point was that I would strongly encourage the consultation response to offer both a pay per view AND a subscription model. In the consultations with the Scottish Government the suggestion is to amend the regulations to allow a subscription model, not to replace the pay per view but to offer an alternative for those that prefer to pay a subscription.

My other basic point still stands too, for ANY product if you are paying each and every time you use a service you notice the price and cost of the service far far more than if you pay once and just use the service, you tend to forget the price.

So encourage a variety of payment plans to suit the needs and pockets of those accessing the services rather than a one size fits all. Making sure to put the argument about subscription models usually generating on average more income than pay per view because of the psychological barriers we invent when using pay per view.

 

On that basis someone who lives in Japan would be paying 191 times as much!

In November 2013 the average full-time wage in Australia was $74,724; in April 2012 the average full-time wage in the UK was £26,500. It seems to me that subscriptions are actually cheaper for Australians who are in work; I'm sure that, as in this country, most retired Australians have much lower incomes, but I suspect the arithmetic is similar.

 

One other feature of Scotlands People that is absolutely invaluable and one that everyone would absolutely want in an English system but isn't immediately apparent. That is the previous search index.

Basically every time you do a search it remembers the search results and you can search the search results. This might not make much sense so a screen shot may help.

You will see from below that date and time of each search and what was searched. If you click the view button you get back the search results for that search without paying for any more credits.

 

Especially important is the search form at the bottom of the page. As I'm doing a one name study I have done searches of ALL Bisset births, marriages, deaths and census records. ie: I did a search for Bisset as a surname with variants with no forename for each of the categories. This then generates a search result with say 25 pages, 25 records to a page. I stepped through each page and that got recorded in the "previous search" results and cost 25 credits 1 per page - which is just under £6. So now when I'm doing my searches I never spend any credits for searching my Bissets I only spend credits to view the images.

To view the images I go to the search form at the bottom of the previous searches page enter Bisset in the name filter and Aberdeen (or Kincardine, or Banff etc ie: the county name) in the location filter and tick the boxes to filter. This gives the second image as a result, note the dates some are 2010 etc. So 5 years later and I can still revisit for free the previous searches.

 

Perhaps we can come up with a list of fields that we'd like to be able to use when searching the historic England & Wales registers, with hypothetical examples of why each might be important? At the moment we're restricted to using the fields in the paper indexes.

It's also worth noting that there are also searches that could be carried out using the existing indexes but which none of the sites currently offers. For example, you can't search specifically for illegitimate children (ie where the mother's maiden name is the same as the surname) even after 1911, nor can you carry out cross index searches - eg births vs deaths, which would be very useful for screening out births of children who died as infants.

 

Ahead of my meeting with the GRO on Monday I'd like to get some practical experience of searching and viewing BMD records at Scotlandspeople (I have some credits that were reactivated). Rather than pick names at random, I'd rather search for specific individuals: does anyone have some Scottish relatives I can look up - ideally ones whose records you haven't previously looked for, so that it's a more realistic test?

 

Peter how about my husbands ancestors I have all this information via his Military records (Brook or Brooks)

How about Robert Brook 5 Feb 1828 Abbey, Renfrewshire
He joined the Royal Hours Guards in 1848

Father
David Brooks 17 June 1802 – 1859

Mother
Elizabeth May – Married 13 June 1823

Possible Brother
John 1824
I am sure there will have been other siblings

 

Civil registration didn't begin in Scotland until 1855, so unfortunately there's not much I can do with that family. I did look for the father's death but the only entry I found was a David Brooks who died aged 50 in Falkirk (he was a nailer, and his death was registered by his son John).

 

I'm afraid I couldn't find him - it was annoying not to be able to search using his birthday after being used to searching the 1939 Register. I looked at 10 records before I realised that I was close to running out of credits.

The only Robert Bell whose birth was registered in Wanlockhead between 1886-1891 was born on 21st July 1889, and whilst his father was a John Bell, his occupation was 'lead ore smelter'. You can see this Robert Bell on the 1891 and 1901 Censuses - his mother was Jane.

BTW, you might want to redo your birth year calculations - if he was indeed born on 30th June and was shown as 21 in 1911 this implies that he was born in 1889, not 1890.

 

I think the 1911 Census would be the best option - if he did marry it's likely to have been before 1911 so you'll see him with his wife and possibly one or both daughters.