List Advice Page

If you do not find what you are looking for the first time you visit our site, you may find it worthwhile checking in from time to time, as new entries may well have been added. We have a lot of historical indexing waiting to be completed, so you may be luckier next time!

New entries are uploaded as and when individual indexes have been completed and gone through a fairly stringent checking procedure. While we wish to get as many Indexes on-line as quickly as possible, we cannot guarantee how often this process will occur, due to the very different types of historical material being researched at any one time.

Click on a link below,  or scroll down the page to read about these topics.

General Information

Abbreviations and Signs - Mostly as used in standard English and found in normal dictionaries, but please note the following: -

Almost all references to Commercial Businesses include where appropriate the abbreviations Co. for Company & Ltd for Limited, while & for and is frequently used to save space. Entries including these abbreviations will frequently have been changed from that given in the original documentation

In several Indices, (ms) is used in two ways. Where referring to personal names, it indicates a female Maiden Surname  as given in many Scottish documents :- thus Mary Smith (ms) Jones - or - Smith, Mary (ms) Jones, indicates that prior to becoming Mary Smith on her marriage, she previously was known as Mary Jones. Where referring to a Document Type (ms) means - in manuscript, or hand-written.

In every case, except when used together with a year in the year column, the Sign + after a column entry means that there is more information available.

Where there is any real doubt about the accuracy of any information, then a ? is added. Where this occurs, you should be wary of accepting the information as absolute fact. The level of doubt can vary from being very slight to considerable. See Accuracy.

 

 

 

Accuracy / Disclaimer - Every effort has been made to ensure that all indexed entries are accurate in content and spelling, as well as attributing linked details, such as place and county of origin.  However, it is likely that a small but unknown quantity of typographical errors and other mistakes exist within the overall content of our Lists. For these, we apologise in advance.

All indexed information in our Lists (other than ID details, including a variety of  Address and Country listings, comments and approximated dates) are deemed to have been abstracted from original documentation. Scottish Family Heritage does not vouch for the real accuracy of this information, other than in the context of these indexed abstractions.

Should you discover any entry that contains what you consider to be an error, please let us know by emailing SFH on our Contact Page.  We will be only too pleased to amend any errors you discover, but please note that we retain the right to amend, or not to amend such information as we deem appropriate. See Indexing of Entries

In these days of Political Correctness, it is important to stress that a few of our documents and other source material may contain information that could prove of concern to some researchers. Although this is unlikely, please note that none of the information contained in our historical archive in any way reflects the views or ideas of any person connected with Scottish Family Heritage.

 

 

Address / County / Country -

Address : In general, our listings will only include the main village, town or city appropriate for that entry. Sometimes where no other information is available we will include a house, or other building name, such as a farm or other identifying feature. Please note that for many entries, we have much more information about the address than is given in our Lists. Any additional information about individual entries is available on request. Please don't hesitate to ask, as this service is free. 

County : Where Scottish counties or shires are given, please note that in most cases they have been so designated according to the Shire boundaries as existed during the 19th century. For further details check out our Scottish Counties List page.

         Country : - We have entries relating to every country given in this List. Please note, however, that not all listed countries
         may be on-line as yet. Additional entries will be made to this List in the future.

 

 

 

Document Type - Most entries under this heading are self explanatory, however, some are less obvious, particularly those of a Scottish legal nature. Please ask for further details by emailing us from our Contact Page. This may help you decide if you wish to proceed with your enquiry.

 

 

 

Indexing of Entries - As far as possible we index 'Addresses', 'Commercial Businesses & Organisations,' 'People' and 'Subjects,' etc., under their appropriate place headings. However, in many cases the original source material gives insufficient information for them to be accurately placed to a city, town, village or county and occasionally country of origin. Frequently many original sources give biographical details indicating multiple geographical connections. Therefore, people, or other subject categories whose precise details have not been ascertained, are placed with the most accurate geographical category deemed most appropriate. If you are able to suggest a more accurate placing for any particular entry, we are more than happy to amend what is currently on display. See Accuracy / Disclaimer

 

 

 

Inventory number - This is the ID name / number that SFH has given for each entry in every List. If you make an enquiry about any of our List entries, you must quote the exact details given under this heading to ensure a quick response. This will also enable us to search for the required book or document with relative ease.

Important Note:  In any entry, the following ID's  indicate a particular type of item

107 = a postcard	108 = a newspaper, or newscutting
109 B (a number) = a book, journal, etc.	110 = generally some type of ephemeral publication, e.g. a programme

 

 

 

 

Links to Other Websites - We are pleased to have mutual Links with other web sites relating to Family History subjects. We are also happy to encourage mutual links to other websites offering genealogical information on individual family trees, for which SFH has a particular interest. However, please note we are in no way responsible for the accuracy or content of any of these sites and these may be removed at any time from our Links Page, subject to the sole discretion of Scottish Family Heritage.

 

 

 

 

Name Spelling - All names listed are written as found quoted in the original manuscript or published work. This includes miss-spellings, unless it is obvious that these result from genuine mistakes, or typographical errors. In some instances we give a suggested correction or variation in brackets. You should therefore be aware that particularly in documents generally dating from the 19th century and earlier, you may well find frequent examples of surname or place-name variations, some of which can be quite considerable. For example, in one document you might find the surname Saintclair also written as St Clair, or Andearson given for Anderson.  A good example of this sort of spelling problem is the name Houston, which could be written in several different ways, e.g. Houston, Housten, Houstoun, Houstone, Houstene, Houstoune, (also Hawistoune, Hawistoun, Hostan, Hostine, Howstoun, Howstoune, Howystoun, Huison, Huistone & Huston).
N.B. the names in brackets are taken from George F Black's "The Surnames of Scotland."

Where old Monumental Inscriptions are concerned, several letters of the alphabet may be interchanged. For example, the letter J may be replaced by the letter I. Therefore, in the case of names appearing on old tombstones, the name John may have been carved as Iohn, or Janet carved as Ianet. These examples would be indexed as John (Iohn) and Janet (Ianet) for clarity.

 

 

 

Occupation / Profession - In most of our Lists, very few references are given to what people did for a living, however, those with a title such as Lord, Reverend, etc., may be recorded. Occupations may also be included where the name or other details are incomplete, or uncertain. Please note, however, that we hold a significant amount of information about the type of work people did for a living, or other designation they might have.  Please ask for further details about the occupation of individual people by emailing us on our Contact Page. This may help you decide if you wish to proceed with your enquiry.

 

 

 

Payment -

Payment via PayPal - Unless otherwise discussed and agreed, please pay the full amount you have been asked for, making no deductions for charges or cross border fees, or other similar charges. If you live outwith the UK, please  avoid long delays in making payment after we have quoted you a price, so that significant exchange rate differences do not occur.  

Payment via Western Union - When we have mutually agreed the cost of your order, please quote Elgin as the branch to which payment is to be made at your own payment facility. When you contact us that payment has been initiated by Western Union, you will require to give us an ID number, which you will have been given when making paying at your own WU branch.

Bankers' Cheques - If you are placing an order from outside the UK, you are liable to incur additional administration costs to have your payment transferred if paying in a currency other than Pounds (£,s) Sterling. This can be done at your end, or if you expect this to be done in Scotland, please add on £10.00 to the value of your order.

IMPORTANT NOTE :- To avoid any embarrassment or delay in sending out your order, please ensure that the payment you send exactly matches the precise quote you have been given beforehand. If you are in any doubt about what you should pay, please ask - we are here to help.

Please also note that if you do send the wrong payment, we will notify you and request that the correct payment is sent. If this is not acted upon within a period of ten working days, your original payment will be returned.

 

 

 

Prices -  As of April 2010, some prices have been reduced to the level they were over a year ago. We try to keep our price levels as low as possible taking into account all the assorted costs involved. We are happy to provide quotations for all quantities of copying, but in viewing our prices and quotes, you should take into account that we are not a subsidised organisation. Costs therefore must reflect the time it takes to deal with enquiries overall. 

 

 

 

Removal of a List Entry - If for any reason you think any particular entry should not be available for public consumption on one of our Lists, please email us with your comments on our Contact Page clearly indicating your reasons. We will carefully consider your comments and act accordingly. In any case of this kind, we will endeavour to satisfy your concerns, but the final decision will rest solely with SFH, unless other factors exist.

 

 

 

Source Content - The original sources from which all our Indexed Lists have originated are considerably varied. As a result, the content is not only extremely disparate, but also highly mixed in relation to the quantity, quality of information and detail given about any individual person, commercial business, organisation, place or subject, etc.

All the listings originate partly from our collection of original manuscripts dating from the 15th century to around 1950, as well as a selection of published sources, some of which the average researcher is unlikely to be aware of, or have easy access to.

Each individual enquiry may vary a great deal in the results we discover for you. For example, one enquiry may only lead to the name you are looking for appearing in one small minor document, or published list, while another may yield a response counted in 10's or even 100's of historical documents for your genealogical and historical delectation!

The majority of our listings relate to people connected with Scotland, in particular the main cities of Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth and Stirling. However, we do have entries relating to every county or shire in the country. We also have a good smattering of items relating to the other countries that make up the United Kingdom, which include England, Ireland (north & south) as well as Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, although the City of London makes up a good proportion of these non-Scottish listings. A small number of entries also relate to countries outside Great Britain.

 

 

 

Year / Date - In general, the year given is that in which the source item (book /document) was produced, not necessarily a time reference to the indexed person or other item it relates to. For example, a historical figure living in the 15th century might have the year 1889 tagged to this entry. This only indicates that the source was written or published in that year.

Where thought appropriate, we may insert an earlier year or time period reference in brackets ( ). Thus an event which occurred in 1728, but was recorded in 1752, may be indexed as 1752 (1728).

Sometimes an exact year of origination is unknown, and where this occurs, we insert our best view as to what this is likely to be.

 

 

Year Symbols - The following symbols have the following meanings:-                                                   

	circa	about, or in the region of
	cent.	century / centuries
	- after a date	any time before (generally within a period of 1-30 years)
	+ after a date	any time after (generally within a period of 1-30 years)
	+/-	any time after or before (generally within a period of 1-30 years)
	- between dates	indicates consecutive dates
	/ between dates	indicates the first and last year mentioned for any entry
	(any date in brackets)	generally a date referred to in the text & not necessarily the date the document was written