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Scotland Project Reliable Sources

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For general WikiTree guidance on reliable sources, please see the help page on Reliable Sources. This page contains a list of Project approved, reliable sources for both pre-1700 and pre-1500 profiles. It also contains lists of sources to be used with caution, and those that should not be used at all.

Contents

Reliable Sources

Reliable Sources with Conditions

  • Find a Grave entries are considered a reliable source if they contain an image of the grave marker which is contemporaneous with the date of death, or at least a transcription of such a contemporaneous marker. Contemporary markers installed years later are often prone to contain errors so are at best only partially reliable, and FindAGrave entries which contain no image at all and/or no transcription are completely unacceptable as a reliable source.

See also

EuroAristo Project Reliable Sources

Unreliable Sources

  • Burke's Peerage and all other reference works written by John Burke or other members of his family. These volumes rarely reference sources and contain many errors, the 19th century editions are particularly unreliable. Always use Cokayne or Richardson in preference to Burke.
  • ThePeerage.com - find and cite the sources given in the references, don't cite thepeerage.com
  • Stirnet.com - find and cite the sources given in the references, don't cite sirnet.com
  • User generated trees such as Geni, MyHeritage, Ancestry, FamilySearch, Rootsweb, Geneanet, etc. These kinds of sites can be used to find details that can lead to reliable sources. Some trees cite sources that can be used for your profiles when you have checked them out. Never use a user generated tree as source.
  • Unsourced or badly sourced gedcom imports.
  • Generic repositories: eg. familysearch.com or ancestry.com Why Ancestry and FamilySearch Aren’t Sources
  • Conglomerate indexes eg. Millenium Files, Yates Publishing Indexes.
  • International Genealogical Index (IGI) (FamilySearch Historical Records) where up to 50 % of the entries are user generated.
  • Published books, articles and blogs that do not have sources listed.
  • See also Category:Frauds_and_Fabrications




Collaboration


Comments: 16

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M Ross
Have you seen this? Index of Islay, Scotland Placenames, This list contains the names of about 460 farms and settlements on Islay, Scotland, including names used from 1750 to the present. I

it has links to Google maps for almost all the farms

https://homepages.rootsweb.com/~steve/islay/rawdata/bobmq2021.htm

posted by M Ross
Desmond Gillespie Jr.
Is there a free way to secure and cite a source from Scotland's People? It is the best non-Family Search source concerning an ancestor of mine, Gillespie-1766.
posted by Desmond Gillespie Jr.
Carruth-363 Linda (Carruth) Peterson
Scotland Citation Examples help page
posted by Linda (Carruth) Peterson
edited by Linda (Carruth) Peterson
Colin Aumann
You can set up a free account with www.ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk using your email address and a password. Next using their search engine look for a name. It costs you nothing to use their search engine.

An example in Church Register - Old Parish Register - Births and Marriages, for William Keith is shown:

KEITH WILLIAM ARCHIBALD KEITH/MARY PORTERFEILD FR4291 (FR4291) M 04/04/1713 685 / 1 150 / 304 EDINBURGH

Putting this information into a reference from Linda (Carruth) Peterson's Scotland Citations Example help page you get:

<ref>"Old Parish Registers Banns and Marriages" database, National Records of Scotland, ScotlandsPeople (accessed 5 June 2024), KEITH, WILLIAM, parents: ARCHIBALD KEITH/MARY PORTERFEILD, M, 04/04/1713; citing Ref No: 685 / 1 150 / 304, Parish: EDINBURGH.</ref>

posted by Colin Aumann
edited by Colin Aumann
Anonymous Bremford
Worth noting the Wikitree Sourcer browser plugin will do this for you - select the record you want from the list and "create source". Not free, but I'm a satisfied customer as I've found it a massive timesaver
posted by Anonymous Bremford
Carruth-363 Linda (Carruth) Peterson
Sourcer app is a free extension, except on Apple devices, because they charge developers. All citations generated still need to be checked for accuracy because a computer cannot always interpret things correctly.
posted by Linda (Carruth) Peterson
Paul Roberton
Just wondering the collective opinion on the use of George Black's Surnames of Scotland and Nesbit's A System of Heraldry Vol II ?
posted on Scotland - Reliable Sources (merged) by Paul Roberton
Madison-125 Bobbie (Madison) Hall
Both are highly useful, as a simple answer. Black's will give you ideas for further research; Nisbet's is not flawless, but of very high quality. His profile is here.
posted on Scotland - Reliable Sources (merged) by Bobbie (Madison) Hall
edited by Bobbie (Madison) Hall
Potter-10870 Susie (Potter) Officer
Hi Scotland Project

I've noticed this has been used on https://www.hebrideanconnections.com some profiles (eg. Murdo Macaulay (abt.1640-aft.1663)). Is it considered reliable pre-1700?

Thanks Susie

posted on Scotland - Reliable Sources (merged) by Susie (Potter) Officer
edited by Susie (Potter) Officer
Madison-125 Bobbie (Madison) Hall
Hi Susie,

As a *secondary* source this one is a treasure trove. Most of the profiles on their site provide at least a source for the information, although not necessarily Volume, page, author, etc., as we'd love it to supply. But one could conceivably track down the original source records. As for adding it to this particular list, I would at most put it under the "Reliable with conditions" portion, but since it applies only to one geographic region we wouldn't place it here as these generally apply to the entire country. Let me know if my answer isn't clear.

[Edited to add:] Ideally the WT member would go through the information provided on the Hebridean Connections profile and identify their sources and add that to the WT profile. For example, citing the HC page, but adding "citing information obtained from Families of Lewis: Macaulay, and Uig Historical Society archive."

Cheers, Bobbie

posted on Scotland - Reliable Sources (merged) by Bobbie (Madison) Hall
edited by Bobbie (Madison) Hall
Potter-10870 Susie (Potter) Officer
Thanks Bobbie, that's really helpful. I have another Profile I was contemplating using it on so I can apply your advice to it - much appreciated! Susie.
posted on Scotland - Reliable Sources (merged) by Susie (Potter) Officer
Tennant-1217 Jean (Tennant) Skar
agree it among the more reliable--and I may have just found the error when Ii used it.
posted on Scotland - Reliable Sources (merged) by Jean (Tennant) Skar
edited by Jean (Tennant) Skar
Tennant-1217 Jean (Tennant) Skar
I would question the Peerage books as a reliable source, they seem to copy each other and the errors found in publications.
posted on Scotland - Reliable Sources (merged) by Jean (Tennant) Skar
Madison-125 Bobbie (Madison) Hall
I would say it's based on degree. Cokayne and Balfour Paul were very careful, although any work of that scope would contain errors. These certainly aren't flawless and need to be verified whenever possible with contemporary documents. To call either of them unreliable would be extreme.
posted on Scotland - Reliable Sources (merged) by Bobbie (Madison) Hall

Categories: Scotland Project Managed FSPs | Scotland Project | Reliable Sources for Pre-1700 Profiles