A catalogue of new developments and ideas. Each month we'll feature a different area of research. This month:

Digital Imaging of Scottish Records

The shelves of The General Register Office for Scotland may contain more than 60million names, but they are nearing completion of a vast project which will revolutionise genealogy and make their entire collection of records available at the click of a mouse.

The scheme is known as DIGROS - the Digital Imaging of the Genealogical Records of Scotland's People and aims to create digital images of all the records they hold and make them accessible world-wide. The project started six years ago with the production of images of over four million names taken from the microfiche records of 1891 census.

Digital images of 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 Census records and statutory births (1855 - 1905), marriages (1855 - 1930) and deaths (1855 - 1955) are all now available on scotlandspeople.gov.uk, the official government source of genealogical information. The Old Parish Registers (1553 - 1854) and the Census records for 1841 and 1851 will become available online shortly. Eventually the minor Records, like Service Returns and Marine Returns will also be digitised for online use. If you register online you can opt to receive the newsletter which will keep you informed of new additions to the website.

Digital images of records held by the National Archives of Scotland - wills and testaments from 1513 to 1901 - were added to the website in 2005.

To access GROS records, you have to buy page credits which cost £6.00 per 30 credits. Access to the index of wills and testaments if free although there is a charge for downloading colour images of related documents. Sessions last for seven consecutive days so it’s best to have a good idea of what you’re looking for, although if you find you’re making progress as time runs out you can buy more credits online, and you keep unused credits should you need to visit again. Do be careful with your credits though, as viewing GROS images costs 5 credits per image. You won’t lose any unused credits - they will be stored for your next session - but you will have to buy more on your next visit to start searching again.

View previous features here:
Focus on Clans and Gaelic Sources
Searching the 1901 Census
Military Records
Death Records
Memorials
Wills and Testaments
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