Scottish Roots Ancestral Research Celebrates 25 Years in 2009

Catch them during Who Do You Think You Are?
Robert Burns isn’t the only Scottish institution celebrating a birthday in 2009.   Scottish Roots Ancestral Research Service is celebrating 25 years in the genealogy business – longer than any other similar business.  They will also be at the Who Do You Think You Are? Show at London’s Olympia next month -  the only professional Scottish genealogists attending.

Originally operating from a dingy office in Edinburgh’s Castle Street, the business now operates from a dingy office in Edinburgh’s Forth Street,  using a small team of experienced genealogists, each one having over 20  years experience.  Since they began tracing Scottish family trees in 1984, there have been many changes.  Stuart Reid, who runs the business recalls: “ The genealogy business was completely different when I began, and the competition  was mainly a handful of amateur enthusiasts who did it largely for pin money.  I started to advertise more professionally, design leaflets, try and get publicity in the press.  This approach ruffled some feathers, but recognising the potential I persevered.”
 
Since 1984 most Scottish records have been digitised, making them accessible from anywhere in the world.  “ When we began we had to visit the record office, climb up and down ladders,  to inspect old certificates from dusty old volumes .  Personally I prefer this old fashioned method, and I would guess most professionals would agree as they still visit the record office in person.”
 
Now that most records have been digitised is there still a demand for using a professional researcher?  “Yes, I think there is still a demand, but it is definitely more difficult to get new customers.  Nevertheless there are people who simply want to spend £200 to get the job done properly and quickly, and who don’t have the time, knowledge or patience to trawl the internet.  The most frustrating queries we receive are from people who have tried to do it themselves but have got in a mess, got stuck, or have traced the wrong line.  Its a bit like a professional plumber being asked to sort out an amateur’s botched attempt to install his own central heating, thinking that he would save money by going to B & Q to do it himself.”
 
Having undertaken many thousands of investigations in the last 25 years, they have found that some cases have proved to be much more interesting than others, including 2 murders, a poisoning, several bigamous marriages, and countless illegitimate births.
 “ Each case is unique. Although Scottish records don’t  go that far back, we can still pick up interesting detail along the way, such as occupations, addresses and causes of death.  This makes it more interesting than just names and dates, which is frankly dull.”
 
Where do most enquiries come from?  “Most of our customers are based in the UK, but we still get orders from the USA, Canada and Australia.  However we turn away many American enquirers as they are often “clans and tartans” based, and there is nothing we can do for them without a specific date of birth in Scotland.”

Scottish Roots will be at stand no. 506 at Who Do You Think You Are?  February 27th – March 1st.   
 
Scottish Roots
16 Forth Street
Edinburgh EH1 3LH
(0131- 477 8214)
www.scottishroots.com
stuart@scottishroots.com