Finding Grandpa's Birth Record

Grandfather's Record List, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Choosing Search Terms

 for a Statutory Birth at Scotland's People. 

Searching the Statutory Births (post 1855) for my grandfather's name and year, quickly brought me to his birth record. Since I had a year of birth, from the gravestone and the oral history, I was fortunate to find this record on the first shot.

I had not entered Dalbeattie as the location (you can see the search terms used at the top). I thought that this was going to be the world's easiest database to use. It's not. I was lucky because the surname Broadfoot is not too common but it is more common than I thought.


This search and any other results costs one credit. That would be one credit per page. I learned that quite quickly with other searches.


I have learned since how to interpret the GROS data but before I give you tips on that I'd like to show you the result of this "hit".


I have to thank David Webster whose course I took so long ago in 2001. Searching was even harder because there was a time limit for expiring credits. He and others lobbied to extend the time for credits. He helped me find records for my surname. We bartered for help with Microsoft Word. It took me a whole day to find out the answer to his tech question so it was a fair deal.