No. Not in Scotland.

I read an article last night from Rootstech in 2017 which nearly made me scream from a Scottish genealogy point of view! The article was part of a three part series on pre-1800 'British' research. It contained some classic tips, such as to look at probate records after 1858, and discussed why pre-printed baptismal records after 1813 were much more helpful because of pre-printed forms.

No. Not in Scotland.

Scotland and England may have been in a political union since 1707, but genealogically both countries have remained very independent with the creation of laws and genealogical documents generated thereof.

There are some very key differences....!

• The Scottish Reformation was in 1560. It had nothing to do with Henry VIII.
• The state church - the Church of Scotland - was Presbyterian and not Anglican, as in England, Wales and Ireland.
• Scottish civil registration started in 1855, not 1837 as in England.
• The civil courts handled divorces from the Scottish Reformation onwards. No Act of Parliament was required for a Scottish divorce, as in England.
• There is no 'probate' process in Scotland - the equivalent process is called 'confirmation' here. It has been handled by the civil courts since the 1560s.
• This confirmation process was for moveable estate only prior to 1868. There were separate processes before this for inheriting heritable estate, including the jury based Services of Heirs procedure, or the issue of a precept of clare constat by a subject superior.
• 1858 was just another year in Scotland.
• As was 1812. Rose's Act never applied to Scotland.
• As was 1753. Lord Harwicke's Act never applied to Scotland. It cheered Gretna up though!
• The most common form of irregular marriage was perfectly legal in Scotland until 1940. One form even continued to exist until 2006.
• Scotland has no bishops transcripts.
• Scotland has no manorial records. We do have some lovely sasines and estate records though. 
• I mean, properly lovely!
• I forgot to mention. Scotland also had feudalism in play until 2004.
• You can be prosecuted by a Crown court - the Court of the Lord Lyon - for the illegal use in Scotland of someone else's coat of arms.
• The Scottish poor law system was revamped from 1845, not 1834.
• And Scotland did not have workhouses. We had poorhouses.
• Scotland's censuses did start in 1801, as with England. But from 1861 onwards it has been handled by the General Register Office for Scotland, now the National Records of Scotland. Unlike in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the 2021 Scottish census has been postponed until 2022. 
• Next year, Scotland looks forward to the release of the 1921 census. In just over ten years time, Scotland will also look forward to the release of the 1931 census, which happily sits in our national archive, currently closed to access. England's equivalent was destroyed during the Second World War.

I could go on...!

Suffice to say, if you want to research Scottish ancestry, you need to see what the Scots did to preserve their ancestry through the records they kept, and to understand that 'British' genealogy only applies to some categories, such as military records and colonial records as kept at TNA in London.

If you'd like to find out a bit more, my recently released book Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records is a recommended starting point! Available from https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Ancestry-through-Church-and-State-Records-Paperback/p/16848 - and currently on offer at just £10.49 +p&p!

I hope it helps...!

UPDATE: Just for good measure - here's my pal Audrey Collins' FamilySearch video on why England and Britain are not the same thing! See https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/lessons/what-is-britain (We'd probably haggle on some of wording of some of it, but it makes the relevant geographic points!)

(With thanks to Audrey via Twitter!)

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course starts August 31st - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is now out, also available are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.