The Scots Origins index of the General Register Office for Scotland's official births, deaths, marriages & census records contains nearly 30 million records extending back to 1553 and is on the Web at www.origins.net/GRO

One of the world's most well known genealogy sources is managed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (The Mormons) and is found at www.familysearch.com.

An excellent general source of genealogy information is census records. Census records go back quite a long way in North America and usually contain thorough information.

Another good source is any family records you may have, such as photo-albums, old family trees, diaries/journals, letters, etc.

For more in depth information, we also offer the services of a professional genealogist through our Ancestral Research services.

As well as family and census records, there are some other useful resources. Two on the Gathering of the Clans site are Your Ancestors and Scots on the Net. Both are online databases in which people can enter themselves (Scots on the Net) or their ancestors (Your Ancestors), and also search for people who may be related to or have useful information.

If you're lucky, you may also discover another relative is already researching your family tree, or at least their branch of it. If so, collaborating with them can often be very helpful.

Some other resources worth checking include:

• Wills, Deeds, Etc.
• Certificates and Awards
• Armed forces records
• Marriage records
• School records
• Church records (baptism, membership, marriages, deaths, etc.)
• Burial/Cemetery records
• Libraries

Newspaper archives also often contain such things as marriage and birth records, as well as obituaries.

• Be persistent.
  It will most likely take a bit of work as well as trial and error to compile a detailed family history. Don't let yourself get easily discouraged, if you find one avenue of research closed off, simply try another.

• Be patient.
  Patience is one of the most important genealogical tools you can possess. Some things that may seem boring, unproductive or time-consuming at first may turn out to be very rewarding later.

• Memories can be faulty.
  While jogging people's memory can often provide you with good information, human beings are still fallible and it is a good idea to double-check information from such sources.

• Older the records, greater the chance they're not completely accurate.
  Record keeping wasn't always as accurate as it is today and some details in older records may not be as specific as you might wish. Also, there were many names with no exact spelling, people often spelled their name however they thought it sounded, so don't limit yourself to one spelling in your searches.

• Keep clear, detailed, and accurate records.
  The reasons for this tip are obvious. These records can provide you with a quick over- view of all the research you've done, and if you find out somewhere down the road that you've made a mistake, they can help you to see where you made it and how to correct it.

And above all:

• Keep an open mind.
  Your research will generally be a lot more productive if you go into it looking to learn all you can, than if you go into it with a lot of pre-conceived ideas. Pre-conceived ideas have the unfortunate tendency of causing people to ignore pieces of information that don't fit with those ideas, sometimes important pieces of information.