If you’re one of the 5 million Americans that have Scottish ancestry and have traced your ancestors back to Scotland, you may be asking yourself, “Now what??”

In honor of Scottish Heritage Month, here are 7 free Scottish genealogy websites to use in your research, and how they can benefit you.

1) GENUKI – Scotland

GENUKI – the UK and Ireland Genealogical Information Service – is a comprehensive directory of genealogy links on just about every type of record out there. Many of the links go to other free sites.

 2) National Records of Scotland Research Guides

The National Records of Scotland offers family history-related research guides for vital records, censuses, military records, and more. While the guides lead to ScotlandsPeople, the official government subscription-based genealogy site, you can search the indexes for free. The guides give valuable information on the types of records available and how to use them, as well as links to related resources. 

3) The National Library of Scotland on the Internet Archive

The Internet Archive, itself a great source, hosts a selection of items from the National Library of Scotland. Nearly 5,000 items are available to view, from local 19th and 20th-century city directories to family history manuscripts and military lists.

 4) ScotlandsPlaces

To learn more about the actual place your ancestors were from, check out ScotlandsPlaces. Users can dive into its thousands of records for different places about the country. Many different types of records are available to discover, from maps to pictures to tax rolls, and even archaeological records.  

5) The Scottish Genealogy Society

The Scottish Genealogy Society's resources page has links to free sources like oral histories, prisoners, paupers, mariners, medical records, and more.

6) The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs

The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs is the official overseer of the Scottish clan system. Find your family’s clan in the member section to learn more about the clan. 

7) Scottishandwriting.com

Let’s be real. Reading old handwriting can be hard. It takes a lot of practice (and sometimes some Photoshopping) to get better at deciphering older documents. Scottishhandwriting.com helps with tutorials on writing from the 16th-18th centuries. There’s even a “problem solver” for problem letters and problem words.

What free Scottish genealogy research resources do you suggest checking out?

PS You may also like my recent post on books to boost your Scottish genealogy research.