Google Groups : soc.genealogy.britain ROY STOCKDILL

I have just returned from several days' research at the General
Register Office for Scotland in Edinburgh and simply had to tell my
Scottish friends how amazingly lucky they are to have such a
wonderful system. Oh that we had it at the Family Records Centre and
the GRO for England & Wales!


I was a "virgin" as far as Scottish research is concerned, only ever
having once been to New Register House over 20 years ago, long
before the records were computerised, but fortunately I had a couple
of friends who were down from Inverness for the week and they held my
hand for a bit. Not, however, that I needed it, for I had "cracked"
the system within the first 20 minutes or so and from then on 3 days
just seemed to fly by.


For those unfamiliar with Scottish civil registration, I have to tell
you that the whole system was a revelation to me, accustomed as I am
to going to the FRC, humping down the heavy volumes of indexes,
searching through them, sometimes for a period of several years,
ordering a birth or marriage certificate, returning four days later
to collect it and start all over again using the information gleaned
from the certificate. At New Register House everything is
computerised and it is a doddle to search through the indexes,
flicking through the years in an instant to find the entry you need.
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