Tracing Scots Ancestors Before 1855

There is so much emotional and heritage capital investing in the Scottish kilt. But how much of this is historical fact and how much a modern creation? Dr Bruce Durie sifts the reality from the myth.

Most British and Irish pre-1841 census records have only statistical information. However, approximately 1400 returns have named individuals. The Early British and Irish Census Project (EBIC) brings all the information from those returns into one searchable, free-to-the-public database (ebc.byu.edu, will soon be ebic.byu.edu). The database covers the period before civil registration and the more comprehensive censuses. It helps researchers find early nineteenth-century and late eighteenth-century people who can be difficult to trace due to increased mobility and increased religious nonconformity.