You may be able to benefit from work already done by fellow members via a society's register of members' interests. If you live abroad and become a member, a society may undertake limited research on your behalf. If you live in Scotland, family history societies offer advice and tuition, group visits to record offices, and an opportunity to talk about your family history with other enthusiasts and publish the results of your research. For information about other family history societies see the SCAN Directory. Hire an expert If you do not want to travel to the relevant parts of Scotland where the information about your ancestry may be held, you could hire a record agent to carry out research on your behalf.
Some Scottish archives keep lists of record agents and researchers in their areas.
Other Scottish archives offer a research service. Further indexes and sources are being prepared for internet access by archives and private societies in Scotland, so scope for online genealogy is increasing all the time. However, experienced researchers in Scotland have expressed doubts about the accuracy of family trees constructed using internet sources alone. For some other websites which offer advice and report news of developments in family history see our useful links page in the SCAN Directory. Clerk recording details of family in Glasgow in 1886.