If you want to compile a properly-documented and accurate Scottish family history, it is essential to obtain information from official records of births, marriages and deaths. The official recording of these events is referred to as Civil Registration. This began in Scotland on the first of January 1855. For details of births, marriages and deaths occurring prior to that year the main sources are church records.
In researching Scottish ancestry, the best procedure, normally, is to start with somebody's birth certificate. It could be your own; or, for example, a grand-parent's certificate included in a collection of family papers. Information about where to obtain civil registration certificates can be found in the final section at the end of this page.
In very recent times civil registration certificates in Scotland have been recorded electronically and printed portrait-wise on A4 sheets. In genealogical research, however, most certificates consulted will be older, and those were hand-written into large volumes with a landscape template. Individual copy certificates were in exactly the same format. Here, beneath, is an imaginary example containing the columns you would expect and the kind of information you would encounter in an older birth certificate (apart from the silly names!).
Here are a few points to note about this certificate and birth certificates in general:
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The first column contains a number. This is a running number for the certificate in the original volume for births registered in that district, in that year.
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The second column gives the full name of the child.
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The fifth column is for information about parentage. The word "journeyman" is often encountered, meaning that the person had served an apprenticeship, but was working for somebody; the word "master" was used where the person had their own business, especially if they employed people.
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"M.S." stands for "maiden surname", and the way the abbreviation is sometimes written right up against the surname can be confusing.
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The place of marriage is supposed to correspond to the registration district where the marriage was registered. There will be nothing here, of course, if the parents were not married at the time of registering the birth.
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Often where the birth is "illegitimate", only the mother's name is given.
Note also that if a parent was dead before the time of the birth registration, the word "deceased" would be entered after the parent's name.
Very important: As it is fair to say that up until the later part of the twentieth century most children were born to married parents, then the birth certificate data regarding date and place of marriage is, in the normal course of things, the key to the next stage of research: the marriage certificate.
