This second edition of Maxwell’s book is a useful guide and an interesting read, with well-chosen examples and illustrations to inspire your own Scottish research

Family History Monthly, September 2011

This is an unusually-titled guide, in that it is actually a book offering a social history of Scotland, with a short thirty-page genealogical guide appended which appears to have been added as an afterthought.

Where the book works is in filling in some of the gaps as to the contemporary environments within which our ancestors lived. The OPR records show us, for example, how the church recorded the vital events of our lives, but how did it actually control and affect people's daily lives? Why did people migrate from Scotland, or join the military? Some useful chapters provide many of answers.

Unfortunately the genealogical advice is extremely out of date and in parts inaccurate. It describes, for example how to research statutory vital events in Edinburgh via a self-service microfiche system at the National Archives of Scotland, whereas the records have in fact been digitised and accessible on computers for several years, with the system described previously in operation at the General Register Office for Scotland and not the NAS.

A useful guide to help you understand your Scottish ancestors, but perhaps not the best starting point to help you trace them.

Discover My Past, Scotland

this is an excellent work with a fresh approach

Your Family Tree

an extremely useful book

Ancestors Magazine

The book includes chapters on clans, working life, the military, education, and life in towns, cities and the countryside. There is also an extensive research and sources section - this book is a must for anyone researching Scottish family history.

Practical Family History magazine