Thanks for the information Dean. There are quite a few professional researchers around and I hear that they do a good job. The cost can mount up if there are a lot of records to be retreived.

They cannot help in situations where the records have not made their way to a central repository (or no longer exist).
The Scottish Records Office allows you to do 50 limited searches for six pounds (haven't got a pound symbol on my keyboard). Payment is by credit card. The searches will turn up basic information like parents, place of birth/marriage and a reference number for the original, more detailed, record. Its a cheap and efficient way to cover a lot of ground quickly.

For my part I suppose it is the love of the chase, the chance to correspond with other like-minded people, and the fact that I am getting close to the start of reliable record-keeping. I am also very interested in the family in general and of its history.

I also realise that with a bit of effort through collateral branches you can build up the most enormous and unmanageable family tree. I suppose most are only interested in their immediate ancestors and a professional researcher can help trace these at reasonable cost and quite quickly.

Then what does one do? Put it in a filing cabinet and hope that it doesn't get thrown out when you die?

I enjoy coming here because there are now a number of people contributing to the great debate and supplying helpful information - as you have done.

I hope that I am not being jotted down as some great authority - I have read quite a lot and corrosponded with many helpful people mainly back in the 80's. When I say something it is "what I have heard" or "what I have read" or sometimes "what I have thought out logically and here is my reasoning". I think we all can appreciate reasoned argument and the bits of information being put up on this site are invaluable in our common cause. The fact is that I realise that the further I go the more Caldwell's I find and the reality sinks in that there is just so much information out there to be had. When one thinks that there are probably less than 1 in 100 persons interested at any time in their family tree the mind boggles.

The fact that there are contributions coming in from some born in Scotland means that you get snippits of information that would be lost to those overseas and many generations out from the land of their ancestors. Barry Robertson's contribution from someone living in Caldwell heartland is invaluable.

I hope to encourage others born in Scotland and Ireland and still residing there to contribute. They can tell us things that are difficult to find and to know. Little family "tales" and the location and history of various properties.

Although I was born in Scotland I left at an early age and I only have childhood memories and childhood knowledge. Like most I did not ask my parents enough questions. I have found that my blood relatives in Scotland are helpful to a degree but not terribly interested. The same holds for my children - they are quite happy for me to be the family genealogist - I just hope that they don't chuck my records out when I am gone.