Who knew Canada was in Ancestry’s new Scottish National Probate Index?

When I read The Scotsman article early yesterday morning, reporting Ancestry had digitised original records from the Scotland, National Probate Index (Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories) 1876-1936, I shared the news with my favourite blogger, John D. Reid of Canada’s Anglo-Celtic Connections. And I’m glad I did.

Before I received John’s reply to my email message, I searched for my usual suspects, the Youngs and the Fyvies, without much luck. There are more than 650,000 Scots from many walks of life in this collection, but none of mine.

Montreal in a Scottish index?
Finally, when I should have been preparing dinner, John sent me a note about the collection. This set me off on a series of new searches.

John told me a search for the keyword Montreal resulted in 161 entries. He was right. I entered Montreal in the death search box and uncovered 161 entries. Doing so, I came across a well-known Montrealer in the index: Senator George Alexander Drummond. (His wife’s brother was John Redpath, owner of Redpath Sugar.) This is the text I found:

DRUMMOND, The Hon. George Alexander, K.C.M.G., one of the Senators of the Dominion of Canada, of the City and District of Montreal, died 2 February 1910, at Montreal City, testate. Confirmation granted at Edinburgh, 29 July, to Lady Grace Julia Parker or Drummond, his widow, and Huntly Redpath Drummond, Arthur Lennox Drummond, and Guy Melfort Drummond, his sons, all of the City of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada, Executors nominated in Will or Deed, dated 8 August 1906, and recorded with other Writs in Court Books of Commissariat of Edinburgh, 28 July 1910. Value of Estate, £80.

More Canadian cities
Since it was pouring buckets and blowing outside, I next searched for the keyword Toronto and found 145 entries. A search for Vancouver uncovered about 145 entries plus several other towns in British Columbia.

In the end, I didn’t find anything yet about my ancestors, but I intend to keep looking.

If you subscribe to the world edition of Ancestry and have at least a wee bit of Scottish blood in your ancestry, I suggest you take a look at this new collection. You may be surprised at what you discover. You may also end up eating a late dinner… as I did. Thanks, John.

Here is The Scotsman article.