Buried within an article about possible Scottish Homecomings in 2012, and maybe 2014, was an item stating that Scottish Catholic births and baptisms have been added to public files available at the ScotlandsPeople website.
Following what he called the “overwhelming success” of the inaugural campaign, Scotland is poised to host two
more Years of Homecoming before the end of 2014, Alex Salmond has revealed.
The First Minister was speaking yesterday at the launch of online records of Scottish Catholic births and baptisms that have been added to public files available at the ScotlandsPeople website, the official source of genealogical data.
His intervention, after weeks of speculation about a new Year of Homecoming raised speculation about its place on the calendar, since it is likely to coincide with “a significant date”, according to Mr Salmond.
One strong possibility for a second year-long tourism initiative is 2012. Homecoming events would be based around a second staging of the Gathering, the clan meeting in Edinburgh that this year attracted thousands of tourists from North America, Australasia and Europe and featured a spectacular parade through the city.
Read the full article about the economic impact of tourism in Scotland in the October 7, 2009 edition of The Times Online.
Check out the Birth and Baptism records at the scotlandspeople.gov.uk.
