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With ‘Homecoming Year’ of 2009 being launched in Scotland in January, many ex-pat Scots are looking at coming home for the holidays if for no other reason than to touch their native soil one more time and see family members to ring in the New Year. While it is hard to pinpoint exactly how many Scottish ex-pats there are, one thing is for sure: the country has developed promotional campaigns that include big Scottish names, such as Sir Sean Connery, to help encourage them to come back home. Most Scottish ex-pats – like their British counterparts – have left Scotland in an effort to find meaningful employment in other parts of the world. There are large ex-pat communities in Australia, China, Hong Kong, America, Canada, Dubai, Russia, New Zealand and Singapore. And when you stop to consider the number of people living outside of Scotland that are descendants or native Scots, the number becomes even more impressive. In order to help track the ex-pats living abroad, the Registrar General has launched an online register for Scots and those of Scottish descent to use to register births, marriages, and deaths of anyone from Scotland who is living outside the country. Called the Book of Scottish Connections, it was launched in an effort to help build and maintain links with those millions of native Scots or their descendants. Not only does the register provide a good look at Scots living abroad, it also provides a genealogical record for families. This will help future historians trace their family trees easier and keep the ancestral trail going. The Registrar General has expressed that many people are interested in a book of this type and have already started filling it since its launch on February 5, 2009. If you are a Scottish ex-pat and are interested in registering in the book, you simply need to log on to the General Register Office for Scotland for more information. Births abroad can be registered in the book if one of the parents or grandparents of the child was born in Scotland. Marriages, civil partnerships, and deaths can also be recorded in the book.
As more and more Scots leave their native homeland, it is important for them and their family members to keep in touch and continue sharing all of the big events in their lives. This is one way of accomplishing that as well as giving the government a good idea of how many ex-pats and their numerous descendants are living abroad.
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No matter where we are in the world we all miss Britain occasionally. Here are the top five things that Brits miss most about home.
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A British expat has “accidentally” become the mayor of San Fulgencio on the Costa Blanca after a property development scandal hit the town.
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Are you thinking of moving abroad but worry about the cost of living expenses? A recent report by human resources firm Mercer found that the majority of the most expensive cities in the world were in Europe. Mercer’s survey measures the comparative cost of over 200 items, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.
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