Scotland: Check in for genealogy

Those who travel in rarified circles at luxury hotels avail themselves of many concierge-provided personal services. Now there's a new twist.

Guests at Edinburgh's Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa now have access to a Genealogy Concierge service with expert Sheila Duffy.

Some 50 million people world-wide have Scottish ancestry and visitors to Edinburgh can now explore their heritage. Guests will receive a pre-check-in questionnaire to complete to give Duffy some idea of where to start.

Sheila will then sit down with guests for a one to one, hour long consultation for a fee of £70 ($139). She will establish what the guest already knows about their Scottish connections, and give practical advice about how to develop their search for their Scottish forebears.

It might be a bit disappointing though for guests who expect to leave with their entire family history (Scottish records date to the mid-1500s) in a beautifully embossed folder: "Rather than giving all the answers, the aim of consultation is to provide the knowledge and skills on how and where to look for information."

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