Country offers several ways to search family records, not to mention relive scenes from a favorite movie

As far as I’m concerned, no man properly pays homage to a kilt quite like Mel Gibson does in “Braveheart.’’

OK, Liam Neeson in “Rob Roy’’ comes in a close second — make that a very close second.

My husband, Roy, and I both are of Scottish ancestry. He’s of Clan Anderson, and I’m of Clan Brown from my mother’s side of the family.

The rest of Roy’s blood comes from Cherokee and Irish. And interestingly enough, so does mine, but with a bit of English and Dutch mixed in for good measure.

But of all our ethnicity, it is the Scottish part that most intrigues. For that, we both blame a rainy, blustery afternoon with little else to do but watch a cable rerun of “Braveheart.’’

For if ever there was a movie that inspires emotion — and travel, for that matter — it is “Braveheart.’’

You might remember near the end of the movie, just before Gibson’s character of William Wallace, one of the early champions of Scotland’s freedom from the English throne, is publicly executed for treason and other crimes, the royal magistrate declares to the restless crowd, “The prisoner wishes to say a word.’’

Then with guttural passion and utter defiance, Gibson speaks his “word’’ —’’Freeeedoooommmmm!’’ — and during that moment, no matter what your DNA, you are somehow mysteriously and powerfully transformed to the bloodlines of medieval Scotland and you want to be Scottish.

When I look back now, I think it was maybe that one scene in the movie that inspired our own ancestral journey to Scotland.

After quite a bit of background work searching family histories and pecking away for information on

Ancestry.Com, Genealogy.com, and Rootsweb.com, we were on our way across the Pond and to our hereditary stomping grounds.

On our first full morning in Edinburgh, Scotland’s stunningly beautiful and utterly captivating capital city crowned by the landmark Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle, we went straight to the General Register Office.

Located on historic Princes Street, the GRO is among the best repositories in the world for ancestral records.

Combined with the ScotlandPeople Centre, which opens later this year and is to be contained within the GRO and the National Archives of Scotland, you’ll have access to birth, marriage, death, church, estate, and untold thousands of other legal documents, some dating to the 12th century.

Steve Bruce, our guide at the GRO, set out to help us to find our ancestors, and we soon traced Roy’s family roots back to the late 1600s. (Alas, William Wallace is no long-lost cousin.) As Steve guided us through the research process, I noted his last name and asked him if he were related to Robert the Bruce, the King of Scots who supported Wallace’s efforts. That would have linked him to royalty, but no, he said, the bloodlines didn’t match.

In addition to our family records, Steve the Bruce of modern day showed us others that were intriguing. He produced a copy of a marriage certificate dated Dec. 22, 2000, uniting Guy Stuart Richie and Madonna Louise Ciccone in holy matrimony at Skibo Castle, and then another that stated Ashley Judd wed Dario Franchitti at the same castle a year later.

The poet Robert Burns’ birth certificate is also on file in the registry, verifying that he was born in 1759 to William and Agnes Burns. And if you’re a “Treasure Island’’ fan, then you can check out Robert Louis Stevenson’s birth record. He was born in Edinburgh in 1851 to Margaret and Thomas Stevenson. My favorite James Bond, Sean Connery, also was born in Edinburgh on Aug. 25, 1930, to Joseph and Euphemia McQueen Connery.

You can see all these records and make copies, if you wish.

If you’re now wondering whether you’ve had a bagpiper or two in the family, the most common surnames in Scotland are Anderson, Brown, Black, Wallace, Stewart, Stuart, Stevenson, Murray, Scott, Campbell, Ferguson, Duncan, Robertson, and all the “Mac’s’’ and “Mc’s,’’ with MacDonald, MacKenzie, MacLeod, McGregor, and McIntosh among them.

The ease of use of research is phenomenal, and the GRO, the National Archives and the PeopleCentre combine both free and premium services.

With more and more records added every year, the goal is to digitize all records, although some are so old and fragile that they will always remain untouched by human hands to preserve them.

Bruce also cautions that because records were so scattered for centuries, there is always that margin for error and sometimes you must use guesswork to find your ancestors. The branches of the Anderson family tree grew wide, we learned, and nearly every single male Anderson ancestor had been named James or John, just about all the ladies were named Margaret, and all those Jameses, Johns, and Margarets were scattered from the Highlands to the Hebrides and from St. Andrews to Aberdeen.

Because Anderson translates to “Andrew’s Son,’’ Roy and I took off across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh and up the back roads to St. Andrews, taking time to explore the quiet Scottish countryside that’s dotted with sheep farms, heather-filled meadows, and scenery so gorgeous that I often wondered why our ancestors chose to leave this breathtaking place.

Hubby’s love of golf apparently comes naturally from his family’s homeland and at the Old Course at St. Andrews, he was overwhelmed to see the place where the finest legends in golf have played. As we sat having a pint and a sandwich on the creaky wooden benches in the Jigger Inn that overlooks the course, we wondered aloud which of the great duffers or even our ancestors had also dined there.

From St. Andrews, we drove through the famous Scottish mists and through medieval forests to the village of Stirling to see the National Wallace Monument. The massive monument overlooks the scene of William Wallace’s victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, a humbling reminder of all the blood spilled for Scotland’s freedom. If you’re a “Braveheart’’ fan, the monument is a must-see.

A word of caution: Unless you truly are brave of heart, or at least absolutely certain you can drive on the left-hand side of the road, you may want to hire a driver rather than rent a car.

As Roy navigated through all those roundabouts and maneuvered red lights that seemed to appear from nowhere, I was having an extremely unladylike-but-quite-Southern “hissy fit,’’ which is essentially an endless round of cursing, a nervous breakdown, and a heart attack all packaged together.

Oh, one more thing to note, especially for the ladies: Tradition dictates that Scottish gents wear nothing under their kilts. Remember that next time you watch “Braveheart.’’

IF YOU GO:

We wanted the full United Kingdom experience, so we flew on British Airways (www.britishairways.com) from Atlanta, changing planes in London before flying into Edinburgh.

There are magnificent hotels in Edinburgh, including the Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa (www.StarwoodHotels.com/Sheraton), which has a genealogy concierge service, and the five-star Balmoral Hotel (www.thebalmoralhotel.com), which also contains Number One, one of the few Michelin-starred restaurants in the city and is directly across from the GRO. In St. Andrews, we stayed at the White Lodge (www.TheStAndrewsExperience.com), a wonderful bed-and-breakfast complete with lush gardens; and on our last night in Scotland, we stayed at the comfortable and charming Ashcroft Farmhouse (www.ashcroftfarmhouse.com), a guesthouse near Edinburgh’s airport, perfect for those with early morning flights like ours.

There are plenty of Web sites to start you on your ancestral journey, beginning with www.visitscotland.com, home of VisitScotland, the official Scottish tourist board. Other excellent sites include:

www.nas.gov.uk (the National Archives of Scotland)

www.AncestralScotland.com

www.HomecomingScotland.com

www.ScotlandsPeopleHub.gov.uk

www.edinburgh.com

www.Historic-Scotland.gov.uk

www.NationalWallaceMonument.com

www.standrews.co.uk.

(c) 2008, McClatchy-Tribune News Service.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099).