Their politics may be vastly different but Gordon Brown and David Cameron may have more in common than they would like to think as both are descended from farmers who appear in the mid-Victorian Scottish censuses living just 150 miles apart.
The two leaders' direct ancestors are among the 24 million names contained in the seven historical
Scotland Censuses, from 1841 to 1901, which are now complete and fully indexed online for the first time on Ancestry.co.uk.
Both Brown and Cameron's paternal great grandfathers are listed in the 1841 Scotland Census working the land in Fife and Invernesshire respectively.
The Cameron family went on to enjoy much greater success than the Browns in the 19th Century. David is the great-great grandson of Sir Ewen Cameron, former Chairman of HSBC and one of Scotland's most successful financiers. He can also claim a direct blood relation to William IV through his father's maternal grandmother.
Gordon, on the other hand, comes from a long line of agricultural labourers and stonemasons in Fife and is the first person in his family to achieve political success.
The Scotland Censuses also reveal the origins of other Scots who went on to play key roles in British politics. Labour Party founder
James Keir Hardie appears in the 1871 Census working as a coal miner in the pits of Lanarkshire, and the 1891 Census features
John Buchan, the former Governor General of Canada, MP and author of The Thirty-Nine Steps, listed as aged 16 and living in Cathcart, Renfrewshire.
Other well known Scots of the day who appear include author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle(1881 Census) and controversial World War One leader General Haig (1871 Census).
The Ancestry.co.uk Scotland Censuses are the only historical Scottish censuses online that can be fully searched by name, place and year of birth, occupation or address, enabling family history researchers to gain a variety of insights into 19th Century Scotland and its population.
For example, a 'Place of birth' search across all censuses suggests that many more Scots than expected may have English blood as the English-born population north of the border tripled in size from 37,000 in 1841 to more than 123,000 by 1901.
