Is anybody here descended from Scottish families who left Scotland because of
the Clearances?
I am researching a branch of the Campbell clan that, according to family lore, emigrated to Georgia in 1790.
= new reply since forum marked as read
this link. I have family that came through Virginia and while not Scots, this will be helpful. 
My late mother-in-law (Betty Louella Clark) was from Clifton Forge. She passed away in 2005 and was laid to rest in Millboro. I swear that the area was THE most beautiful place I'd ever been and I wish I had been able to enjoy it for other purposes than a funeral.
Your friend is probably related to my husband. I'll send you a PM.
Ancestry has very little Scottish info. The Scottish govt has cut a deal with FindMyPast and Ancestry doesn't have permission to make images of UK census records for Scotland available even, so you're left relying on their abysmal transcriptions for 1841 onward.
FreeBMD covers only England and Wales. But for anybody using it and wanting certificates, always remember to order them directly from the GRO and not from an intermediary, including Ancestry, as you will be ripped off severely.
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp
But back to Scotland:
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
Register free, search free. You have to buy credits to see results. They are cheap. You can view a page of search results for almost nothing. Downloading a copy of an actual record costs a bit more.
It won't help you, but for general info, the site has Scottish censuses 1841 to 1911.
The other databases are:
Statutory Registers 1855-2009
(registration began in 1855; access to recent records is restricted and has to be requested by mail)
Births
Marriages
Deaths
Old Parish Registers pre-1855
(theoretically back to 1538, the earliest records, but coverage before 1855 is spotty -- I did find my grx3 grfather from southern England remarrying there circa 1840, inexplicably, and his wife's death there, but damned if I can find anything else about her)
Births & Baptisms
Banns & Marriages
Deaths & Burials
Catholic Registers 1700s to 1900s
Births & Baptisms
Banns & Marriages
Deaths & Burials
Other Events
familsearch.org does have many of these records -- I see my grx3 grfather's marriage is there now, as records get added. I was able to get the actual image at SP.
So if, for instance, you have the names of a couple who emigrated to the US, you could try parish registers at SP to see whether you could identify their marriage.
If so, you would have struck gold, because there's a good chance it would name both parents of both parties, including mother's birth surnames. And then if you could identify their deaths in Scotland, the death records would give both of their parents' names, and possibly their marriage details as well.
- Edit - or if you know the name of a child the couple had in Scotland who emigrated with them, the child's baptism record might give both parents' names and the parents' marriage info. Or if you just know the name of one person but have a good idea of the person's year of birth, you could try for their baptism record.
In English parish records (registration there began in 1837), by the time you get back to the late 1700s, you often find that only the father's name is given in baptism records, and if the mother is named there is virtually never a surname.
Scottish parish records are very complete in that regard, whereas English marriage registrations, for example, give only fathers' names for the parties.
If you are comfortable PMing me I could take a shot at helping with an SP search, but I don't have any active credits at the moment -- they expire after a certain time -- or I'd volunteer them for you. 
(Whatever that is!)
One set of grandparents emigrated to Canada from England as children, separately with their parents, in the early 1900s.
Other set of grandparents immigrated as a couple with a child in the 1920s. So I'm only third-generation Canadian, and UK records are my thing. Been doing this a long time and have cracked literally countless cases for total strangers on the net. Some would say it's a hobby, some might say an obsession ...
I have one ... lemme work it out again ... I think it's grx4 grfather who shows in early English censuses (he lived a very long life) as born in "Ireland" c1770. Ireland. Well, he will forever be a mystery, I fear. Can't even find a marriage for him in England that might give a father's name, and his kids were all born in England well before registration so there's no mother's surname info.
That grx3 grfather of mine just made some kind of side trip to Scotland sometime between the early 1820s and late 1830s, was there for the 1841 census, then tripped on back home to go live in the workhouse for the next 20+ years. His son was in Kent by 1841, no idea what happened to his first wife or whether he had other children anywhere. But if we did not have these things to annoy us, we would have no fun at all. Fortunately, I have a few exceedingly annoying ancestors, so I'm set for life.
I just realized you'd said the name was Alexander Campbell. !!
Search for marriages in parish records 1775 to 1790 (just assuming for the moment he married in Scotland):
Your search found 94 matches
If he managed to marry a Mary, for instance ... only 10 possibles!
But if he didn't marry before leaving Scotland and you have no info at all about his parents, well, an exact year of birth could help.
Alexander Campbell born 1760 to 1770 ...
Your search found 96 matches.
Have you considered DNA analysis?
Registration is easy and free, and then you can just bumble around. It will log you off periodically, but just log back in.
Alexander Campbell married to Sarah, 1783 to 1790: Your search found 3 matches.
Without at least one more little piece of info about him, a parent's name from some record in the US, or a date of birth, something, identifying him in Scotland is just going to be not possible.
I imagine there's a good chance his marriage was in the US and he emigrated as a single man at the time.
I don't know much of anything about US records, other than the censuses. I did, a few years ago, establish that a young friend in NC is descended from a drummer in the Revolutionary War. She thought her gr-grfather had immigrated to the US in the 1890s under some false pretence. Once I figured out who he really was and got back two more generations, it was pie, since of course there are a gazillion other descendants from the drummer who have documented everything. Like with my families, though, nobody had bothered tracing her line.
Do you have your guy in early US censuses? Ages of children could be a clue to where and when he married. Oh rats, of course, early censuses don't show wives and kids. But you know which of his kids you're descended from, so you know date and place of birth for that one?
Apparently that side is mostly Irish, though we have a Scottish name.
I have detailed information about my mother's side (they are German), going back to the 1500s. But very little on the other side. I was hoping other family members would do the legwork but it looks like it's going to fall on me
That could very well be one of mine -- very close relationship to me.
In fact I found a partial obit. on one of them and he was a Freemason and into all of these Scottish rites, etc.
I thought they were Irish at first but it seems Scotland is where they were from.
More here re: my connection to the Campbell family (last seen in Texas).
http://www.preservationlongview.com/
This man here is the grandfather my mother never knew:
He favors my late brother. No one had a bald head like that in my father's family, no one. However, my late brother (1960-2004) looked just like him!
Let me know if you have a connection to this particular line of Campbells!
Luckily, I found my late mother's first cousin alive and living in Indiana.
She has written an entire book w/pictures in it of this family. How is that for something called luck!?
Some of them, not all of them though, were part-Indian no doubt.
When I spoke with her she told me, "Well Aunt Sallie used to say that Grandma was Indian".
I have Grandma's picture and yeah, she was part Indian alright. She ID's in the census as being "white" and says that her parents were from "The United States of America".
It wasn't until the final census (1920) which she appears for the final time at age of 86 years that she finally stated that her parents were both born in Georgia.
BIG SIGH.
Sad really. It was shameful to be Indian in those days and now it is considered "cool" or "awesome".
I should have said that some Campbells and Browns were part Indian in some cases, certainly not all.
You can check the Dawes Roll on ancestry.com.
Type in these surnames and you'll see what I mean about this.
Best of luck with your ongoing research.
The longer I go with this, the bigger it gets! 
I like!
Some of the Irish Campbells descend from Niall of the Nine hostages FYI. That is a very big deal actually.
More re: Niall of Nine Hostages here
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Niall_of_the_Nine_Hostages
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I have found out more re: the person I am still researching (a Campbell) and the thing with being a Mason.
Text as follows:
>> __ Campbell was engaged in the oil royalty business in Jefferson and Longview and had several wells in production in Marion County. He was a well-known Mason, holding the thirty-second degree of York and Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, and his wife was an active member of the Order of the Eastern Star.
I hope he enjoyed his life, that is about all I dare say at the moment. He wasn't worthy of being a descendent of Niall of the Nine hostages IMO.
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Interesting stuff, all of it, no doubt!
Same side of the family btw ... Texas/Missouri/etc.
I bet we are related. 
