Yes and no!!With a name such as Alexander McDonald, you need a bottomless pit of a credit card.
It all depends.
In this case searching on the basis of Alexander M*cdonald, born 1856 +/-1, in 1914 or later, in Lanarkshire only, produces 18 hits. Then geography comes into play in terms of knowing that Bellshill, - 2 records, - is very close to Hamilton. Then there's only one other outside the City of Glasgow.
In other words if the age at death is accurately recorded, and if the location is the same as in earlier records, then, even with a common name such as in this case, it can be amazing just how few credits are required.
On the other hand, in this case, had Alexander moved back into the city, then it would have been an expensive 75 credits if all of the images needed to be viewed.
So, what about the parents?
Unless there were others factors such as a most unusual given name or surname always start with a cross-check search for the wife.
In this case searching on the surnames M*CDON?L* and REID, given name Margaret in Glasgow City only, produces just 3 hits, only one of which is anywhere close on age, and it's in 1860 for a married 25 year old who died in the City Poorhouse, the informant the Governor's Clerk, and all that was known about the parents was the surname REID ............... so maybe that's the record, maybe it's not.
Trying the same technique for James, however, does produce a number of hits that would start to get expensive...........
David