Other Sources of Information
National Archives of Scotland,
HM General Register House, Edinburgh - documents of interest to family historians include:
- Wills and testaments after 1901 (a fully searchable database of Scottish wills & testaments from 1513 to 1901 is now available here on ScotlandsPeople).
- Non-conformist church records.
- Kirk session records of Church of Scotland (which may record cases of illegitimacy, irregular marriage and hire of the mortcloth for burial).
- Sasine records (detailing changes in land ownership).
- Register of Deeds (e.g. marriage contracts).
- Services of Heirs (recording land inheritance).
- Estate records.
- Valuation rolls (record land valuation, showing proprietors and occupiers).
- Court Records.
- Maps.
- Gifts and Deposits - archive material gifted to the NAS.
- Staff records of industries which were nationalised (railways, coalmines).
For more information visit the National Archives of Scotland
Local Archives
- hold a wide range of records pertaining to their own areas e.g. burial records, church records, sasines, deeds, school and business records, local family and estate papers.
Local Authorities
- have responsibility for the records of cemeteries that are still in use.
Local Libraries
- besides those records already mentioned, they hold monumental inscription and burial records, trade directories, voters rolls, newspapers, obituaries, military records, Rolls of Honour, shipping records, Statistical Accounts and collections of local maps and photographs.
Local Family History Societies
- aside from those records already mentioned, they have gathered together invaluable resources on their own localities and are actively involved in recording local genealogical information, e.g. monumental inscriptions. See http://www.safhs.org.uk for details of and links to Scottish family history societies.
Look at www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/ for regional information on family history resources around Scotland.
For further information on what is available online see Other Resources in our Help section.