Finding Your Scots Ancestors - Free Resources

 

Dundee Courier, 1921

To celebrate the birthday on January 25th of Scotland’s national bard, Robert Burns, I’ve put together a selection of free websites that may help you to grow your Scottish family tree a bit. This is an updated version of a previous blog post from 2021.

Glasgow Valuation Rolls,1913-1914  Learn about and search these lists of Glasgow owners and occupiers, with the value of their properties, to locate your early 20th-century relatives living in the city.

ScotlandsPlaces  In 18th-century Scotland, if something moved (or even if it didn’t), it got taxed. Horses, carts, dogs, clocks, watches – oh, and people, too. Household and farm servants may be listed under their employers’ names. You can also trace the history of a place through time, even a relatively small place, using Ordnance Survey records as well as property and business tax ledgers. And there are plenty of maps, plans, and photos, too.

Statistical Accounts of Scotland 1791-1845  Background information for the entire country, parish by parish, in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.  These books were compiled from contemporary accounts written by locals about their own area, with descriptions of the parish, its history, its natural features and industries.  Excellent for learning about the times and places your ancestors lived in.

Scots Abroad  Whether your relatives went abroad to work, live, or visit, they may appear in these databases hosted by the National Library of Scotland.  These include correspondence from emigrants and guides for those who were planning to emigrate to different parts of the world.  Get a flavour of what life would have been like for people taking the big step away from Scotland.

Scottish Emigration Database  Search by the name of a person or the ship they sailed on. Thousands of entries from 1890 to 1960 list the address from which they were emigrating and their destination overseas.

Kirk Session Records  Find out what your ancestors got up to when they were hauled before the minister and elders. There are links on this page to resources for understanding the context and social history behind these records, as well as the sometimes-difficult handwriting.

Dictionary of the Scots Language  Also handy for reading older records as well as Burns' poetry is this online dictionary of Scots. It is a separate language, ye ken.