If you are starting to compile your family tree the best advice is to work backwards in time. Start with a person whose full name you know, together with identifying details such as place and date of birth, marriage or death. You will usually find tracing a Scottish line of descent back to 1855 fairly straightforward but going beyond 1855 can be more difficult.
This brief guide covers: the main records for tracing Scottish ancestors; where and how you can access them; and our guides and services to aid your family history research.
Research guides
Our research guides cover all areas of the national archive collections. The following are the main records for family history research:
- Birth, death and marriage records including
- Census records (1841 to 1911)
- Highland and Island Emigration Society records (on our Scotland's People website)
- Valuation roll indexes (1855, 1865, 1875, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915, 1920, 1925, 1930, 1935 and 1940)
- Wills and testaments (1513 to 1925)
- Soldiers' and airmen's wills (1857 to 1965)
- Military Service Appeal Tribunals (1916-1918)
We also provide access to:
Access to the records
You can search the records in the following ways:
To protect the privacy of living people there are cut-offs of 100 years for images of birth records, 75 for marriages and 50 for deaths.
- At our Scotland's People Centre in Edinburgh
There is a statutory fee for access. We also provide a small Reference Library
Once you have got the outline of your family tree you may like to continue your research in the Historical Search Room.
- At Local Family History Centres elsewhere in Scotland.
Further guidance
The Shop page has details of our official guide to tracing Scottish ancestors and other publications to aid your research.
We provide a palaeography resource on the Scotland's People with free online tuition for historians, genealogists and other researchers who are looking for guidance reading manuscript historical records written in Scotland in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. There also evening classes and self-help pack on Scottish handwriting available.
Useful websites for family history research pages provide access to online resources and the official records of other countries.
