An example from an 1855 valuation rolls entry for the parish of Auchindoir in the county of Aberdeen highlighting properties that have not been numbered and are described the same.
Valuation rolls can be an amazing source for family and local historians, people interested in the history of buildings and people interested in the social and economic history of Scotland, but care is needed when searching the valuation roll indexes.
It was not until the mid-20th century that the production of valuation rolls became standardised across the whole of Scotland. Prior to this each county and burgh produced its own rolls and they were all recorded slightly differently, especially between 1855 and the late 19th century. Some rolls include information for several years on one page, while others record information for only a single year. Each roll can vary in the quality and quantity of information given and this can depend on a number of factors including the assessor recording the information, when it was recorded and in which county or burgh.
Here are a few things to bear in mind when attempting to search the valuation rolls:
- Valuation rolls are not like census returns. Their purpose is not to list everyone resident at a property. In most cases they only record the name(s) of the owner(s) and the tenant and/or occupier. For the occupier, in most cases only the head of the household will be listed, not members of his or her family. There are exceptions, for example sometimes a husband and wife might be listed.
- The head of household listed in a census return may not always be the person listed as the tenant or occupier. You will find in many cases that it may be the wife not the husband in a census return that is listed as the tenant or occupier.
- The forename of the proprietor, occupier or tenant may not have been recorded, instead, only the surname and title is recorded. This is especially the case with married and widowed females.
- Married and widowed females owning or renting property can be entered in the rolls as for example 'Mrs John Smith' rather than under their own name.
- Many street names have changed over the years and street numbering has often been changed.
- Early rolls may not include property numbers or street names, especially in rural areas.
- Many of the rolls have been hand written and some are difficult to read.
- Many names are recorded in the rolls which have not been indexed. For example factors, company secretaries, managers, solicitors and agents.
There are abbreviations in the valuations rolls for occupations, marital status, buildings, status and many more. The assessors themselves did not provide a list of what the abbreviations meant but we have compiled a list of the more common abbreviations.
