Birth, Death and Marriage Records

The majority of Scottish birth, death and marriage records are held in the custody of the Registrar General for Scotland at New Register House in Edinburgh.  There are separate guides to each of the registers which you can access at the links below.

You can order an official extract (or certificate) of an entry in the registers.

Birth, Death and Marriage Records from 1855 to the Present Day

Statutory civil registration was introduced in Scotland on 1 January 1855.  The related records are as follows:

• Statutory Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages
• Register of Corrected Entries (now the Register of Corrections Etc)
• Minor Records of Births, Deaths and Marriages Overseas
• Adopted Children's Register (from 1930). The Registrar General keeps a register of persons adopted under orders made by Scottish courts. There are no entries to persons born before October 1909. For further information please go to our Adoption page and our research guide about Adoption Records.
• Register of Stillbirths (from 1939) is not open for public search and we issue extracts only in exceptional circumstances. For further information go to the Registering a Stillbirth page in the Registration area of this website. 

Pre-1855 Birth, Death and Marriage Records

The Church of Scotland had responsibility for registration before 1 January 1855 but a few of the records listed below were created by other churches or by private individuals.

• Old Parish Registers (1553 to 1854)
• Register of Neglected Entries (1801 to 1854) for entries not recorded in the Old Parish Registers
• Miscellaneous Manuscript Records held in the Custody of the Registrar General for Scotland
• Irregular Border Marriage Registers for Gretna Green and other places

Our genealogical gems page has interesting examples from the registers.

Other Related Registers

• Catholic Parish Registers
• Statutory Register of Divorces (from 1984)
• Statutory Register of Civil Partnerships (from 2005)
• Statutory Register of Dissolutions (from 2007)