Find your ancestor

My ancestor was adopted or in out of home care

Looking for records of your own out of home care? Here is a guide to finding and receiving support with your own records of out of home care.

The National Records of Scotland provides a comprehensive guide to finding adoption records.  

An overview of care for young people in Scotland is provided in the Knowledge Base. See:

• Care of young people, children and families
• Records relating to children and young people 

Forms of out of home care in Scotland included: ‘boarding out’ (placement with families); voluntary homes and orphanages (large residential homes run by charitable groups); small group homes; reformatory and industrial schools; approved schools; remand homes, remand centres and detention centres; probation hostels and probation homes.

There is no central register of all historic children’s care facilities in Scotland. The website Children’s Homes offers an overview of many historic residential care homes – of all kinds – in Scotland, which may help you to identify where your ancestor was placed. 

In addition, between the 1880s – 1960s children in care were sent to British colonies, in particular Australia and Canada, as part of a national scheme.

As a note, only a small proportion of children placed in ‘Orphanages’, or other forms of care, had lost both parents. 

Finding records: good to know 

General tips

• Before you start, it is helpful to know a birth or adopted name; birth parent’s names; place of birth; where adopted or fostered out
• Young people may have had multiple placements, for example moving between foster families and residential homes
• Records may have been legally disposed of in line with historic standards for how long to keep documents
• Many care records are closed to general research for up to 100 years to protect personal privacy; where more recent records relate to a direct relative and you are able to demonstrate permission to view these or the death of the relative, it may be possible to provide access.

Difficult content

• Records can contain offensive language regarding young people and their families; records may show prejudice against minority communities including those from different ethnic and religious backgrounds and Travelers, and prejudice against people in poverty.
• Records can describe experiences of trauma, deprivation and abusive treatment which are distressing to read.
• Documents may focus on administrative needs, such as financial requirements, and may not include many personal details about the young person.
• The term ‘inmate’ is commonly used to describe children in residential homes; it does not indicate they were imprisoned due to criminal conduct, only that the young person lived in out of home care.

Which records may exist for care experienced ancestors? 

Records may have been created by

• poor law authorities, which were established in 1845, and acquired responsibility for orphaned, separated or deserted children
• local authorities, within departments such as social work
• religious or church authorities supporting the transfer of a child from a local parish into out of home care
• private child care providers, including religious and charitable organisations

The kinds of records you may find will depend on the time period and form of care, but can include:

• poor law applications or general registers of poor (often include separated children)
• separate children registers
• boarded-out children registers/cards
• Children’s Committee records (after 1948) may include decisions about boarding out children; these may be anonymised.
• adverts and applications for adoptions
• case files: created for adoption, boarded-out, foster and in-case children, these may contain: a basic medical examination certificate; administrative papers; letters from family or sent back by the care leaver.
• Residential Home admission registers: include the name of the child, date admitted, age, sometimes with previous home address or region. As family groups were often admitted together, the admission register can give insight into groups of siblings. 
• Voluntary care home magazines: these often contain anonymous anecdotes relating to children entering and leaving the care facility, stories of everyday life, photographs, and letters written by care leavers. 

Other information sources

• School admission registers may provide a key source for looked after children as (1) most looked after children were placed in foster care (boarded out) and the records that were created related to registration of the carer rather than to the children; and (2) records of children’s homes tend not to survive. Schools were required to maintain admission and lefts registers from 1873 onwards, but of course not all survive
• Young people in care may appear in census records. The census did not ask for the names of people who were normally resident at an address, such as a family home, only for those who were physically there on the night of the census.  The ScotlandsPeople indexing is focused on names, not on addresses, but by going into the ScotlandsPeople Centre or a local archives with relevant microfilms, it’s possible to find the pages covering an institution and see the complete list of people in that institution on the night.
• Papers relating to clubs, societies and churches in the area where the child was in care; care provision in the 19th and early 20th century was strongly moralistic, and many children in care were encouraged or obliged to participate in clubs such as Scouts, TOC H, or church groups.

Where are the records?

• Poor law records are generally held by the local authority archive for the region where the child’s family lived prior to placement in care.
• Local authority records of care likewise are generally held by the local authority archive for the region where the child lived at the point when they were placed in care; this may not be the same region where the child lived while in care.
• Archival collections for voluntary (or charitable) organisations may be: retained by the organisation; deposited with a local archive, such as a local authority or university archive; deposited with a national archive such as National Records of Scotland. However, many collections related to voluntary organisations have not survived.
• Case files may be: held by the voluntary organsiation providing care; held by the local authority paying for care provision; local authority in region of care provision.

Related Knowledge Base articles: 

Children in the justice system

Poor relief – children’s registers 

Poor law in Scotland 

Poorhouses in Scotland 

Poor relief records  

Prisons – industrial schools 

Links:

Tracing records of forced child migrants

Find and Connect Australia: About Find & Connect | Find & Connect (findandconnect.gov.au) 

Child Migrant Trust: Child Migration History — Child Migrants Trust 

National Archive guide: Emigration and emigrants – The National Archives 

National Sea Museum exhibition: Britains Child Migrants – Australian National Maritime Museum (sea.museum) 

National Archives Australia guide to records of child migrants: Child migration | naa.gov.au 

History of residential care

Background information on the history of care of young people in Scotland can be found here: 

Archiving Residential Children’s Homes: looking at the archives of Aberlour Orphanage and Small Group Homes: The ARCH Project | Archiving Residential Children’s Homes (stir.ac.uk)  

Who Cares lecture series on the history of children’s care: Lecture Series — Care Experienced History Month  

Strathmartine Hospital Histories: Strathmartine Hospital Histories (strathmartinestories.co.uk)  

Quarriers History: Our History | About Us | Quarriers CharityQuarriers 

My Ancestor was a church minister

The first sources to check for information about church ministers are the published biographical lists for the relevant denomination. 

Those for ministers of the Church of Scotland are known as Fasti and list the names of ministers under the congregation(s) they served, with brief biographical notes against their earliest entry. Similar information is found in the other published works and this can be followed up by researching the records of relevant congregations and church courts.

Here is a list of the main books to use. 

Watt, D E R & AL Murray, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae medii aevi ad annum 1638 (Edinburgh: Scottish Record Society, 2003) 

Scott, Hew, Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae : the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation 1-8 (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1915-1950) 

Lamb, John Alexander (ed) Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae 9 (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1961) 

MacDonald, Donald Farquhar MacLeod (ed) Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae 10 (Edinburgh: St Andrews Press, 1981) 

MacDonald, Finlay A J (ed) Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae 11 (Edinburgh:  T & T Clarke, 2000) 

Ewing, William Annals of the Free Church of Scotland, 1843-1900 (Edinburgh:  T & T Clarke, 1914) 

Lamb, John Alexander The Fasti of the United Free Church of Scotland, 1900-1929 Edinburgh 1956 

Scott, David Annals and Statistics of the Original Secession Church (Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot, 1886) 

Small, Robert, History of the Congregations of the United Presbyterian Church, 1733-1900 (Edinburgh:  David Small, 1904) 

Bertie, David M Scottish Episcopal Clergy, 1689-2000 (Edinburgh:  T & T Clarke, 2000) 

McNaughton, William D The Scottish Congregational Ministry, 1794-1993 (Glasgow:  Congregational Union of Scotland, 1993) 

You can find out about presbyterian kirk sessions in the Knowledge Base, as well as Session Records, where to find Kirk records, and how these are indexed.

My ancestor lived and worked overseas in the British Empire or colonial territories

Many Scots found employment in professions and businesses spread throughout territories colonised by Britain. Forms of employment abroad were varied, including: involvement in the slave trade and West Indian plantations; employment in the East India Company; administration of the British Empire; professions associated with shipping; military and naval careers; religious missions and teaching; scientific research; farming, among many others.

In most cases, local administrative records for overseas regions, such as birth, death and marriage records, remained there once the region gained independence. Where records for overseas births, deaths or marriages of Scottish citizens did return to the UK, these are held by National Records of Scotland.

Details on an ancestor can be found in archival collections relating to their professional employment. NRS provides guidance on Scottish Military Records for service overseas, including births, deaths and marriages during postings abroad. The National Archives provides an outline of existing archival records of colonial administration.

Scots working in the British colonies frequently chose to retire to the UK, meaning that (if preserved) their personal papers are often found donated to Archival Services close the the region where the person retired. The National Archives provides an overview of some of the larger collections associated with British overseas territories.

Links

National Library of Scotland India papers: India Papers | National Library of Scotland (nls.uk) 

National Archives guides to foreign and colonial history: Research guides – The National Archives

Families in British India: Home – Families in British India Society (fibis.org)

Edinburgh Indian-connection graves and memorials: Churches, graveyards and missionaries | The University of Edinburgh 

India in Edinburgh: India and Edinburgh: The Old Town Tour | Curious Edinburgh 

Legacies of British Slave Ownership – Imperial Legacies segment: Legacies of British Slavery (ucl.ac.uk) 

Slaves and Highlanders – Index of Scots with business and family links to West Indian business and slavery; individual entries on enslaved Africans in the Highlands; articles on Scottish participation in this, c. 1700 – 1900: Slaves and Highlanders | Find People (spanglefish.com) 

My Ancestor was an emigrant 

Scots have been emigrating since medieval times to other parts of Europe, and further afield (perhaps even to North America from as early as 1000 AD). In the 17th century many Scots took advantage of new opportunities in Ulster, the Americas, Africa and the East Indies, while many criminals and rebels (of widely different political and religious opinions) were banished to the North American colonies until 1776 and to Australia from the 1790s until 1868. 

Over 2 million Scots emigrated between 1821 and 1915, helped by steamship companies, railways, and emigration societies. The popular image of the emigrant Scot is of a refugee from the Highland clearances, but emigrants left all areas of Scotland: Highland and Lowland; urban and rural. Poverty and land hunger account for a high proportion of emigrants, but many skilled tradesmen emigrated temporarily to take advantage of high wages in growing American towns. It is estimated that, by the end of the 19th century, a third of emigrants returned to Scotland sooner or later. Among the most famous emigrants were the industrialist Andrew Carnegie and the author Robert Louis Stevenson. The Your Scottish Archives Knowledge base includes tips on tracing Scottish emigrants, how to use emigration society records, and more about the history of Scottish emigration here. For information on children in care who were forced to emigrate as part of the child migrant scheme, see the Finding Your Ancestor section on care experienced individuals.

My ancestor was an enslaved African

Few existing written records preserved in archival collections provide personal information on enslaved persons, focusing instead on slave owners. Where records relating to Scottish people linked to the slave trade have survived, for example in business and estate collections, these are more likely to provide details relating to plantation geography, general business practices or shipping movements, which may offer tangential evidence of the experience an enslaved ancestor.

The Legacies of British Slave Ownership searchable database offers a good place to start identifying Scots with slave trade connections. It can be productive to enter search terms directly in the notes field search in addition to other fields, as the database holds extensive transcriptions of records reproduced in the ‘notes’ area.

Links between an enslaved person and a particular Scottish slave owner may be indicated in the name assigned to the enslaved person. Names assigned by an owner could relate to the owner’s name or surname, or Scottish region. This can offer insight into which family or estate held an enslaved person, and from this, where it may be possible to begin searching for extant archival collections. Note however that the names assigned to an enslaved person could be changed by a new owner when the enslaved person was sold.

Enslaved Africans were also brought to Scotland by Scottish slave owners. Records for enslaved people in Scotland can be found in a number of Scottish records, including court records relating to emancipation and ‘runaway slave‘ adverts.

Links

NRS guide to slavery and enslaved persons, including where to find records: Slavery and the Slave Trade | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk) 

NLS Guide: Scotland and the slave trade | National Library of Scotland (nls.uk)  

Legacies of British Slave Ownership: Legacies of British Slavery (ucl.ac.uk) 

Runaway slaves: Runaway Slaves in Britain :: Home (gla.ac.uk) 

Slaves and Highlanders – Index of Scots with business and family links to West Indian business and slavery; individual entries on enslaved Africans in the Highlands; articles on Scottish participation in this, c. 1700 – 1900: Slaves and Highlanders | Find People (spanglefish.com) 

Slave Voyages database of ship journeys carrying enslaved persons: Slave Voyages

My ancestor was in a medical or mental health institution

Prior to the formation of the NHS, medical care was provided through institutions supported by charitable and private funds. However, many poorer individuals suffering from mental health difficulties or other illnesses ended up in poorhouses or prisons due to their inability to work, rather than receiving medical care. Hospitals and medical care were transferred to the NHS in 1948; the Knowledge Base offers more information on hospitals prior to 1948 and the structure of medical provision following the formation of the NHS.

Where records exist for institutions which closed prior to the formation of the NHS, these are often held by archival repositories in the region of the former hospital, such as with Local Authority or University repositories. Historic records for hospitals transferred to the NHS as well as those established since formation of the NHS are held by the relevant NHS trusts.

When searching for records relating to a particular hospital, note that medical care institutions on the same site may have changed names and medical specification multiple times over the course of history.

Researchers should be aware that many historic medical records contain prejudiced and offensive language regarding patients, and may contain descriptions which are distressing.

Knowledge Base

Knowledge Base: Hospital Registers of Death  

Knowledge Base: Medical Officers of Health records 

Knowledge Base: Mental Health 

Knowledge Base: Public Assistance and Community Care 

Knowledge Base: District lunacy boards 

Knowledge Base: poorhouse records 

Links

Database of hospitals (not updated): The National Archives | Search the archives | Hospital Records Database | Search 

National Archives guide to historic NHS records: Historical NHS patient records – The National Archives 

National Archives guide to historic Asylum records: Asylums, psychiatric hospitals and mental health – The National Archives 

List of homes for mentally ill, blind and deaf children in Scotland: childrenshomes.org.uk – Institutions for Blind Children; childrenshomes.org.uk – Institutions for Deaf Children; childrenshomes.org.uk – Homes for Mentally Incapacitated Children 

Scottish Indexes list of Mental Health Institutions: Mental Health Institutions in Scotland

Scottish Indexes: Mental Health Records Search

My Ancestor was a house owner

There are several key sources of information relating to house occupancy and ownership. In Scotland censuses were taken every 10 years and household surveys, or returns, listing individuals in each household are accessible from 1841 until 1901. Census returns are held by  ScotlandsPeople https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ but microfilm copies of the censuses up to 1891 can be consulted throughout Scotland in local studies libraries, family history societies and genealogical centres. Postal directories are not archival records in the true sense, but they are among the most frequently consulted items in archive search rooms in Scotland, both by archivists and researchers, and they make a very useful back-up to original records, such as valuation rolls, maps and census returns.  

From 1855 until 1974 Assessors’ offices in each county and royal burgh in Scotland produced annual valuation rolls, listing almost all occupied properties in each parish and burgh. The rolls include the description of the property, what kind of property it was (e.g. dwelling house, shop, warehouse, hospital etc), the name of the owner, and information about any tenants or occupiers. Valuation rolls for the whole of Scotland are held by the National Records of Scotland from 1855 onwards. Some local authority archives and local studies libraries hold less comprehensive runs of rolls for particular counties and burghs; usually from about 1890 onwards, but in some cases from earlier. 

For further details on property records, valuation rolls, and postal directories are available in the Knowledge Base, which also looks at the question of how to use valuation rolls for family history, names appearing in a postal directory, and properties which do not appear in post office directories.

My Ancestor was a landowner

The most frequently used records of landownership in Scotland are: 

• Sasine registers 
• Valuation rolls 
• Title deeds and inventories
• Tax rolls 
• Estate papers 

The majority of property transactions in Scotland from 1617 until the late 20th century were sent by lawyers to be registered in centrally held registers known collectively as the register of sasines. Where a family owned an estate, the surviving records of property management are referred to as estate papers, and many collections of estate papers are either in archive offices or still held privately by the families that created them. A further type of property record which is frequently used is the tax roll. Taxation in Scotland became well organised and better recorded from the 1690s onwards, and most taxes were based on property ownership. Most records of taxation in Scotland are held by the National Records of Scotland. A special type of tax roll was the valuation roll, on which each property’s rental value and annual tax was estimated, and the name and address of the owner and tenant recorded. Further information on land ownership and its records is available here.

For more details about the early register of sasines (before 1781) see the fact sheet on sasines on the National Records of Scotland website. For details on further key archival records offering evidence of property, see also the Knowledge Base entries on Valuation Rolls and on Sasine Abridgements. For more information about tax records see the entry on taxation in the National Records of Scotland website. 

My ancestor migrated to or within Scotland

Throughout history, many people from all over the world have moved to Scotland whether by choice or compelled by world events such as the Second World War. Scots too have been impacted by historic pressures, driving them from their home regions to settle in other regions in Scotland.

There is no single historic record source or series which documents all people migrating to Scotland. However, there are many records which may help build the story of your ancestor if they migrated to Scotland or between Scottish regions.

Poor law records, for example, often indicated a person’s country or region of origin which may offer clue for tracing family genealogy.

As historically many migrants moved due to the availability of employment, high numbers of recent migrants may be found clustered within particular professions or industries, depending on time period and region. For example, during the later 19th century many Scottish Highlanders moving to Glasgow joined the growing police force. Registers of employment or professional licensing records for the relevant industries or professions may provide records of a migrant ancestor.

School records can also provide a starting point for identifying areas within a region or city with thriving migrant communities. As schools were governed by the (protestant) Church of Scotland, migrant children of other faiths were entitled to seek religious exemption, something recorded in the School register.

From the 1880s Gaelic, Celtic and Highland Societies were popular with those migrating from the Highlands to other Scottish regions. Records for these societies, such as minute books can help to provide additional details on individuals. Such records often include lists of named subscribers per session as well as the activities of the Society, such a presentations given or purchase of books.

Related topics

Registers of the poor

Poor law

School records

Links

Timeline of migration to and within Scotland: Migration Timeline – Empire Museum

Voices: The Community Story: Voices: The Community Story – Scottish Council on Archives (scottisharchives.org.uk)

Here are some interesting links relating to the heritage of some of the communities who have made Scotland their home. We recognise this represents only a small number of the diverse communities in Scotland, so it you know of an archive or heritage project relating to your community, please do get in touch.

My Ancestor was a passenger on a ship

Ships’ passenger lists were drawn up by shipping companies to identify passengers on particular voyages. The information contained in passenger lists varies, depending on the recording habits of the company involved. Tracking down passenger lists for specific voyages or the names of individual passengers can involve time-consuming and painstaking research. In terms of ease of access, the whereabouts of a particular passenger list should be sought primarily from the relevant record office in the country of arrival.

Note: very few passenger lists survive in Scotland.

Tracking down the list or ‘manifest’ handed in to the port authority at the country of arrival is your best chance of locating a passenger list. For vessels arriving in countries outside the UK you should check the relevant record office in the country concerned. Details on those in North America, Australia, and New Zealand are given below. For vessels arriving in the UK from non-European ports, The National Archives (TNA) in London holds passenger lists for the period 1878-1960. TNA also holds passenger lists for vessels leaving the UK for destinations outside Europe for the period 1890-1960. They are not indexed, many are in a fragile condition, and require a lot of research time. More information on using passenger lists, and emigration to America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is available in the Knowledge Base.

My Ancestor was a passport holder

British passports, in the modern sense, were introduced in 1915. Before this there were few practical restrictions on individuals who wished to travel abroad, provided they could afford to do so. Documents similar to passports were issued by the Scottish crown (prior to the union of crowns in 1603) and by burghs, senior churchmen and noblemen. These were letters of introduction or safe conduct for individuals (mainly aristocrats or their agents) travelling in Europe, sometimes on official business. In general, those emigrating permanently before 1915 did not require passports. More information on finding out about an ancestor who may have used a passport, or using passport records in general, is available here.

My Ancestor was “a pauper”

When looking for records relating to an individual pauper in Scotland, the important date is 1845. Before 1845 the parish authorities responsible for the poor were kirk sessions and heritors. In many burghs there were town hospitals and poorhouses. From 1845 until 1930 the poor relief authority was the civil parish (parochial boards until 1894 and parish councils between 1894 and 1930). The key sources of information for genealogists searching for a pauper ancestor are: kirk session and heritors’ records (for the period prior to 1845), poor relief registers, parochial board/parish council minute books and poorhouse records (for the period 1845 to 1930). Records of individuals are subject to data protection legislation and will be closed for between 75 and 100 years. Several Knowledge Base articles provide further information on records for paupers in Scotland, the history of poor relief, and poorhouses.

My ancestor was a police officer

Police forces, in the modern sense, came into existence in Scotland from 1800 onwards in burghs and counties. Throughout the later 19th century and the 20th century many burgh constabularies were absorbed by county or city constabularies, and several constabularies amalgamated. In 1975 all county, burgh and amalgamated constabularies were replaced by eight police forces (Strathclyde, Lothian & Borders, Grampian, Tayside, Fife, Central, Northern, and Dumfries and Galloway), supervised by regional council police committees. These eight forces were amalgamated into Police Scotland in 2013. 

Historical records relating to policing come in various categories. Local authority archives hold some and some are retained by police forces themselves. In general, a wider variety of records survive for the larger forces, especially the city constabularies, while, for some smaller constabularies, particularly those absorbed by larger forces, little survives.  More information on the history of policing in Scotland is available here, and on finding and using police records here. Information is also provided on finding records relating to an individual police officer, and on special constables.

My ancestor was a prisoner

If your ancestor was a prisoner in Scotland and you think prison records might contain useful information, you should firstly consider the difference between ‘remanding in custody’, where prison is a means of incarcerating those awaiting trial or punishment, and imprisonment as a judicial sentence. The latter is a relatively modern phenomenon. For further information, see the article on Prisons and Prisoners.

The modern prison system took shape in Scotland from 1839 onwards. Before 1839 the most important form of prison in Scotland consisted of cells in the tolbooths of burghs. Prisoners in these were usually held for short periods before trial, or between trial and punishment, or until a fine or debt was paid (imprisonment for civil debt was abolished in Scotland in 1880). 

Historical Records relating to prisoners in Scotland fall into 3 main types: (a) warding and liberation books for burgh prisons; (b) prison registers, mainly for post-1839 prisons; and (c) Prisoner of War records. 

(a) Warding and liberation books for burgh prisons before 1839 record the incarceration and release of individual prisoners with few other details. In most cases they are held by local authority archives and libraries. However, there are important exceptions (such as the warding and liberation records of Edinburgh tolbooth, held by the National Records of Scotland). 

(b) The main series of prison registers is in the National Records of Scotland, among Home and Health Department records (HH21), but there are some others among Sheriff Court records. These mainly cover the period from the early 1800s onwards, and consist of registers maintained by over 49 prisons, generally containing name, date of admission, committing magistrate and court, age, height, where born, nationality, occupation, religion, health, offence, particulars of trial, sentence if convicted, and date liberated or removed. 

(c) Since the 18th century Prisoners of War were the responsibility of government departments based in London and their records are primarily held by The National Archives in London. 

Information on Burgh Prison Records and Modern Prison Records is also provided in the Knowledge Base.

My ancestor was a rate-payer

Rate-payers were recorded in valuation rolls from 1855 until 1974. Valuation rolls have been compiled in Scotland since at least the early 17th century, but, until 1855, they listed only the leading landowners in each parish. 

From 1855 until 1974 Assessors’ offices in each county and royal burgh in Scotland produced annual valuation rolls, listing almost all occupied properties in each parish and burgh. The rolls include the description of the property, what kind of property it was (e.g. dwelling house, shop, warehouse, hospital etc), the name of the owner, the name of the tenant (if the property was let), and, in some cases, the name of other occupants (if the property was sub-let, for example). Until the mid-20th century the rolls also included the occupation of most tenants and occupiers. Using Valuation Rolls for family history, and the difference between valuation rolls and voters’ rolls, is discussed in more detail on the Knowledge Base.

Valuation rolls for the whole of Scotland are held by the National Records of Scotland from 1855 onwards. Some local authority archives and local studies libraries hold less comprehensive runs of rolls for particular counties and burghs; usually from about 1890 onwards, but in some cases from earlier.  

My ancestor was a school pupil

The key date for researching schooling in Scotland is 1872. Before this schools were run by churches, charities and burghs. Many families, who could afford to do so, paid for the services of private tutors. Information about the schooling of the vast majority of Scottish children in this period does not exist. In 1872 a system of public schools, controlled by elected school boards and funded partly by local rates and partly by pupil fees, operated in Scotland. School admission records and log books survive from many schools and are usually held by local authority archives. Take a look at these articles on the history of Education in Scotland, how School Admission Registers were made and using School Registers for genealogy, and finding School Log Books to find out more about using school records for your family history research. The articles also offer guidance on where to find records for pupils attending school prior to 1872, and public or private schools after this time, finding school photographs, and tracing when individual schools were in operation. 

My Ancestor was a schoolteacher

The key date for researching schooling in Scotland is 1872. Before this schools were run by churches, charities and burghs. It is possible to find information about schoolteachers prior to 1872 in the records of the bodies which ran the school, but this can be time-consuming. From 1873 onwards the principal source of information about teachers’ careers is the school log book which was kept by the headteachers of each school. Most surviving school log books are now held by local authority archives services. From the mid-20th century, teachers were registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland and its predecessors and the records of these bodies are held by the National Records of Scotland; more details are provided in the Knowledge Base article on Education and School Log Books. 

My Ancestor was an Islander

Scotland includes hundreds of islands. Over 100 are inhabited now and many more have been inhabited in the past. Because birth, marriage and death registers, census returns, and many other historical records are arranged by parish and county, you need to be able to work out which parish and county the island was in. 

There are other problems with islands. For example, an island might have been known by several different names in the past, or there may be several variations of the name, or there may be several islands with identical or similar names. 

To find out which county and parish an island was located in, go to the guide in ScotlandsPlaces https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/places  

Further details on finding valuation rolls for Islands, and on Island councils is available on the Knowledge Base.

My ancestor was transported

Many Scottish criminals and rebels (of widely different political and religious opinions) were banished to North American colonies and to Australia. In the 17th century many Covenanters were banished to the North American colonies. Their descendants were joined by Jacobites captured in the 1715 and 1745 rebellions. Transportation to North America continued until 1776. Between the 1790s and 1868 many Scottish criminals, including radicals from the 1820 uprising, were transported to Australia. Finding information about the trial, journey and arrival of transportees involves searching through various archives and libraries in Scotland and abroad, which is described in more detail in the Your Scottish Archives Knowledge Base. There, you can also find information on tracing the records of someone transported to Australia, New Zealand or North America.

My Ancestor was a university student

Student records are usually held by the institution they attended and accessible for research through the archives, subject to data protection restrictions. Matriculation (enrolment) records, graduation records, class lists, examination results and other detailed information may be available. However, until 1858 it was not a requirement for students to matriculate or graduate and many students simply attended classes without doing so. Some lists of students or graduates are available online. For details, look at the websites of the relevant university or higher education institution. In some cases, University Archives will also hold records for college and student societies. If you believe your ancestor may have participated, for example, in sport, music or drama, it is worth asking about records of student societies. Minutes for such societies often include a full list of paid members at the start of each academic semester; this can be a good place to start when looking to see if your ancestor was part of a society.

Scotland had five medieval universities – St Andrews, Glasgow, King’s College, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Marsichal College, Aberdeen. Technical colleges developed in the 19th century, most notably in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The 20th century saw the proliferation of technical colleges, central institutions and other higher education establishments in many Scottish towns. In the 1960s new universities were created at Dundee, Edinburgh (Heriot Watt), Glasgow (Strathclyde) and Stirling. For more information, see this article on the records of Higher Education establishments in Scotland.