Are sasine abridgements a good source for genealogy?

Sasine abridgements can be a very good source of information for genealogy for those whose ancestors owned land in Scotland from 1781 onwards. They record successions to property, which help establish death dates and family relationships, and they are easily searched by county by personal name.

However, there are limitations. Do not think of the sasine abridgements as an annual list of property owners in Scotland. Rather they are a record of property transactions each year. The limitations of using sasine abridgements for genealogy are that they:

• concern owners of property, not tenants or other occupants
• record a majority of, but not all, property transactions in any given year
• contain legal jargon
• require a working knowledge of Scotland’s feudal land law