Knowledge base
Your Scottish Archives’ Knowledge Base contains information to help you find and use records which are usually held in local and community archives in Scotland. It is arranged into three sections: record types, record creators and topics.- Record types: describes the kind of information you will find in each record type and tells you where these record types can be found.
- Record creators: tells you about local authorities, organisations, corporations and other bodies which created the record types.
- Topics: gives you some contextual background to the many and diverse functions and activities of local record creators, to help you explore and interpret the record types.
- Acts and Records of the Old Scottish Parliament (Until 1707)
- Acts and Records of the Scottish Parliament (from 1999)
- Acts of the UK Parliament (Westminster)
- Airports
- Allotments
- Assessors
- Broadsides and Chapbooks
- Building Standards
- Building Standards records
- Burgh Courts
- Burghs until 1975
- Burial
- Caravan Sites & Travellers’ Sites
- Care of children, young people and families
- Catholic Church records
- Census – 1851 religious census
- Census – Pre-1841 parish household surveys
- Census – Ragman Roll
- Census – Webster’s Census
- Censuses and Quasi-Censuses
- Cess Rolls
- Churches – Baptist churches
- Churches – Episcopalians in Scotland
- Churches – Methodists in Scotland
- Churches – Presbyterian Churches in Scotland
- Churches – Roman Catholics in Scotland
- Civil Defence and Emergency Planning
- Cleansing and Refuse Disposal
- Coast Protection
- Commissary Courts
- Commissioners of Supply
- Commissioners of Supply minutes
- Community councils
- Control of diseases of animals
- Councils after 1996
- Counties and Parishes to 1975
- Countryside
- County Councils
- County Road Trusts
- Court of Session
- Court records
- Cremation
- Criminal Justice Services (Probation Services)
- Criminal registers and criminal photographs
- Days, Dates and Calendars
- Dean of Guild Courts
- Death and disposal of dead
- Death Records – Burial and death registers of other churches
- Death records – Burial registers of Church of Scotland churches
- Death Records – Death registers of Catholic churches
- Death Records – Hospital registers of death
- Death Records – Monumental Inscriptions
- Death Records – Mortcloths
- Death Records – Records of municipal and private cemeteries
- Death Records – Records of undertakers and monumental masons
- District Committees (1889-1930)
- District Councils (1930-1975)
- District Councils (1975-1996)
- District Courts
- District lunacy boards/District boards of control
- Education
- Education Authorities
- Education records
- Electoral registration
- Electoral rolls
- Emigration
- Employment of Young Persons
- Entertainment & Culture
- Ferries
- Film Production in Scotland
- Fire & Rescue Services
- Fire authorities
- Flood Prevention
- Food Labelling, Standards and Hygiene
- Freeholders
- Friendly Societies
- Further Education
- Graverobbing
- Harbours
- Heritors
- Heritors’ records
- High Court of Justiciary
- Higher education
- Hospitals and local health provision under the National Health Service
- Hospitals before the NHS
- Housing
- Industrial Promotion
- Islands Councils
- Joint hospital boards
- Justices of the Peace
- Kirk session records
- Kirk sessions
- Leisure and Recreation
- Letter books
- Libraries
- Lieutenancy and Militia
- Lighthouses
- Liquor Licensing
- List of Counties, Cities, Large burghs, Small burghs
- List of regional, district, islands and unitary councils
- Local authorities under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts
- Markets and Shop Hours
- Medical Officers of Health records
- Mental Health
- Minute books
- Money and Banking
- Museums and Galleries
- Nature conservation
- New Town Corporations
- Parks
- Parliamentary papers after 1707
- Parliaments
- Parochial Boards and Parish Councils
- Passenger Lists
- Passports
- Photographs of police officers and police buildings
- Photography in Scotland
- Planning & Development Control
- Police – Burgh Police Forces
- Police – central government records
- Police – County Constabularies
- Police – List of police forces in Scotland
- Police amalgamations and reorganisations
- Police Authorities
- Police Authority Minutes
- Police Chief Constable’s annual reports, statistical returns and other reports
- Police correspondence files, case files and administrative files
- Police Forces and Policing
- Police licensing and similar records
- Police memoranda books
- Police order books, instructions and manuals
- Police predecessors’ records
- Police Records
- Police Records Locations
- Police staff records
- Police station records
- Poor Relief – Applications for Poor Relief
- Poor Relief – Board of Supervision and Local Government Board records
- Poor Relief – Children’s Separate Registers
- Poor Relief – General Registers of Poor
- Poor Relief – Miscellaneous records of Inspectors of poor
- Poor Relief – Poor Law in Scotland 1579-1845
- Poor Relief – Poor Law in Scotland 1845-1948
- Poor Relief – Poorhouse records
- Poor Relief – Poorhouses in Scotland
- Poor Relief – Poorhouses in Scotland in 1902 (List)
- Poor Relief – Registers of Poor (1845-1865)
- Poor Relief and Welfare
- Poor Relief records
- Postal Directories
- Presbyteries
- Preservation of Ancient Monuments & Listed Buildings
- Prison Records – Burgh prison records
- Prison Records – County Prison Board minutes
- Prison Records – Modern prison records
- Prisoners – Civil debtors
- Prisoners – Prisoners of War in Scotland
- Prisoners – Prisoners with alcohol addiction
- Prisoners – Prisoners with mental disorders
- Prisoners and Prisons
- Prisons – Burgh tolbooths and early prisons
- Prisons – Industrial Schools, Borstals and Young Offenders Institutions
- Prisons – Prison reform and centralisation
- Prisons – The modern prison system
- Procurators Fiscal
- Procurators Fiscal records and Fatal Accident Inquiries
- Property
- Property records
- Property Records – Sasine Abridgements
- Public Assistance and Community Care, 1948-2002
- Public health
- Public Transport
- Record-keeping
- Records of parochial boards and parish councils
- Records relating to children and young people
- Regional Councils
- Registers of Liquor Licensing
- Registration of vital events
- River Purification
- Roads
- Sanitary Inspection and Environmental Health
- School admission registers
- School board minutes
- School boards
- School log books
- School management committees
- Scottish Cinemas
- Scottish Heraldry
- Scottish Judicial Sentences
- Scottish Local Government
- Senior Officials – Chamberlain or Treasurer
- Senior Officials – Clerk
- Senior Officials – Medical Officer of Health
- Sheriff Courts
- Slaughterhouses
- Social Work
- Special drainage, water supply, lighting and scavenging districts
- Sport
- Statistical Accounts of Scotland
- Statute Labour Trusts
- Stewarty
- Synods
- Teind Court
- Tourism
- Trading standards & Consumer Protection
- Trust Sederunt books
- Turnpike Trusts
- Utilities – Gas and Electricity Supply
- Valuation Rolls
- Vehicle Registration
- Voting Qualifications
- War Memorials
- Water & Sewage
- Weights and measures: origins of weights and measures in Scotland
- Weights and measures: Scottish distance and area
- Weights and measures: Scottish dry capacity
- Weights and measures: Scottish liquid capacity
- Weights and measures: Scottish weight
- Wills and testaments
- Witchcraft in Scotland
- Women’s Suffrage
- Young offenders and children in the justice system
- Youth Employment and Careers Service