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 & Records of the Old Scottish Parliament
- Acts & Records of the Scottish Parliament
- Acts of the UK Parliament (Westminster)
- Airports
- Allotments
- Ancient Monuments & Listed Buildings
- Assessors
- Broadsides and Chapbooks
- Building Standards
- Building Standards records
- Burgh Courts
- Burghs until 1975
- Burial
- Caravan Sites & Travellers’ Sites
- Care of children & young people
- Catholic Church records
- Census – 1851 religious census
- Census – Ragman Roll
- Census – Webster’s Census
- Census – Pre-1841 household surveys
- Censuses and Quasi-Censuses
- Cess Rolls
- Churches – Baptist churches
- Churches – Episcopalians in Scotland
- Churches – Methodists in Scotland
- Churches – Roman Catholics in Scotland
- Churches – Presbyterians 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
- Criminal registers and photographs
- Days, Dates and Calendars
- Dean of Guild Courts
- Death and disposal of dead
- Death records – Catholic
- Death records – Cemeteries
- Death records – Church of Scotland
- Death Records – Monumental Inscriptions
- Death Records – Mortcloths
- Death records – Other churches
- Death records – Undertakers & masons
- Death records – Hospital death registers
- District Committees (1889-1930)
- District Councils (1930-1975)
- District Councils (1975-1996)
- District Courts
- 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 under the NHS
- Hospitals before the NHS
- Housing
- Industrial Promotion
- Islands Councils
- Joint hospital boards
- Justice – young offenders & children
- Justices of the Peace
- Kirk session records
- Kirk sessions
- Leisure and Recreation
- Letter books
- Libraries
- Lieutenancy and Militia
- Lighthouses
- Liquor Licensing
- Lists of local authorities after 1975
- Lists of local authorities before 1975
- Local authorities under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts
- Markets and Shop Hours
- Medical Officers of Health records
- Mental Health
- Mental health authorities
- Minute books
- Money and Banking
- Museums and Galleries
- Nature conservation
- New Town Corporations
- Parks
- Parliamentary papers after 1707
- Parliaments
- Parochial board & parish council records
- Parochial Boards and Parish Councils
- Passenger Lists
- Passports
- Photographs of police officers & 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 administrative files
- Police Authorities
- Police Authority Minutes
- Police Chief Constable’s reports
- Police Forces and Policing
- Police licensing and similar records
- Police memoranda books
- Police order books
- Police predecessors’ records
- Police Records
- Police Records Locations
- Police reorganisations
- Police staff records
- Police station records
- Poor Relief – Applications for Poor Relief
- Poor Relief – Children’s Separate Registers
- Poor Relief – General Registers of Poor
- Poor relief – Inspectors of poor records
- 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 – 1902 poorhouses
- Poor relief – central government records
- Poor relief – poor registers (1845-1865)
- Poor Relief and Welfare
- Poor Relief records
- Postal Directories
- Presbyteries
- 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 – Prison reform and centralisation
- Prisons – The modern prison system
- Prisons – young people
- Procurators Fiscal
- Procurators Fiscal records
- Property
- Property records
- Property Records – Sasine Abridgements
- Public assistance & community care
- Public health
- Public Transport
- Record-keeping
- Records concerning young people
- Regional Councils
- Registers of Liquor Licensing
- Registration of vital events
- River Purification
- Roads
- Sanitary Inspection/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 – Clerk
- Senior Officials – Medical Officer of Health
- Senior officials – Chamberlain/Treasurer
- Sheriff Courts
- Slaughterhouses
- Social Work
- Special 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 & measures – origins
- Weights & measures – Scottish distance & area
- Weights & measures – Scottish dry capacity
- Weights & measures – Scottish liquid capacity
- Weights & measures – Scottish weight
- Wills and testaments
- Witchcraft in Scotland
- Women’s Suffrage
- Youth Employment and Careers Service