National Records of Scotland (2023)

FAQs

National Records of Scotland? ›

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On the ScotlandsPeople website you can search indexes to registers of births, deaths and marriages; census returns; wills and testaments (including soldiers' wills), valuation rolls, prison registers, Highland and Island Emigration Society records and Coats of Arms; and download digital copies of the records.

For original documents such as birth, death and marriage and census records you should contact the National Records of Scotland. You will also find sources such as wills, trial papers and some estate and church records there.

Visit our Search Rooms in Edinburgh

Signage is in place to direct customers and visitors. All other visitors should go to the main reception area or the accessible reception, both at New Register House. We recommend that you read the following pages before your visit.

The records are indexed by personal name. If you need a death certificate for official or legal purposes please go to certificates and copies for guidance about online ordering. You have to register and login to use this service.

Accessing the Records

Most of the Scottish education records have not been digitized and are only available in print. The National Records of Scotland house school inspection reports, examination results, plans of school buildings, and records of individual schools and schoolmasters.

The quickest and easiest way to find out about your potential Scottish ancestry is to take a genetic DNA kit through Living DNA.

Search birth, marriage and death registers online at ScotlandsPeople. Many registers are available to view online and you can download images (charges apply).

Does Scotland still have track and trace? ›

As of 1 May 2022, contact tracing is no longer being utilised in Scotland response to COVID-19. The latest advice and information for the public on COVID-19 is available at NHS inform.

Our database of Scottish Parish Registers contain birth, christening, marriage, death, and burial records.

Scotland is a world leader in providing family history information on the internet, partly because written records go back a long way. The main examples are registers of births, marriages and deaths dating back to 1553, Census records from 1841 to 1911 and wills dating back to 1500 - all available online.

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.

The Statutory Register of Deaths contains detailed information about each person who has died in Scotland since 1 January 1855 and is of great value to researchers. This guide covers: Information recorded in the registers. Cause of death.

The historical birth and death index - births over 100 years old and deaths up to 1957 (those records that have been digitised) are available to search free of charge, via the GRO website at www.gov.uk/ bmdcertificates. You can also visit www.freebmd.org.uk which contains a transcription of the index from 1837 to 1983.

While the term "clan" means family or children in Gaelic - not everyone in the same clan was actually related to each other. The clans lived off the land, with cattle being their main source of wealth and, along with border disputes, the prime cause of inter-clan unrest.

According to the data, those of Celtic ancestry in Scotland and Cornwall are more similar to the English than they are to other Celtic groups. The study also describes distinct genetic differences across the UK, which reflect regional identities.

Most people in Scotland will say they are Scottish rather than British. People born in Wales are called Welsh or British and can say that they live in Wales, Britain and/or the UK. Most people in Wales will say they are Welsh rather than British.

Retention of files - Education records are kept for 5 years after the child leaves the school.

How long do schools keep records Scotland? ›

11.1 Pupil education records shall be kept by the responsible body for 5 years after the pupil has stopped receiving school education. Parental responsibility is a legal term that means having all the legal rights, duties, powers and responsibilities for a child (a child is a young person under the age of 16).

First of all, you need to write to the body responsible for the records. For local authority schools (the vast majority of schools in Scotland), that means writing to your local education authority. If your child goes to an independent school, write to the proprietor. For grant-aided schools, write to the managers.

Scotland's diverse landscapes consist of dramatic mountains and glens, forests and moorlands and a highly indented coastline fragmented into a diverse range of islands that enrich our northern and western shores. There are also rolling lowlands, fertile straths, broad estuaries and settlements.

Oct 2021. Scotland and Ireland are close neighbours, and it is no surprise that commercial ancestral Y-DNA testing and the resulting hundreds of Y-DNA Case Studies conducted at Scottish and Irish Origenes have revealed lots of shared ancestry among males with Scottish or Irish origins.

You can request counselling from any local council in Scotland or the adoption agency that arranged the adoption. The National Records of Scotland Adoption Unit holds original birth records for people born in Scotland. You can contact them and ask for a copy of your original birth certificate if you're aged 16 or over.

Order a copy certificate online

You can order a certificate online from the ScotlandsPeople website. You need to create an account first on the ScotlandsPeople website. ScotlandsPeople can only process online orders right now. They cannot process any orders made in another way.

The recording of births, deaths and marriages — known as statutory registration — began in Scotland in 1855. Before 1855 the records for members of the Church of Scotland were known as the 'old parish registers'.

Genetically, you actually carry more of your mother's genes than your father's. That's because of little organelles that live within your cells, the mitochondria, which you only receive from your mother.

Because of recombination, siblings only share about 50 percent of the same DNA, on average, Dennis says. So while biological siblings have the same family tree, their genetic code might be different in at least one of the areas looked at in a given test. That's true even for fraternal twins.

What is the farthest back someone can trace their lineage? ›

How far back in time do the oldest genealogies go? The oldest traceable family tree is that of the Chinese Kang clan, which documents the family's lineage over 5200 years and more than 80 generations! This family tree contains over 2 million descendants, including the great philosopher Confucius.

We only list regions for which we have unique data collections. Please try back later because we frequently add more collections. Alternatively, for more regional records try browsing within all Scotland collections.

Many Scots left for new lives overseas, while Irish, Italians, Lithuanians and others arrived here. These migrations severed links with home and family and can cause problems for family historians as records often don't provide detailed information on places of origin.

Black is a surname which can be of either English, Scottish, Irish or French origin. In the cases of non-English origin, the surname is likely to be an Anglicisation.

The second part of the study has revealed that fifty percent of all men who have the surname of Stewart or Stuart are the direct descendants of Scotland's long-lasting royal dynasty (who also came to rule over Britain and Ireland). This data has been derived from sampling of the general population by ScotlandsDNA.

The Scots (Scots: Scots Fowk; Scottish Gaelic: Albannaich) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (or Alba) in the 9th century.

If you just got your DNA results back and you found out that you have the Ireland and Scotland DNA ethnicity on your results, you can count yourself among the descendants of the more than ten million people who have emigrated from Scotland and Ireland since the 1700s.

You can: search the GRO online Index of historic births (1837 to 1916) and deaths (1837 to 1957) view index reference numbers for free on the FreeBMD website.

Local newspapers, obituary pages, and social media can help you determine whether someone recently died. States and the U.S. government have online death records (sometimes called death indexes) for deaths within the past 50 years or so. To find out if you're in someone's will, you may want to visit a probate court.

Under UK law, death certificates are known as Public Records which means that any person can apply for a copy of any certificate, providing that they know the details of the death that is required.

Are death certificates public record in Scotland? ›

The National Records of Scotland store records of births, deaths, marriages, civil partnerships, divorces, stillbirths - they're also responsible for the Scottish national archives, which contain government documents and public records.

Yes, you can. It is generally an easy process, but if you don't have details about the deceased person, such as their name and date of death (estimate should be okay), it will be more difficult to find out more information such as the cause of death and burial place.

Deceased records

The law allows you to see records of a patient that has died as long as they were made after 1st November 1991. Records are usually only kept for three years after death.

In UP, you can Search Death Certificate online and check status from the website of https://e-nagarsewaup.gov.in/. There is no need of visiting Registration office initially to apply and Search for Death Certificate in UP. Status of Death Certificate also can be searched online by visiting the website.

You need to register on the General Register Office ( GRO ) website to get a copy of a birth, adoption, death, marriage or civil partnership certificate in England and Wales. You can use this service to research your family tree. Order with the GRO index reference number.

They can be identified by searching on our catalogue under the name of the accused. Precognitions less than 100 years old are closed to public access. If a precognition is available there will usually be a record of a trial at the High Court too, although cases do not always come to a trial.

Welcome to our Scotland family history research page. Here you'll find record collections, history, and genealogy resources to help you trace your Scotland ancestors.

Call us on 0131 272 2766 for a professional tracing and people finding service. We have access to accurate and up to date information not available in the public domain and the investigative experience and knowledge of Edinburgh to save you time and money.

You can search judgements on court cases on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service website.

How do I check criminal convictions in Scotland? ›

To request your criminal record (or for confirmation that nothing is held regarding you on these systems) you should tick the Scottish Criminal History System (CHS) and/ or Police National Computer (PNC) check boxes on the application form or state in your email that you would like a CHS/ PNC check.

You can apply to Disclosure Scotland for a disclosure certificate. Disclosure Scotland is a service that provides potential employers and voluntary sector organisations with criminal history information on individuals applying for posts. Individuals may also apply for a basic disclosure.

There are many genetic markers being searched for, but only a few will help identify whether you have Scottish ancestry or not. The main haplogroup is called R1b-M269, which originated in western Europe and is an important Y-DNA haplogroup found among Scottish men.

Oct 2021. Scotland and Ireland are close neighbours, and it is no surprise that commercial ancestral Y-DNA testing and the resulting hundreds of Y-DNA Case Studies conducted at Scottish and Irish Origenes have revealed lots of shared ancestry among males with Scottish or Irish origins.

According to the data, those of Celtic ancestry in Scotland and Cornwall are more similar to the English than they are to other Celtic groups. The study also describes distinct genetic differences across the UK, which reflect regional identities.

So what are the Scots really? Carefree and light-hearted we most hilariously are not but at our best, we're honest, reliable and compassionate. Fairness reigns supreme and most Scots genuinely strive for a fairer and more equal society even if, in our eternal resigned pessimism, we fear we'll never see one.

If you cannot get online please call 0800 028 2816.

Scottish born British citizens currently living outside of Scotland will also be considered Scottish citizens. Following independence, other people will be able to apply for Scottish citizenship.