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About the records

The ScotlandsPeople Centre has gathered together a vast amount of family history and genealogical information from its partner organisations dating back almost 500 years. All records are digitised and available to view on computer screens. Copies of records are able to be printed off or saved electronically providing the records are deemed historical i.e. births over 100 years old, marriages over 75 years old and deaths over 50 years old.

Record availability at the Centre

All our records have differing availability if you are a customer searching at the Centre, compared to anyone doing online searching at the ScotlandsPeople site. The images below give snapshots of the respective search panels customers see when either logging in to search via the Centre software (left) or externally from the ScotlandsPeople site (right).

Detailed explanations of the differences between searching at the Centre and searching online are available on our Questions about the records page.

Search panel, ScotlandsPeople Centre software

Search panel, ScotlandsPeople Website software

Listing of Centre records

Robert Louis Stevenson's
death record (ref 161/FN, 23)
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National Records of Scotland

You can look up birth, marriage and death records going back as far as 1553. This includes surviving records of Church of Scotland parishes up to 1854 and statutory records from 1855 to the present.

There are indexes to some of the Old Parish Registers death and burial records in the Library. You can also look at indexes and images of census records from 1841 to 1911.

Census Returns »1841-1911

Old Parish Registers »1553-1854

Births and Christenings
Banns and Marriages
Deaths and Burials

Statutory Register

Register of births » 1855 - current
Register of deaths » 1855-current
Register of marriages » 1855-current
Register of divorces » 1984-current
Register of correction etc. » 1855-current
Register of civil partnerships » 2005-current

Testament of James More
20 Sept 1781 (Ref CC6/5/28)
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Wills and testaments »1513-1925

Indexes and images of Wills and testaments from 1513 to 1925 are available. These are a valuable resource for the family historian giving as they provide an insight into the lifestyles and possessions of our ancestors.

Coat of Arms for William Bilsland
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Court of the Lord Lyon

The Court of the Lord Lyon has provided access to the Public Register of all Arms and Bearings in Scotland from 1672, to 100 years before the current calendar year.

The Register records all granting of Coats of Arms in Scotland. Many of the entries provide valuable genealogical information.

(Customers should note entries in Volume 1 (1672-1804) are very brief, with little genealogical information and very few illuminations of the coats of arms. In some cases legibility is poor).

Entry from service records
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Minor records

Minor Records detail the register of births, deaths and marriages that took place outside Scotland where it appears that one of the child's parents, or the deceased person, was usually resident in Scotland. These comprise:

Air Register of births and deaths » 1948-current
Consular Returns » 1914-current
High Commissioner's Returns » 1964-current
Marine Registers of births and deaths » 1855-current
Registered events in foreign countries » 1860-1965
Service Records » 1881-1959
War Registers » 1899-current
Foreign marriages without presence
of British consular officer » 1947-current
Marriages solemnised by army chaplains » 1892-current