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Valuation Rolls Search Help

SURNAME FIELD

Spelling of a surname might not be as you expect due to:

• Mis-spelling, phonetic spelling or other misinterpretation by an assessor
• Surname variants
• The surname may have been altered or anglicised on arrival in Scotland
• People from the Highlands and Western Isles may have anglicised their Gaelic surname, for example, MacIan to Johnston
• All Mc surnames have been expanded to Mac
• Transcription error during indexing
• Use of T-names*

* Most prevalent in fishing towns and hamlets in the north east of Scotland, families of fishermen are known by their boat names rather than their surname. Depending on how these names have been captured you will find a fisherman's boat name captured as part of his surname (for example John Brown 'Beauty' or George Cowie-Helldom). In some circumstance only the boat name has been captured as the surname by the assessor (for example George Helldom, John Beauty).

Nobility

Surnames of noble families are often different from the names in their titles. For example the surname of the Dukes of Buccleuch is Montague Douglas Scott. It is more likely that the title will appear in the surname field than the family name for example Buccleuch will appear in the surname field and Duke will appear in the title field, you may not find Montague Douglas Scott in any of the fields.

The family name appears in the surname field and the title in the description field.

FORENAME FIELD

Spelling of a forename might not be as you expect due to:

• Transcript error during indexing
• Mis-spelling, phonetic spelling or other misinterpretation by an assessor
• Forename variations including abbreviations (for example William, Wm., Willm), use of diminutives (for example Margaret, Maggie, Meg, Peggy,) nicknames/pet names or middle names as first names.

Forenames are captured as they are spelt on the valuation roll.

GROUP FIELD

You would use this search if you are looking for a company (for example John Brown Ltd), multiple tenants, public authorities, churches, multiples owners (for example Mr and Mrs Smith, John and Jean MacDonald), trustees or heirs to individuals (for example the heirs of the late Robert MacKay or the trustees of Miss Elizabeth Black).

Not all names listed in a roll will be included in the group field. Where the names of heirs are listed along with the name of the deceased only the name of the deceased is captured for example (the heirs of the late Robert MacKay), where there is a list of multiple tenants or proprietors only the first one or two names are captured. This is due to the limited number of characters allowed per field.

Spelling of words in the group field may not be as you might expect due to:

• Names and other words being captured as they are spelt on the valuation rolls
• Abbreviations of some words for example (TRS or TRUST for Trustees, EXCS or EXECS for Executors)

A list of the more common abbreviations found throughout the rolls has been created which you can look at.

PLACE FIELD

This is a description of the property, usually an address.

The level of description in each roll varies depending on who the assessor was; when and where the information was taken.

You will get more detail in the later years such as 1905, 1915 than in the earlier years such as 1855 or 1865; you may also get more information depending on whether the property in question is in the countryside or part of a town.

E.g. County of Ayr, parish of Ardrossan for the year 1905 one property is described as SHOP 59 GLASGOW STREET BURGH OF ARDROSSAN whereas a property in the more rural areas is describes as FARM AND HOUSE DYKESMAINS.

You can use this field to search for a street, property type (e.g. shop, house, croft), you can also search using the number of the property if it has been captured.

This field is limited, it is not a free text search. You have to use wildcards to extend your search parameters

e.g. If you were seaching for all United Free Churches in a paritcular county or burgh, but they maybe captured as 'U.F Church' or 'United Free Church' 'UF Church', you would use wildcards to extend your search, so if you used 'U*F* Church' it will match to the following -
United Free Church
United F. Church
United F Church
UF Church
U.F Church

AREA FIELD

This option allows you to narrow your search by a County or Burgh.

If you have no idea where a person lived you could select 'All records', but if you are searching using a very common surname this search will bring back too many results and you will be asked to narrow your search.

If you know which parish your ancestor lived in but not the Burgh or County select 'All records' but then use the parish option to narrow your search, this will then result in all entries for that parish whether it existed in as part of Burgh or County.

If you select a Burgh or County option it will reduce the number of results returned. If you narrow your search by a Burgh or County then your search will only bring back results for entries in that Burgh or County.

Ross and Cromarty were separate counties until 1889 but the way they are treated in the valuation rolls is complex. There is no separate valuation roll for Cromarty County in 1855: it is included with Ross County. From 1865-1885 Ross County and Cromarty County each produced a separate valuation roll. From 1895 Ross and Cromarty was a unified county and produced a single county valuation roll.

PARISH FIELD

Select a specific parish to refine your search further. Alternatively, select up to 5 parishes at one time by holding down Ctrl key (control key) and clicking them.
If you know which parish your ancestor lived in but are not sure whether it was in a particular county or burgh, select 'All records' in the area field, then arrow your search by the particular parish in this field. This will return all entries matching your search criteria for that parish in all counties and burghs it appears.

If you select a parish from this drop down menu after selecting a particular Burgh or County in the 'Area' field, your page of results will be limited to parishes that appear in that Burgh or County.
e.g. If you search for an 'John Smith' in Kirkcaldy and Dysart parish, it will return all entries matching this search criteria from Kirckcaldy Burgh, Dysart Burgh and Fife County.

Place name spellings. The spelling of place names varies throughout the valuation rolls. Where possible we have standardised place names to match those already used by ScotlandsPeople.