Family Records

Many family and estate records are now lodged with the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) and available to the genealogist. Although many people may never appear in any records of this kind - a lot will.

Scotland was a largely rural society and economy until the middle of the 19th century and many people worked on the land. The landowners often kept extensive records of their workers and the tenants of the property they owned.

Whilst many of these records may have been lost forever the NAS has a large collection of Gifts and Deposits, as they are known.

These largely family records from landed estates can provide much useful information to the genealogist, particularly from areas such as the Rent Rolls and lease details known as Tacks. The Factor of the estate may also have recorded more personal details such as succession, marriage and any feuds that may have existed between different tenants.

It can be a very time consuming and laborious task to search these records as in many cases the genealogist has to carefully handle the original documents and search through much irrelevant information to find what they want. However, time spent in this way is never wasted and can often yield rich rewards.

The NAS also holds large collections of other records which provide details of individual lives. Examples include: Craft & Trade records, Deeds, Valuation Rolls, Taxation records, Poor Relief records and Lighthouse records to name but a few.