General Sources
Web sites
Ancestry provides message boards, maps, linked pedigree files, indexes, and original source records.

The Registrar General Office for Scotland is an official government agency that holds many of the original records collected by the British and Scottish government. It is the only source for many certificates and original records.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides a thorough research guide to Scotland with links to their holdings in Family History Centres worldwide.

GENUKI is a volunteer organisation that has made thorough descriptions of parishes, Scottish history, and Scottish links.

Origins is a commercial organization that provides pay-per-view access to the 1891 Scottish census index and official extracts from civil registration records.

Recommended Readings
Your Scottish Ancestry: A Guide for North Americans, by Sherry Irvine, (Ancestry, 1997)

Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry, by Kathleen B. Cory (Polygon, 1996)

Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History, by Mark D. Herber (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.,1997)

In Search of the "Forlorn Hope", by John M. Kitsmiller, II (Manuscript Publishing Foundation, 1988)

Census Records
The Registrar General holds the records of the census of Scotland for 1841 and every ten years thereafter until 1891. The recorded of census taken after 1901 are still confidential and are not available to the public. The records contain details such as name, age, marital circumstances, occupation, and birthplace of every member of a household present on the night of the census. The books are not indexed, with the exception of 1881, which is available at the New Register House, and at LDS Family History Centres. In addition, the 1891 census index which is available from Origins for a fee.

A daily fee can be paid to access these records at the Registrar General of Scotland at New Register House, Edinburgh EH1 3YT. More information about all records held by the General Registrars Office for Scotland is available on the GRO web site.

A good reference for census films provided by the LDS Church is David Wills' web site. It details which microfilm numbers correspond with a parish.

Vital and Church Records
Old parish registers
Before the introduction of civil registration in 1855, the parish ministers or clerks of the Church of Scotland kept registers that are now known as "Old Parish Registers." The registers list births, christenings, proclamations of banns, marriages, deaths, and burials, but the surviving registers are far from complete. Though the oldest register relates to christenings in 1553, for some parishes the earliest register dates from the early 19th century, and for other parishes there are no registers at all. Also, the standard of record-keeping varied considerably from parish to parish and from year to year, and most entries contain relatively little information. The Registrar General has an electronic index to all the registers of births, christenings, and marriages, and it has paper indexes to a few of the registers of deaths and burials.

The LDS Family History Centres also provide a computerised index of the Old Parish Registers that contain about 10 million names. The original parish records were microfilmed by the LDS Church and are available at Family History Centres.

Registers of births, deaths and marriages
Statutory civil registers have been compiled since 1 January 1855 and constitute the main series of records of vital events occurring in Scotland. The Registrar General has a computerized index of all of Scotland that is categorized by birth, marriage, or death. Microfilmed versions of these indexes are available from LDS Family History Centres. Certified original transcripts taken from registers can be obtained from the General Registrars Office for Scotland or from Origins.

Copies of post-1855 civil registration certificates are also kept at local registrars' offices across Scotland. Researching these copies can be a more convenient way to search the records if you are visiting Scotland but not going to Edinburgh.

Compiled Genealogy
The Ancestry World Tree has more than 500,000 linked Scottish names in pedigrees submitted by contributors from all over the world. FamilySearch.org also has many thousands of donated pedigree files.

Community and Message Boards
The largest Scottish message board in the world is located at Ancestry.

Military Records
Military records from 1707 to 1881 are held in the Public Record Office in Kew, London, England.

Army returns of births, deaths, and marriages of Scottish persons who were at military stations abroad during the period 1881-1959 are held by the Registrar General. Also available are certified copies of entries relating to marriages solemnized by Army chaplains outside the United Kingdom since 1892, where one of the parties to the marriage is described as Scottish and at least one of the parties is serving in the Armed Forces.

Records are held at the Registrar General Office for Scotland of births and deaths on British-registered merchant vessels at sea in any part of the world, and of births and deaths in any part of the world in British-registered aircraft, where it appears that one of the child's parents or the deceased person was usually resident in Scotland.

War registers are held in the Registrar General Office of the South African War (1899-1902), of World War I (1914-1918), men in the Royal Navy, and of World War II (1939-1945).

Reference and Finding Aids
Visit the Scottish Map centre at Ancestry.

Maps, place names, and a history time line are available at Gazetteer for Scotland.

Gerry Lawson's Parish locator can help determine what county a parish is in.

Emigration and Immigration
The Scots-Irish
Early migration from Scotland to Ireland was often driven by religious persecution. This is explained in Brian Orr's article,"The Covenanters."

Emigration in the 1800s
To search emigration records effectively, you should know the approximate date of emigration, the name of the ship, the reason for emigration, or the emigrant’s previous residence in Scotland. If you know the ship’s name, you might find additional details on the ship, including ports of embarkation and arrival, in Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping. Fiche ed. (LaCrosse, Wis.: Brookhaven Press, 1981).

Passenger Lists
Pre-1890 passenger departure lists are rare. Post-1890 lists are arranged chronologically by port of departure. These lists usually give the emigrant’s name, age, occupation, address, and sometimes destination and are kept at the Public Record Office in Kew, London, England.

Additionally, you may try searching immigration records of the United States, Canada, and Australia, where the majority of Scottish emigrants settled.

Court, Land, and Probate
In general, there are two types of court cases in Scotland: Court of Session cases and sheriff's courts cases. Court of Session records, which date from 1478, are vast and complex and include Registers of Acts and Decrees (the judgments), minute books of the same, claims that may or may not have gone to trial, and recorded evidence. Check the minute books to find information in national court records. Minute books are arranged chronologically and list each legal action by the surnames of the opposing parties. They give enough details about a case to let you know whether it is of interest to you. The minute books are in manuscript form before 1782 and in printed form after that date. The printed minute books are indexed and have been published annually.

Each county in Scotland falls under the jurisdiction of at least one sheriff court. A sheriff court may have jurisdiction over all or part of a county, and it deals with local civil and criminal matters. Each sheriff court keeps its own records and maintains an inventory of record and minute books.

The most common land records are found in two types of records: Registers of sasines and retours of heirs. Registers of sasines were introduced in the 16th century as a public record of land transfers. The retours of heirs date from about 1520 and were used to prove an heir's right to inherit the land.

Until 1868, real property (land and buildings) descended to the eldest son by law. Therefore, only moveable property could be the subject of a testament.

From about 1560 to 1823, all testaments were proved in commissariats, with established provincial jurisdictions. Many of these records are available at LDS Family History Centres. In 1824, probate jurisdiction was transferred to the sheriff's courts. The sheriff's courts' jurisdiction closely approximated the county boundaries at that time.

The National Archives of Scotland maintains the majority of these and other court, land, and probate records. See a complete listing of their records.