ScotlandsPlaces hosted tax rolls and OS Name Books to join ScotlandsPeople

ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) has added an update to say that the Ordnance Survey Name Books, as well as the tax rolls currently hosted on ScotlandsPlaces (www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk), will be made available on the ScotlandsPeople website from June 25th, following the plug being pulled on ScotlandsPlaces on June 24th (see https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2025/05/plug-to-be-pulled-on-scotlandsplaces.html).

Unfortunately there will be some charges introduced:

Records can be searched and viewed free of charge. There will be a small charge to save copies. Additionally, we have created a new name index of male and female servant tax rolls, for which there will be a small charge to view records. 

Further additions to ScotlandsPeople's maps and plans section will follow later on this year, with content from ScotlandsPlaces.

The full announcement is available at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/news-and-articles/more-records-coming.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Ancestry adds Dunbartonshire Valuation Rolls 1855-1930 collection

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added the following collection, albeit it is a bit strange in the way it has been done:

Dumbarton, Dunbartonshire, Scotland, Valuation Rolls, 1855-1930
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62870/
Source: Valuation Rolls. Dumbarton, Scotland: West Dunbartonshire Council Arts & Heritage Service.

About Dumbarton, Dunbartonshire, Scotland, Valuation Rolls, 1855-1930

This collection contains valuation rolls for Dunbartonshire, Scotland, dated between 1855 and 1930. Valuation rolls record property ownership information for use in assessing local taxes. The rolls were produced annually to provide ownership, tenancy, and occupancy information for every property in a county or city, including houses, apartments, churches, schools, and businesses. Information may be limited in the documents from the earlier years covered by this collection.

Using this collection

Records in this collection may include the following information:

• Name
• Occupation
• Name of tenant
• Name of occupant
• Address
• Parish name

In addition to the information listed above, valuation rolls normally state the type of property and its monetary value or rent charged. The information in each valuation roll provides a snapshot of where your ancestor owned property or lived at a specific time. You may be able to establish a timeline of your ancestor’s residential mobility and occupational history by searching for them in registers produced over several years.

Although they don’t have as much information as a census, the rolls are useful to research your ancestor’s life between the census years. The valuation rolls also may have information about buildings that a census wouldn’t account for because there was no one living there at the time of the census.

For further information visit https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62870/

Comment: After a few initial tests on this collection, I am a bit confused about the coverage. On the browse area to the right, it shows only the following as browsable registers, with images available:

1913-1914
1914-1915
1915-1916
1916-1917
1917-1918
1919-1920
1920-1921
1921-1922

Test searches prior to 1913 and after 1922 using common surnames such as Smith and MacDonald, do indeed return records as far back as 1861, athough I've not seen any yet going as far back as 1855. However, these are in transcript form only, with no images available. Records do indeed continue after 1922, and go up to 1930, but again in transcript form only. 

I don't know if more images are to be made available, I suspect not, as it is quite an odd way to gio about releasing them if so!

Note that valuation records for the same period can be found on ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk), with images for all in the coverage available (every tenth years from 1855-1915, every 5th year thereafter up to 1940).

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Annual ScotlandsPeople BMD records update

ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) has updated its birth, marriage and death records by a year, as follows:

- Birth records from 1924

- Marriage entries from 1949

- Death records from 1974

There are 245,000 new records.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

ScotlandsPeople adds Barlinnie Prison records

The ScotlandsPeople website (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) has added 180,000 records of admissions to Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow, from 1882-1899. The release also includes a prisoner photograph album with images of 2000 inmates.

For more on the story visit https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/news-and-articles/exploring-hmp-barlinnie

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

ScotlandsPeople launches new look website - review

ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) has relaunched with a new look website.

One immediate thing I can see is that you cannot easily switch from births to marriages or deaths in the search screens, as you used to be able to do at the bottom left of the screen after a search - they are now individual screens, and you now have to click on the Statutory Registers link at the top to get to a menu displaying other events. 

There's a news release at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/news-and-articles/welcome-new-look-scotlands-people.

I will provide a full review this evening!

Update: So I've now had a proper chance to look over the site. After I queried it, ScotlandsPeople has kindly informed me that the issue I've raised above about not apparently being able to switch to other life event search screens after a search in another life event category is incorrect - they've introduced a further button called Refine search, located just above the list of results, when you can then choose to do a search in other categories for the same person, as before. So the same thing, but now an extra click away.

In fact, that fairly well sums up the new ScotlandsPeople site. Nothing has really changed, apart from the branding - but there is a little more effort now required to do what you could before. The font is much larger, meaning more scrolling down pages to fill in all the fields needed, or to see more results, and there are a few extra clicks in place for a few functions. That's potentially going to prove tiresome when doing a long search session.

The NRS has tried to spin this as "We have redesigned the site to make accessing Scotland’s records easier than ever with quick, simple searching of our birth, marriage, death and census records." But throughout this afternoon, several genealogists I know have asked a simple question - how? The search processes have seemingly not changed, the site has had a lick of paint, but that seems to be it. 

For the site user, this is not an evolution, it's just a corporate rebrand. There are no new records, no new enhanced indexes (there are still many birth and death records that have no mother's maiden surmane listed in the index, for example). There is still no list of what kirk session material is actually available, and you still can't expand Virtual Volumes to fill the screen when using it. And what has happened to the 1921 census enhanced index that Queen's University Belfast was supposed to be creating as part of the contract to create the main index - is that arriving, and if so, when?

To look on the bright side, the fees have not gone up, and the site does seem to be working - albeit with heavy usage earlier at launch, I did occasionally come across a few 'page inaccessible' messages. There are still some unfinished touches - the site's Our charges page at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/our-charges is showing an error 404 message, for example. I've also read a comment on the ScotlandsPeople Facebook page that one user suggests she can no longer use the platform on her old iPad, so there may be compatibility issues for some users with older devices. 

Overall, I would suggest that I am relieved that that there has not been a disaster today, but quite disappointed that very little has actually happened. It would be nice to see the site be pushed to get more from the records available, with further enhanced indexes, and perhaps even new fields created (witnesses at marriages, for example?).

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

ScotlandsPeople Centre closures in September

The Dundas Room and Reid Room at the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh will be closed next Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd September, as the centre prepares to launch the new version of the ScotlandsPeople website.

Please note also that the ScotlandsPeople Centre and National Records of Scotland will be closed on Monday 16th September for a local public holiday. A full list of holiday closure dates is available at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/visit-us.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Glasgow registrars advise people not to attend ScotlandsPeople bookings next week

From the Glasgow Registrars Serrvice:

Scotland's People Refreshed Website - Launching 3rd September 2024

To prepare for these exciting changes, the website and Scotland's People service will be unavailable from 00.01 BST on Sunday, 1 September, to 12.00 BST on Tuesday, 3 September.

We would like to reassure you that users will be able to log in with their current details and previous saved information will continue to be available. Existing secure access controls and permissions will also be maintained.

Customers who have booked a space in our Family History Centre on Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 September should not attend and are advised to contact us to re-book.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your continued support.

(Source: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/familyhistory)

Note that the waiting time for bookings remains at 8 weeks.

** Users intending to visit other ScotlandsPeople access centres in Hawick, Alloa and Inverness should eprhaps also check with the respective cnetres next week as to availability. 

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Unreliability of Burns Monument Centre continues

According to its website at https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/CouncilAndGovernment/BirthMarriageAndDeath/Scotlands-People/ScotlandsPeopleCentre.aspx, there will be no ScotlandsPeople access at the Burns Monument Centre in September:

"Due to circumstances outwith our control the ScotlandsPeople Centre will be closed for the month of September."

Apparently this is due to, yup, you guessed it, "staffing issues". 

For some time the Burns Monument Centre has been jokingly informing folk via its website that it offers three days a week access to ScotlandsPeople - this is how it states it on the site:

"Opening hours are Tuesday to Thursday, 9am to 3:30pm (where available)." 

The "where available" caveat covers the fact that for many months the centre has been only open one day a week, and not necessarily the same day each week - and you can only find out when that day will be on the Friday before. The centre is only four miles from where I live, but it would make no difference if it was based on the moon - it is a completely unreliable set-up, so much so that I have reverted to using the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh again in recent weeks and months. Not only does the centre in Edinburgh have better screens, it also has longer opening hours, and a library of monumental inscriptions and other useful resources.

Coincidentally, there will be a new ScotlandsPeople platform launched on September 3rd (see https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2024/08/new-scotlandspeople-site-launch.html). I have heard that the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh has been informally advising folk to pehaps wait until the week after the launch to attend, in case there are any bugs to iron out. 

Hopefully all such issues should be resolved before staff in Kilmarnock can resume operations in October.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

The new ScotlandsPeople site logo revealed

ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) has revealed its new site logo, which will be displayed on the new site upon its launch on September 3rd:

The following message was also sent with the email revealing the logo:

We are excited to announce that on 3 September at midday, Scotland's People will launch its new logo and refreshed website.

As a valued customer, we wanted to give you some information about what you can expect from the new site.
 
We have redesigned the site to make our records more accessible to ensure you have the best possible experience when using our service. Searching our records will be simpler and quicker. From 3rd September you can to log in to your account using your current details, and everything you have previously saved will be available.

There will also be a new help and support section, and you can use the "Contact Us" form to get in touch.

To prepare for these exciting changes, the website will be unavailable from 00.01 BST on Sunday, 1 September, to 12.00 BST on Tuesday, 3 September. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and assure you that we are working hard to minimise the downtime.

Thank you for being part of Scotland's People's journey.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

New ScotlandsPeople site launch confirmed for September 3rd

As announced on this blog last week (see https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2024/08/new-scotlandspeople-site-to-be-launched.html), ScotlandPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) has now confirmed that there will indeed be a new website launched at the start of September:

Scotland’s People will launch a refreshed website at midday on 3rd September.

The new website will have a fresh and modern feel. It’s been designed to enhance user experience and accessibility. Searching the records will also be simpler and quicker.

The site is compliant with WCAG 2.2 guidelines and has a double AA standard, which means it’s easily accessible for all users.

This allows a wider and more diverse audience to explore their Scottish heritage.

Customers can log in with their current details and previous saved information will continue to be available.

To prepare for these changes, the website will be unavailable from 00.01 on Sunday, 1st September, to 12.00 on Tuesday, 3rd September.

I have to be honest, I have an allergic reaction to NRS spin telling me that something will be good for me; the last time ScotlandsPeople did a major update to its current system, the site's functionality crashed and it took weeks for the damage to be repaired. 

Fingers crossed this time they get it right... but if worried, it might be advisable to crack on with research now before the change. I would certainly avoid booking a seat at any of the centres offering access to ScotlandsPeople for the immediate aftermath of the new site's launch - just to be sure!

Good luck Scotland...

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

New ScotlandsPeople site to be launched early September?

I'm hearing that a new version of the ScotlandsPeople website is to be launched week beginning September 2nd. I don't have a lot on this, nothing has been officially announced; someone I met in Aberdeen a few weeks ago had been asked to test it and was lesss than impressed, and a friend who wished to arrange a group booking for that week has been asked to push it back a week, in order to iron out any "issues". 

Nothing formal has been announced by ScotlandsPeople, but if you are planning to make a visit that week, it might be worth double checking the situation first with them to make sure you will be able to carry out your research, at any of the centres offering access in Scotland.

Chris 

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

ScotlandsPeople releases new batch of church courts records

This is more like it! ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) has updated its kirk session registers collection, with records also added from presbyteries, synods and the General Assembly. From its news release:

Nearly 4,000 new volumes of records from the Church of Scotland, equating to around 290,000 digital images, have been added to the ScotlandsPeople website. This release complements the upload of kirk session minute books and accounts in 2021 and is the latest instalment in an ongoing programme of making church records available online.

This new upload, including over 3,000 kirk session records, also provides online access to records of presbyteries, synods and the General Assembly, all of which have been made available on ScotlandsPeople for the first time and are ready to be explored.

Covering almost 350 years of Scottish history, from the 1560s to 1900, digital images of a vast array of church court records can now be searched and viewed for free. Images can be saved at a cost of two credits per image. Available records include minute books, accounts and cash books, communion rolls, seat rents, poor relief and education records, as well as a wide variety of other records created by church courts. 

For further details visit https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/article/news-article-more-church-court-records-released-scotlandspeople.

Records are fee to view online, but are watermarked with the ScotlandsPeople logo. Clean images can be downloaded at 2 credits per page.

Update: On the ScotlandsPeople Facebook page, they have answered someone's query on dissenter records as follows: "A wider scope of CH3 records are currently being prepared for release to the Virtual Volumes area of ScotlandsPeople during 2025."

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Scottish Handwriting site integrated into ScotlandsPeople

The Scottish Handwriting website at www.scottishhandwriting.com is sadly no more - its contents have just been integrated into the ScotlandsPeople website at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/scottish-handwriting.

The learning tools on the new version appear to be the same as those previously available on the Scottish Handwriting platform. These can be used to learn how to read old forms of Scottish Handwriting, most notoriously the form known as Secretary Hand, which I often tell folk was invented by the Klingons!

ScotlandsPeople has a news announcement about the integration of the site at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/article/news-article-scottish-handwriting-resource. 

I've not yet found quite how to locate the link directly on the site yet from the home page, but it can be found via the Researching Older Handwriting (Palaeography) guide on the Topics A-Z list at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/research-guides/topics-alphabetical - the guide is at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/research-guides/reading-older-handwriting.

A free guide on how to read documents from 1500-1700 is also available from the National Records of Scotland at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/research/publications/NRS-Scottish_handwriting_self-help_kit-Web_ready_version.pdf.

** For those wishing to use the original Scottish Handwriting site, it has been cached at the Internet Archive on many occasions - this link appears to lead to a fully functioning version of the site, with most pages crawled and saved - https://web.archive.org/web/20210617072923/https://scottishhandwriting.com/.

Chris 

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

ScotlandsPeople adds Coal Board statutory plans

Via email from ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk):

Nearly 5,000 images of plans have been added to the ScotlandsPeople website. Created between 1955 and the late-1980s, these plans depict abandoned and active mine workings across much of the central belt of Scotland from Ayrshire through to Stirlingshire.

There's more on the release at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/record-guides/coal-board-statutory-working-plans:

National Records of Scotland (NRS) holds 4,865 National Coal Board statutory working plans of abandoned and current workings (NRS, RHP146000) created under requirements of the Mines and Quarries Act 1954. These plans were created between 1955 and 1989 as a response to the Mines and Quarries Act 1954 . This act required mining managers to keep accurate plans of abandoned and active workings in the mine, as well as all other workings within the boundaries of the mine or within a prescribed distance of the mine. Additionally, sections of the seams or veins of working coal and their overlaying strata were sometimes included.

These plans cover much of the central belt of Scotland and have generally been catalogued from left to right, from Ayrshire through to Stirlingshire. Only areas with active or abandoned coal workings are represented, including underwater workings.

The images are free to view. 

Does your house have an old mine shaft under it?!

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

The decline of ScotlandsPeople centres provision in the west of Scotland

We are now way past the pandemic, but it seems that we are now settled into a major reset with regards to ScotlandsPeople access provision at centres across the country. 

The ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh remains accessible five days a week, with spaces bookable at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/visit-us. Rate £15.

The Burns Monument Centre in Kilmarnock (https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/CouncilAndGovernment/BirthMarriageAndDeath/Scotlands-People/ScotlandsPeopleCentre.aspx) continues to advertise that it is open three days a week from Tuesdays to Thursdays - however, in reality it has recently been offering just one day a week, and this can frustratingly fluctutate between a Wednesday and a Thursday. You can only book a place for the following week on a Friday morning. The centre has told me that this one day provision, down from five pre-pandemic, is due to "lack of demand and staffing provision". Rate £15.

The Glasgow Genealogy Centre (https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=17698) is open just two days a week, Mondays and Tuesdays, down from five pre-pandemic, and one Saturday a month. It is very difficult to get a booking that is not at least two months away ("Please note bookings for the Genealogy Centre can now only be made up to 8 weeks in advance. This applies to Saturday bookings also"), to the point where I have given up on trying. Those living in Glasgow can chance their arm to get a cancellation on the day itself, but it's a long way to travel for a remote possibility if you live further afield. In its most recent update, on February 5th, the centre reiterated that "We appreciate and fully understand that our clients who regularly use and access the centre, along with new visitors are frustrated with the reduced new opening times, however as the Family History Centre is a non-statutory service this is not a priority and unfortunately given other statutory elements of the work that we carry out, we are currently not in a position to open any other days at this time." Rate £15.

Inverness's Highlife Highland (https://www.highlifehighland.com/archives-service/family-history/) offers just four spaces on Tuesdays and Thursdays - but recently increased its rate to £20, rather than the £15 charged elsewhere in the country.

Clackmannanshire Council's Genealogy Service in Alloa (https://www.clacks.gov.uk/culture/genealogy/) offers access five days a week from 9am-4.30pm, but closes for lunch every day for an hour between 12.30 and 1.30pm. Rate £15.

Finally, Hawick Heritage Hub (https://www.liveborders.org.uk/borders-collection-online/scotlandspeople-and-research-services/), the heroes of the pandemic when it came to maintaining ScotlandsPeople centre access when everywhere else was closed, continues its excellent provision in the Borders five days a week. Rate £15.

The service provision in the west of Scotland, i.e. in Kilmarnock and Glasgow, has deteriorated to an appalling level since the pandemic. The last straw was this morning, when having secured a booking at Kilmarnock for today, I received a phone call whilst I was parking outside the centre to say that as there was no power going into the room, they would have to give me a refund or a gift voucher. That unfortunately is not a good enough basis on which I can rely on them for my research service needs, and so I will be defaulting to Edinburgh for the time being, until such times as either Glasgow or Kilmarnock can get their act together.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

NRS public search rooms will be closed on 1 February 2024

Thanks to Lorna Kinnaird for this. It seems that the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) public search rooms will be closed on Thursday, February 1st 2024 for staff training purposes. I presume this includes the ScotlandsPeople search room, as well as the Historic Search Room. 

If planning to go on that date, it might be best to drop the NRS a note in advance just to double check!

Chris 

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

ScotlandsPeople updates Scottish Women's Land Army collection

The ScotlandsPeople Scottish Women's Land Army collection includes the surviving index cards of the Scottish Women's Land Army and Timber Corps from 1939 to 1950. However, the collection also has an online barrier to access, with a closure period for those born less than one hundred years ago. 

As part of its recent update, the site has now added more than 2000 records for women born in 1923 who served. You can search the collection at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/advanced-search/employment-records/scottish-womens-land-army/swla#form (you need to be signed in).

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

ScotlandsPeople annual records update

The annual update on ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) has seen a further quarter of a million records added, for births in 1923, marriages in 1948, and deaths in 1973. Records after these years remain closed online for privacy reasons and data harvesting concerns, but can be viewed at a ScotlandsPeople centre. 

For more on the release visit https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2024/quarter-of-a-million-records-added-to-scotlandspeople

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

More Scottish Cabinet records dumped onto ScotlandsPeople

The records you've been waiting for! The newly digitised 2008 Scottish Cabinet records have been added to, errr...(checks notes), ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk). 

Once again, the National Records of Scotland has dumped recent government records of practically no use whatsoever for family history onto its dedicated family history platform, seemingly because it has simply nowhere else to put them, although the news release does mention that further records are available to comsult in the historical search room at General Register House.  

You can read more about the release at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2024/2008-scottish-cabinet-records-to-be-released-online. Form an orderly queue now, and no pushing at the back there...!

Hopefully the annual update of actually useful records on ScotlandsPeople will happen shortly.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

ScotlandsPeople adds Women's Land Army and Timber Corps 1939-1950 index cards

From ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk):

Scottish Women's Land Army records. Get digging!

To commemorate Remembrance Day, this newsletter explores the service of the Scottish Women’s Land Army and the Women’s Timber Corps. 

These women played a vital role in the war effort, replacing men who had joined the forces during the Second World War. They contributed to the production of food and kept vital industries supplied with timber during the  war and its immediate aftermath.

Nearly 10,000 index cards for those who joined the Land Army and Timber Corps from 1939 to 1950 are now available for the first time on ScotlandsPeople. These records will help you trace an individual's service history and learn about the work of the Land Army and Timber Corps.

These records will be of particular interest to family historians hoping to learn more about the role their relatives played in the Second World War. Each card can give insight into the training given to new recruits, where they worked and reveal why they left their post. The records are currently available for those members who were born in 1922 and earlier.

Comment: To access the records visit the Employment Records section - or go directly to https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/advanced-search/employment-records/scottish-womens-land-army/swla#form

For the full news release visit https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2023/land-girls-records-released-online

Note that these are index records, with an example below - the original service records themselves have not survived.

(With thanks to ScotlandsPeople via email)

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.