National Records of Scotland

Our class took a small trip to Scotland while we were in London to visit a few different libraries. The first place we went to was the National Records of Scotland. This government agency is headed by the Registrar General, a government agency with which it just recently merged with. Prior to this merge, the National Records were known as the Scottish National Archives.

With records dating back to the 12th century, the National Records holds birth records, marriage records, and death records. They also have census records from 1841 until the present. There are six buildings in Edinburgh with 450 employees. There are six public search rooms for the public to use to search for their family history and there are also nine websites that the National Records are in charge of up keeping. Along with delivering national records, they are also responsible for the Scottish Register of Tartans.

In recent years, a large increase of interest in family trees and genealogy has lead to an increase in use and popularity of the National Records. People come from all over to use their research rooms and access their records to find out more about their family history. The National Records offers two free hours of access to a computer for individuals to search for their family history. There are also professional genealogists to work with the public as well. Most of the records are digitized, especially the most popular resources.

Along with the items mentioned previously, the National Records of Scotland also hold state and parliament papers, deeds, church records, wills and testaments, taxation records, family estate papers, court and legal documents, railway records, maps and plans, and photos as well.

The National Records of Scotland is a huge building located in the center of Edinburgh which offers great access and resources to its users. I think it is fabulous that this type of information is made available to the public; it is a great resource. Their openness and value of these documents in commendable. The fact they are working on making even more of their records available online is a huge benefit to the people not only of Scotland, but of other nations across the globe.

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