Record Atlas
2 eras · 1553–2026 · 738 places

Scotland

Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, the Highlands. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Where researchers lose records here

1855–2026 — THE TRAP, and it is a pleasant one. Scottish statutory certificates carry far more than English ones — a marriage names both mothers including maiden surnames, a death names both parents. The 1855 registers name more still, because the first year was over-ambitious and then cut back. If your family is Scottish, do not settle for an index entry.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1553–1855 Scotland — the Old Parish Registers ScotlandsPeople · National Records of Scotland · FamilySearch

Kept by the parish minister, and kept unevenly: some parishes run from 1553 and some begin in 1820. A gap in the OPRs is usually a gap in the keeping, not a lost volume.
1855–2026 United Kingdom — statutory registration ScotlandsPeople · National Records of Scotland · FreeBMD / FreeREG / FreeCEN · Findmypast

THE TRAP, and it is a pleasant one. Scottish statutory certificates carry far more than English ones — a marriage names both mothers including maiden surnames, a death names both parents. The 1855 registers name more still, because the first year was over-ambitious and then cut back. If your family is Scottish, do not settle for an index entry.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1553–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

738 places on this ground

The 200 carrying the most collections are listed; 538 more stand on this ground. Every place has them all.

200 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 140 more.

All record regions · The map