Scotland Overview

This week I introduce a summary of what's currently available to help locate ancestors who died in Scotland

Dunnottar Castle, Aberdeenshire

A recent Twitter conversation has prompted this week's blog outlining our coverage of Scottish records in the Deceased Online database.

Researching Scottish ancestors can be complicated by the changing nature of its administrative boundaries over the years. My JOLLY ancestors, for example, came from the former county of Kincardineshire. Today, their towns and villages are located in Aberdeenshire.

Although it helps to have a basic understanding of Scottish history, you can always search the Deceased Online database with just your ancestor's name.

The advance search options on the database also allow you to search for the nearest cemetery or churchyard to your deceased ancestor's home or place of death. Go to the free advanced search page and click "United Kingdom" in "Country" and then "Scotland" in "Region". If you click on the "County" tab, you will see a drop-down list of the current Scottish counties.

In these cases, it is useful to know exactly what Deceased Online has available and where your ancestors are most likely to be found in its collections.

Our Scottish collections include burial registers from graveyards or cemeteries as well as cremation registers from crematoriums. Some churchyards contained in the lists from The National Archives' records of graves and tombstones that have been removed from disused and closed burial grounds and cemeteries. Do note, the records are not comprehensive, and do not include all burial records for the areas listed.

As the list includes hundreds of locations, I have spread these over separate blogposts.

Memorial plaque for 8 year-old Marjorie Fleming,

buried in 1811, revealing that she was an "Author, poet and diarist".

The full list of counties covered is as follows:

Aberdeen City
Aberdeenshire
Angus
Argyll and Bute
Banffshire
Clackmannanshire
Dundee City
East Ayrshire
Edinburgh
Fife
Highland
Inverness-shire
Moray
Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)
North Ayrshire
North Lanarkshire
Perthshire and Kinross
South Lanarkshire
Stirling
West Lothian.

If you have a request for an area you would like to see featured in this blog,
please contact us via the Comments Box below or on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

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