Scotlandspeople.gov.uk website is the official Scottish Government site for searching government records and archives. It is used by hundreds of thousands of people each year to apply for copies of official certificates and to research family history, biography, local history and social history. In the site you have access to the statutory registers of births, marriages, deaths, and so on; census returns; church records; valuation rolls; and legal records from Scotland’s courts of law.
National Records of Scotland
The ScotlandsPeople site is maintained by the National Records of Scotland, a non-ministerial department of the Scottish Government. Our purpose is to collect, preserve and produce information about Scotland’s people and history and make it available to inform current and future generations. We were established on 1 April 2011, following the merger of the General Register Office for Scotland and the National Archives of Scotland.
The Court of the Lord Lyon
The Court of the Lord Lyon is the official heraldry office for Scotland. On behalf of the Court of the Lord Lyon we make available an index to the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland
The National Records of Scotland is the official repository for historical records of the Church of Scotland and also keeps the Old Parish Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials before 1855. On the ScotlandsPeople site you have access to the Old Parish Registers and the registers of other presbyterian congregations which united with the Church of Scotland at various times.
The Scottish Catholic Archives
The Scottish Catholic Archives is a national agency of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland and preserves, selects and makes available the archives of the Catholic Church in Scotland and abroad. On the ScotlandsPeople site you have access to the registers of baptisms, marriages, burials and other events from Roman Catholic churches and chaplaincies in Scotland and abroad.