Scottish Post Office Directories

Post office directories are the equivalent of City Directories. These are a terrific resource for following your ancestors between census periods. Not everyone was recorded. Since there was a fee to be included, many of those included had some degree of stature - clergy, educators, doctors, professionals, merchants, etc.

A recent addition to the website are the Post Office Directory Maps. Four hundred new street maps of Scottish towns held within Post Office Directories have been digitized and uploaded to the maps website. These are excellent resources for family and local history. These are quite detailed, providing street names, location of public buildings such as churches, shops and schools, as well as railways, cemeteries and open green space. 

Can't Find Them in the Census?

One of the best tools for a genealogist is the census. This lets us know where our ancestors were, their approximate age, occupations and who the family was comprised. From there we can go back and look for birth or marriage certificates. But sometimes our ancestors elude us on the census records, or we might be wanting to find them before the 1841 census. What then? The OPRs have scant information but are a useful tool as well. If these records don't produce results, have a look at the Post Office Directories, now available through the National Library of Scotland (NLS).

Here's the link: http://www.nls.uk/family-history/directories/post-office/

From here, you can click on the area where your ancestors resided and start scouting them out!

Happy Searching!