New Record Release from the NRS

The National Records of Scotland has added maps and plans to their website database. This is promising and provides a wonderful new resource for family historians. 

From their website about the release: 

More than 2,400 historic maps, plans and drawings from National Records of Scotland (NRS) collections have been made available on the ScotlandsPeople website. Many of the maps show the changing Scottish landscape over time. They also record where people lived or worked, so they can throw light on ancestors’ lives and even suggest new avenues for research. The maps and plans cover certain areas of Scotland, but not the whole of the country. They include both country estates and plans of towns and cities, including for example Glasgow. Most of the maps and plans originate in the records of court cases, Scottish government departments, Heritors’ records, as well as in private collections gifted to or purchased by NRS.

If you would like to find out more, read our maps and plans guide, or search the maps and plans.

The maps and plans collection is amongst the finest in the UK and contains the largest number of Scottish manuscript maps and plans held by any single institution. Spanning four centuries, the collections cover both manuscript and printed topographical maps and plans. They are particularly strong in estate and railway plans; architectural drawings; and engineering drawings, particularly of ships, railway engines and rolling stock. More maps and plans will be added to the ScotlandsPeople website.

It appears that the maps and plans are FREE which an added bonus. 

Enjoy the search!

Family History Month - New Records from ScotlandsPeople

News came yesterday that ScotlandsPeople have released the 1935 valuation rolls. Any new record set is of value, and should be applauded, however, when you consider the lead up to this point, the release was not only incredibly anti-climactic, but also incredibly disappointing.

Most of the diaspora have Scottish ancestors who left the country anywhere from 1650 - 1870. Records from the more modern period (20th century) are fairly useless when it comes to genealogical research. The memory is still fresh and there will most likely be family who can provide the information or who have passed the information along before they themselves passed on.

Of more benefit (and therefore more likely to draw people to the site) would be the long awaited Kirk Session records, High Court records for those whose ancestors were transported, Sheriff Court records to determine paternity. Much more genealogically useful to the diaspora than a modern tax record. 

It's disheartening that ScotlandsPeople was once a leader in providing online documentation for the purposes of genealogical research and now they are on the verge of going the way of the Dodo bird. While there was some incredible hopefulness that Scotland was going to be able to compete with larger online databases that is quickly waning and it is looking more like we are going to be wishing Scotland would partner up with the larger databases much the way the National Archives in London have. 

For those who want to have a gander regardless, here is the link: https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

If Your Scottish Ancestor Was Transported

Prisoners who were sentenced to be transported were always tried in the High Court. The High Court is in Edinburgh, but would also travel a circuit to the major cities in Scotland. High Court trials were before judge and jury. In the case of the High Court, the jury consisted of 15 men. 

The High Court was responsible for major crimes such as rape, murder or treason.  As well, anyone who was an habitual criminal, a repeat offender at the lower court level, would be tried before the High Court even though their crimes might not be as serious as those normally heard by the High Court. Because of the serious overcrowding of prisons, habitual criminals tended to be sentenced to a period of transportation. This sentence would range from 7 - 14 years transportation to the colonies, which of course, also included Australia. 

The court records will tell you:

•         Name of the accused - full name and any aliases 
•          Nature of crime committed
•         Place and date of crime
•          Place and date of first appearance by the accused
•          Name  of victim(s)
•          Verdict
•      Sentence

The National Records of Scotland also holds microfilm files of the transportation registers from 1787 through to 1870. These are chronologically arranged by date of the departure of the convict ship. You will get the name of the convict, their crime, their sentence and in which colony the convict was to carry out his sentence.