SCOTTISH LAND RECORDS

From the civil registration records of births, marriages and deaths, as well as the censuses, we can locate the basic addresses of our ancestors, as well as additional details such as the administrative boundaries of the relevant areas. Helpful as that information may be, to understand more about the topography and history of an area, as well as the ownership of the land, we need to look a little further. Fortunately, there are many different records available that can help us to build up a better picture of our ancestral locales.

Some of the most revealing documentary sources about an area are maps. At any one moment in time, these can provide snapshots of where the key settlements and communications routes were located, from the busy streets and tenements block in our largest cities, to the fermtouns of more rural districts. It is often by examining a map that we can see how close to particular amenities our ancestors were based, such as the church to which they adhered, the nearest wells and rivers from which they may have drawn water, their places of employment, and more. However, it is when we consult a series of maps in a chronological order across time that we can begin to see a truly remarkable story of how an area evolved, with settlements expanding, and new facilities transforming the landscape, such as the arrival of canals and railways.

Using modern platforms such as Google Maps (), we can begin by searching for streets and towns across Scotland, view modern-day satellite images of selected areas, and even enjoy a ‘Street View’,