Information on more than two million Scots from the late Victorian age is now available online.
Records of Scottish properties and their owners and occupiers in 1895 have been released on ScotlandsPeople, the Government’s family history website.
Called the Valuation Rolls, the records give an insight into Scottish society during that period and will be a major resource for genealogists.
The records comprise more than two million indexed names and over 75,000 digital images, covering every kind of building, structure or property in Scotland that was assessed as having a rateable value.
The Valuation Rolls include people from right across the social spectrum, from the wealthiest proprietors to the humblest property owners and tenants of Scotland’s urban housing.
Some fascinating aspects of social history in Scotland during the late Victorian age are revealed in the Rolls, including the growth of tea rooms, the opening of Scotland’s first crematorium and the provision of housing for workers such as shale miners and prison staff.
Researchers at the National Records of Scotland have also identified many ‘tee-names’ in the Rolls, the names used in some communities in the north-east and elsewhere to distinguish people of the same name.
Every one of the Valuation Rolls on the website is fully searchable by name and address.
Tim Ellis, Registrar General and Keeper of the Records of Scotland, said: “The release of the Valuation Rolls for 1895 will prove invaluable for family and local history research, enabling people to discover much more about who their ancestors were and how they lived.”