The National Archives in Edinburgh holds one of the biggest repositories for Scottish historical

records in the country. There are two main search rooms at the NAS – General Register

House and West Register House, which are about a ten minute walk away from each

other. If you think of the General Register Office in Edinburgh as the source for

the basic skeleton of your family tree (with birth, marriage, death and census records),

then consider the NAS as one of your first stops to try and put some flesh onto the  bones.

The archives hold an impressive collection of which the following are examples:

Records of the Dissenting Presbyterian Churches

(Free Church of Scotland etc)

Roman Catholic Baptism and Marriage Registers

Kirk Session Registers

(Established and Non-Established Churches)

 Court Records in Scotland including

Criminal Trial Papers

Wills, Testaments & Inventories

Industrial Records

Maps & Plans

Government Papers

(Pre & Post the Union with England)

Valuation Rolls

Family & Estate Papers

If you live overseas, the NAS have very helpfully put their entire catalogue online at

www.nas.gov.uk/onlinecatalogue.

The buildings are open between 9.00am and 4.45pm, and access is free.

Copies can be purchased of many records, subject to their condition, though there are some peculiar rules around what you can and cannot do. On any one visit, you can order up to a maximum of 20 copies to be made there and then, or you can place an order to a maximum of 50 copies if you are happy for the documents to be sent away (usually between 1 – 2 weeks for them to be done for you). Larger orders may require the collection to be microfilmed, if it has not already been so.

For more on the copying services visit

http://www.nas.gov.uk/searchRooms/copyingFees.asp