National Records of Scotland

About

NRS holds approximately 80km of records spanning the 12th to 21st centuries, touching upon every aspect of Scottish life. As the repository for the public and legal records of Scotland, and guardian of many local and private archives, NRS holds thousands of records that provide a unique resource for historians. These records include the statutory registers (births, deaths and marriages), church records, Sasines and other property records, burgh records, valuation rolls and many other invaluable sources for family history and broader research. To find out more about the different records held at NRS please see our Research Guides (https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/a-z).

NRS records are available to consult at the beautiful General Register House via the Historical Search Room. Opened in 1847, NRS continues to provide free access for the purposes of non-legal research. The search room is open Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 16:00. To find out more about visiting us see our website (https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/visit-us/historical-search-room).

Our ScotlandsPeople service gives easy access to key Scottish family history resources(https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/): the official records of births, deaths and marriages, wills, census records, Coats of Arms, valuation rolls and more. The indexes for these records can be searched online for free and credits purchased to view images of the records.

Alternatively the service can be accessed onsite at the ScotlandsPeople Centre in two search rooms at General Register House and New Register House for a fee of £15 for a full or part day. The centre is open Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 16:00. Further information about visiting is available on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.

Location

HM General Register House, 2 Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3YY
0131 535 1314

Contact

Customer Enquiries

Events List

Date Title Town/City
21 March, 2024 - 17:00 "It was a good life": Memories and Landscape in the Mining Communities of East Ayrshire Online
7 March, 2024 - 19:00 'See what it does for the dimples': The experiences of women workers in Second World War Scotland Online
22 June, 2023 - 17:00 The Declaration of Arbroath and the Making of the 1707 Union Online
15 June, 2023 - 17:00 The Medieval Afterlife of the Declaration of Arbroath Online
31 May, 2023 - 18:00 The Rocky Road to the Declaration of Arbroath Online
20 November, 2019 - 13:00 Archive fever? A worm's eye view of the NRS and NRAS Edinburgh
5 November, 2019 - 13:30 For Baith Plenty and Pleisure: Putting together the story of the Gardens at Gordon Castle Edinburgh
10 October, 2019 - 13:00 A System of Maltreatment: Exposing Victorian Coercive Control in the National Records of Scotland Edinburgh
3 October, 2019 - 13:00 Learning more about ScotlandsPeople Edinburgh
27 September, 2019 - 13:00 The Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK): Recovering Education in the 18th Century Highlands Edinburgh
23 September, 2019 - 11:00 Scotland's Population: How is it changing and what are the implications? Edinburgh
20 September, 2019 - 13:30 Caring for Your Family Papers Edinburgh
30 August, 2019 - 13:00 Researching Criminal Lunatics: exploring archives Edinburgh
22 August, 2019 - 11:00 The Darker Side of Crime: Homicide in Nineteenth-Century Scotland Edinburgh
15 August, 2019 - 14:00 Prisoner or Patient - Then and Now Edinburgh
7 August, 2019 - 13:30 Prisoners or Patients? Criminal Insanity in Victorian Scotland Edinburgh
1 August, 2019 - 10:00 Prisoners or Patients? Criminal Insanity in Victorian Scotland Edinburgh
17 June, 2019 - 13:00 Go Forth! Development of Digital Learning Resources: From Archival Images to Cutting Edge Laser Scans Edinburgh
7 June, 2019 - 11:00 Glasgow's ties with slavery - Discovering history at the National Records of Scotland Edinburgh
23 May, 2019 - 14:00 Learning more about ScotlandsPeople Edinburgh
22 May, 2019 - 13:30 Crime and Sexual Violence in the Inter-war Years Edinburgh
18 April, 2019 - 14:00 What Glass has done for Edinburgh, and what Edinburgh has done for Glass Edinburgh
1 April, 2019 (All day) The Unbelievable Tour Edinburgh
25 March, 2019 - 11:00 Shipbuilding Records in Scotland: Using Archives Edinburgh