Civil Registration, Scotland

Find the birth, marriage and death records of your Scottish ancestors from 1855 to the present day using Scotland’s statutory registers.

What do I need to know before I start?

Try to find out:

name(s)
when they were born, married or died
where they were born, married or died
date and place of divorce
date and place of civil partnership

What records can I find in The Mitchell: Registrars?

The records of births, marriages and deaths for all of Scotland have been digitally imaged. Copies of these images, together with a full index, are one of the many resources available as part of the ScotlandsPeople network which you can access in the Registrars on payment of a daily fee of £15 per day or part thereof.

These are the statutory registers of births, marriages and deaths in Scotland from 1 January 1855 when civil registration replaced the old system of registration by parishes of the Established Church (Church of Scotland). From 1855, registration became compulsory, regardless of religious denomination, and followed a standard format for each record type.

The records include:

births, marriages and deaths, 1855 to present
divorces, 1984 - present
civil partnership, 2005 to present

Scotland’s statutory registers are very detailed, much more so than those for England, Ireland or Wales. Those of 1855 are particularly full and a godsend for family historians everywhere.

You will find the following information on Scotland's birth, marriage and death registers:

Birth certificates

full name of child, sex of child
date, place and time of birth
parents' names (including maiden surname of mother)
father's occupation
name of informant and relationship to child
date and place of marriage 1855, and from 1861
information on siblings (1855 only)
ages and birthplaces of both parents, their usual residence and date and place of their marriage (1855 only)

Still-births are recorded from 1939 but are not available online. Extracts of still-birth records from 1939 onwards are available from National Records of Scotland for a fee. Due to the sensitive nature of still-birth registrations, these extracts are usually only issued to the parents of the still-born child. However, siblings of still-born children may apply, either with the express consent of a parent, or on their own behalf, where they can demonstrate that their parents are no longer alive.

Marriage certificates

couples' name, age, marital status, occupation, usual residence
birthplaces (1855 and from 1972) date and place of marriage
name and occupation of both fathers
name and maiden name of both mothers
names of witnesses and of officiating clergy
former marriages of each spouse, plus number of children by those marriages (1855 only)

Death certificates

date, time and place of death
deceased's name, sex, marital status, age, occupation, usual residence
deceased's place of birth (1855 only)
spouse's name
parents’ names, occupations and whether they are deceased
cause of death, duration of last illness
doctor’s name and details of the informant
names and ages of children or age and year of death if the child pre-deceased the parent (1855 only)
place of burial, the name of the undertaker and when the doctor last saw the deceased alive, were also included (1855 to 1860 only)

You may occasionally come across records with a note in the left margin: 'RCE' or 'Reg. Cor. Ent.' RCE stands for Register of Corrected Entries, or, from 1965, Register of Corrections, etc. If, after an entry in a register had been completed, an error was discovered or some other amendment was required as a result of new information, the original entry could not be altered. Instead, each registrar kept a register of corrected entries in which such amendments were written, originally after they had been approved by a sheriff.

Civil Registration also includes ‘minor’ records of births, marriages and Scots abroad, which are recorded in: