Scotland Emigration and Immigration

Online Databases

 * Immigrant Ancestors Project
 * Scottish Immigration Database, index, incomplete.
 * Passenger Lists of Ships leaving Scotland
 * Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild Choose a volume and then choose Scotland under "Listed by Port of Departure" or "Listed by Port of Arrival".
 * 1576-1793 Papers relating to the Scots in Poland, 1576-1793, e-book
 * 1607-1830 Scots On the Chesapeake (Maryland, U.S.), 1607-1830 at Ancestry, ($), index.
 * 1610-1626 Grants of denization to Irish settlers from Scotland: 1610-1616
 * 1628-1828 Ships from Scotland to America, 1628 - 1828, Vol 2 at Ancestry, ($)
 * 1628-1828 Ships from Scotland to America, 1628 - 1828, Vol. 3 at Ancestry, ($)
 * 1650-1775 Directory of Scots Banished to the American Plantations, 1650-1775 at Ancestry, index, ($).
 * 1680-1830 Directory of Scots in the Carolinas, 1680-1830 at Ancestry, index, ($).
 * 1774-1775 Emigrants from Scotland to America, 1774 - 1775 at Ancestry ($)
 * 1774-1775 Records of emigrants from England and Scotland to North Carolina, 1774-1775, e-book
 * 1794-1921UK, Aliens Entry Books, 1794-1921 at Ancestry ($), images.
 * 1801 Passenger lists of the ships Dove and Sarah coming to Nova Scotia from Scotland, 1801
 * 1810-1811, 1826-1869England, Alien Arrivals, 1810-1811, 1826-1869 at Ancestry ($), index and images.
 * 1818 Ships "Curlew" and "Jane"; 1818 Voyages
 * 1818 Brig Sophia:from Greenock 26th July 1818, to Quebec and Montreal 8th September 1818
 * 1850-1879 Lyttelton shipping lists, 1850-1879 List of assisted emigrants who came to New Zealand in 1866 aboard the ship "Bombay", list of assisted and free passengers on the ship "Blue Jacke", lists of persons whom the Canterbury Association authorized to embark for Canterbury, New Zealand. Passengers came to New Zealand principally from England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany.
 * 1852-1857 List of emigrants, 1852-1857 Ships sailing from Liverpool, Glasgow, Cambletown and Plymouth, and calling at various Australian ports.
 * 1858-1870 Ireland and Britain, Transatlantic Migration from North America, 1858-1870 - indexes of passenger lists from United States to England and Ireland
 * 1863-1901 Glasgow, Scotland, Crew Lists, 1863 - 1901 at Ancestry, ($)
 * 1879-1960 UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 at Ancestry ($), index.

Offices and Archives to Contact
Passenger Lists. Port records listing the names of departing or arriving passengers are called passenger lists. Pre-1890 passenger departure lists are rare. Post-1890 lists are arranged chronologically by port of departure. These lists—which usually give the emigrant’s name, age, occupation, address, and sometimes destination—are kept at the Public Record Office, Kew:

The National Archives Ruskin Avenue, Kew Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU England Website Guide: Immigration and Immigrants This office collects records of the British government (such as parliamentary papers) and law courts from 1086 to the present. It is in England but has many Scottish records. You need a reader’s ticket to use its collection.

Finding the Town of Origin in Scotland
If you are using emigration/immigration records to find the name of your ancestors' town in Scotland, see Scotland Finding Town of Origin for additional research strategies.

Scotland Emigration and Immigration
"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country. Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.

Immigration to Scotland
Immigration into Scotland has included people from elsewhere in the British Isles and from Continental Europe. Specific immigrant groups include:
 * refugees from wars (such as the French Revolution)
 * refugees from religious persecution (such as Huguenots and Jews).
 * job seekers influenced of industrial development (particularly in the nineteenth century)
 * refugees from the Irish Potato Famine

Emigration from Scotland

 * Beginning in the seventeenth century, Scottish people began emigrating to the United States, India, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and elsewhere in the British Isles.
 * The following types of emigrants account for most persons who left Scotland.
 * Free emigrants. Beginning in 1630, emigrants left Scotland to promote trade or set up military outposts and way stations for merchant ships. Later, free emigrants sought opportunity in a new land or fled poverty or oppression in Scotland.
 * Assisted emigrants. From 1815 to 1900, qualified emigrants received passage money or land grants in the destination country as an alternative to receiving poor relief. Many Scots from the Highlands emigrated to Canada in this manner. After 1840, New Zealand and Australia offered money for land grants to skilled workers to encourage immigrants.
 * Latter-day Saints. Beginning in about 1840, many Scottish Latter-day Saints emigrated to the United States. Most settled in Utah. For more information, see Utah Emigration and Immigration and Latter-day Saint Online Genealogy Records:Emigration and Immigration.


 * Immigration since World War II has given Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee small South Asian communities.
 * In 2011, there were an estimated 49,000 ethnically Pakistani people living in Scotland, making them the largest non-White ethnic group.
 * Since the enlargement of the European Union more people from Central and Eastern Europe have moved to Scotland, and the 2011 census indicated that 61,000 Poles' live there.

Scottish Diaspora
The Scottish diaspora includes:
 * The Auld Alliance and the Scottish Wars of Independence which led countless Scots to emigrate to mainland Europe to escape persecution and hardship.
 * The Highland clearances which depopulated large parts of the Scottish Highlands and had lasting effects on Scottish Gaelic culture. Emigrants settled in close communities on Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia (Antigonish and Pictou counties and later in Cape Breton), the Glengarry and Kingston areas of Ontario and the Carolinas of the American colonies.
 * The Lowland Clearances which resulted in significant migration of Lowland Scots to Canada (highest concentration in the province Nova Scotia) and the United States after 1776. Thousands of cottars and tenant farmers from the southern counties (Lowlands) of Scotland migrated from farms and small holdings they had occupied to the new industrial centres of Glasgow, Edinburgh and northern England.
 * The Ulster-Scots, descended primarily from Lowland Scots who settled Ulster, Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century. The largest numbers came from Galloway, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Ayrshire and the Scottish Borders including nearby parts of Northern England, with others coming from further north in the Scottish Lowlands and, to a much lesser extent, from the Highlands. Ulster Scots emigrated onwards from Ireland in significant numbers to what is now the United States and to all corners of the then-worldwide British Empire—what are now Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies, to British India and to a lesser extent to Argentina and Chile.Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) is a traditional term for Ulster Scots who emigrated to America.

Records of Scottish Emigrants in Their Destination Nations

 * United States Emigration and Immigration
 * India Emigration and Immigration
 * Canada Emigration and Immigration
 * Australia Emigration and Immigration
 * South Africa Emigration and Immigration
 * New Zealand Emigration and Immigration
 * England Emigration and Immigration
 * Ireland Emigration and Immigration
 * Wales Emigration and Immigration
 * Argentina Emigration and Immigration
 * Chile Emigration and Immigration

For Further Reading
There are additional sources listed in the FamilySearch Catalog:
 * Discusses Scottish migration within Great Britain
 * Discusses Scottish migration within Great Britain