Aberdeenshire, Scotland Genealogy

Scotland Archives and Libraries

Guide to Aberdeenshire ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records. 

Background
Aberdeen is a maritime county in the north-east part of Scotland. It is one of the most extensive counties in the kingdom and is bounded on the north by the Moray Firth, on the east by the German Ocean, on the south by the counties of Perth, Angus, and Kincardine, and on the west by the counties of Banff and Inverness. It is eighty-six miles in extreme length and fourty-two miles in extreme breadth, comprising an area of 1985 square miles or 1,276,400 acres. The county contains eighty-five parishes and eight civil districts. It includes the three royal burghs of Aberdeen, Kintore, and Inverury, the market-towns of Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Huntly, Turriff and Meldrum, and numerous large fishing villages on the coast. In 1851 the population was 192,387.

(Source: Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, 2nd ed. 1851; Family History Library book .)

Scotlands People: An Important Online Source
ScotlandsPeople is one of the largest online sources of original genealogical information. If you are researching UK genealogy, your Scottish ancestry or building your Scottish family tree, they have more than 100 million records to look through.

The comprehensive choice of Scottish records includes: For more detail on exact record availability, see Availability. For examples of the records available, see Record Types and Examples. More information on the site, its contents, and instructions for using it can be found in the ScotlandsPeople Wiki article. Indexes may be searched for free, and there is a small pay per view fee to see the actual digitized record.

Census
Many census records have been indexed by surname. Some indexes cover one parish (and will be listed in the Wiki on the parish page) and some indexes are for the county as a whole. The Family History Library has county-wide census placename indexes for Aberdeenshire for. Click here for other census indexes available at the library.


 * ScotlandsPeople, index, images, free index, pay per view ($)
 * , no images. Also at MyHeritage, index, ($). Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * , no images. Also at MyHeritage, index, ($). Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * , no images. Also at MyHeritage, index, ($). Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * , no images. Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * , no images. Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * , no images. Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * at FamilySearch — index
 * Scotland Census, 1901, index and images, ($). Also at findmypast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1911, index and images, ($).

Church Records

 * 1658 - 1919 - at FamilySearch — index
 * 1736-1990 - at FamilySearch — index

Parishes
Some of the Aberdeen parish records are indexed in Aberdeen, Scotland, Extracted Parish Records.
 * This database is a collection of historical parish registers from the county of Aberdeen in the country of Scotland. The records in this collection can range in date from the early 1500s to the mid- to late-1800s. The records include baptisms/christenings, burials, marriages, tombstone inscriptions, obituaries, tax lists, wills, and other miscellaneous types of records. Also included are some records from non-conformist churches. You will find interesting phonetic spelling. Some of the records may be in Latin or even a Welsh or Scottish dialect. Due to the nature of the records and because the records were originally compiled by a third party, it is difficult to absolutely verify the completeness and validity of the data.

Here is a list of the historic parishes in the county of Aberdeen. Click on the parish name to see information about records.Click this link for a map of the Aberdeenshire parishes.

Archives and Libraries
The Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Archives has recently put the catalogue to their collection on the Internet at Their collection of genealogical value includes:


 * Records of the poor relating to Aberdeenshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Kincardineshire
 * School records for Aberdeenshire, Morayshire, Banffshire, Kincardineshire and Aberdeen City
 * Burial records for some City cemeteries, as well as some in Aberdeenshire
 * Records for several burghs in Aberdeen and Moray shires.
 * Congregational, Episcopal and Methodist Church Records for a number of congregations in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire
 * Tax lists from as early as the 15th century
 * Valuation Rolls and Registers of Electors

Some burial records in their collection have been digitized and are searchable online at http://www.deceasedonline.com/.

The Aberdeen City Library has a local studies collection that includes published:


 * Parish and local histories
 * Biographies and family history
 * Education, literature and architecture sources
 * Local authority minutes and development plans
 * Electoral and valuation rolls
 * Newspapers and Periodicals
 * Directories
 * Maps
 * Photographs

Maps

 * National Library of Scotland map collection

Poorhouse Records
There are three poorhouses:


 * Aberdeen Aberdeen


 * Buchan Combination (Maud) Buchan


 * Old Machar (Aberdeen) Aberdeen

Societies
Aberdeen & NE Scotland FHS 164 King St. Aberdeen AB24 5BD Scotland Tel No: +44 (0)1224 646323

ScotlandFamily History Society of Buchan 22 Harbour Street PETERHEAD, Aberdeenshire AB42 1D Scotland Tel: 01779 238 416 Contact Information

Scottish Genealogy Society 15 Victoria Terrace EDINBURGH EH1 2JL Scotland

Websites

 * Aberdeenshire Resources and help pages on RootsChat Aberdeenshire Resources and help pages. (Free).