East Lothian (or Haddingtonshire), Scotland Genealogy

Background
East Lothian (or Haddingtonshire until 1921), is a maritime county in the south-east of Scotland, bounded on the north and east by the Firth of Forth, on the south by the county of Berwick, and on the west by Edinburghshire. It is about twenty-five miles in length and sixteen in extreme breadth, comprising an area of 224 square miles or 144,510 acres.

The county is the eastern part of Lothian, an extensive district including also the shires of Linlithgow on the west and Edinburgh in the middle, and since 1974 has been part of the parliamentary region of Lothian. It was erected into a separate county during the reign of James VI (1567-1625). It consists of twenty-four parishes and contains the three royal burghs of Haddington (the county town), Dunbar, and North Berwick, as well as several populous villages and numerous smaller villages.

The county was once part of the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria until the year 1020 when it was ceded to Malcolm II and annexed to Scotland. In 1296 it was the scene of the battle of Dunbar and again in 1650 it suffered from the English under Cromwell. In 1745 it was the scene of the battle of Prestonpans between the forces of the Pretender and the English.

The surface of the county is varied. Towards the shores of the Firth of Forth it is nearly level but rises by gentle undulations towards the south, and into ridges of moderate elevation which extend from east to west, and along the southern boundary form part of the Lammermoor hills. On the west is the fruitful valley of the river Tyne. About two-thirds of the land is arable and the remainder is in meadow and pasture with some extensive woodlands and plantations. Several crops are grown with wheat as the staple. The county has long been distinguished for the excellence of its produce. Cattle and sheep are also raised. Coal, limestone, ironstone clay, and sandstone are all wrought and quarried. The manufactures carried on are unimportant compared to the agriculture. There is a herring-fishery with accommodation at the harbour of Dunbar.

The population in 1851 was 35,886.

(Source: Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, 2nd ed., 1851.  FHL book 941 E5L.)

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.

Parishes
Some of the East Lothian parish records are indexed in *East Lothian, Scotland, Extracted Parish Records.
 * This database is a collection of historical parish registers from the county of East Lothian 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 historic parishes for the county of East Lothian or Haddingtonshire with their parish numbers. Click on the parish name for information about records.

Census

 * Scotland Census, 1891, no images. Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).== Census ==
 * ScotlandsPeople, index, images, free index, pay per view ($)
 * Scotland Census, 1841, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index, ($). Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1851, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index, ($). Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1861, no images. Also at, index, ($). Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1871, no images. Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1881, no images. Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1901, index and images, ($). Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1911, index and images, ($).

The library also has a collection of census surname indexes for different places within East Lothian. Click here to see a table listing these other census surname indexes that are available at the library.

Maps


Click on the map to see a larger version, then click again on the larger map. Click the 'Expand' button when it appears in the lower right-hand corner of the map.

Click here to see an outline map of the parishes of East Lothian.

Poorhouse Records
East Lothian Combination

Helpful Websites

 * East Lothian (Haddingtonshire) Resources and help pages on RootsChat East Lothian (Haddingtonshire) Resources and help pages. (Free).

[Return to county list.]