Scotland Directories

Directories are alphabetical lists of names and addresses. They list information for the year they are published. In Scotland, directories first appeared in the mid-eighteenth century and continue to the present day.

Online Databases

 * Scottish Post Office Directories, index. pdf's
 * Fife, Scotland, The Dunfermline Register, 1829 - 1859 ($)
 * FamilyRelatives.com, trade directories.
 * 1825-1903: These are available in either PDF or viewable online. (Some years are missing)
 * 1877: These are available in either PDF format or viewable online. This includes:
 * Forfar
 * Fife
 * Kinross
 * Aberdeen
 * Banff
 * Kincardine
 * 1883-84, 1886-87: West Coast Directory for Scotland

Directories usually show; People such as coal miners and crofters do not appear in directories.
 * Name of a person
 * Address
 * Occupation
 * They seldom show the entire population, usually including only prominent members of the community such as
 * Gentry
 * Clergy
 * Merchants
 * Craftsmen

Directories may cover all of Scotland, a region of Scotland, or a specific city such as Glasgow. There are also directories for specific segments of Scottish society such as burgesses, gentry, or Scottish advocates (lawyers).

A partial bibliography of directories is found in an appendix to:

Hamilton-Edwards, Gerald. In Search of Scottish Ancestry. 2nd ed. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1984. (Family History Library .)

Telephone directories can help you identify all of the people in a place who have the same surname. This information can be very useful for identifying modern descendants of a family. The Family History Library has phone directories for Scotland on microfiche. The directories, however, cannot be circulated to family history centers.


 * The Family History Library has a small collection of Scottish directories. The catalog lists directories in the Place Search under:

GREAT BRITAIN - DIRECTORIES

SCOTLAND - DIRECTORIES

SCOTLAND, [COUNTY] - DIRECTORIES

SCOTLAND, [COUNTY], [CITY] - DIRECTORIES