Dunbartonshire, Scotland Genealogy

Background
Dunbartonshire (or Dumbartonshire) is a county in the west of Scotland, bounded on the north by Perthshire, on the east by the counties of Perth and Stirling, on the south by the Firth of Clyde, and on the west by Argyllshire. Including the detached parishes of Kirkintilloch and Cumbernauld, it extends towards the east for 12 miles between the counties of Stirling and Lanark and is about 57 miles in length. It varies from 24 to 2 miles in breadth and contains 261 square miles or 167,040 acres.

The county consists of twelve parishes. Dumbarton is the county town and the only royal burgh. There are four burghs of barony and several villages.

The surface of the county is strikingly diversified with mountains and lakes. The northern part abounds with mountains and no more than 400 acres have been subjected to the plough. In the southern district are two ridges of hills of considerable height reaching from east to west between which is the picturesque vale of Glenfruin, more than five miles in length. Also in the south is an extensive tract of lowland in high cultivation, intersected by the Kilpatrick braes, a beautiful range of hills. Loch Lomond, after intersecting a small portion of the county on the north, forms part of its eastern boundary separating it from the county of Stirling. The river Leven at its southern extremity flows south out of Loch Lomond and, after a course of about seven miles, flows into the Firth of Clyde. About one-third of the county is in cultivation and the remainder is mountain pasture, wood, and lakes. Cattle and sheep are raised. Slate, limestone, and coal are wrought. There are extensive cotton-mills, calico-printing works, and bleachfields, a large manufacture of glass, and other works.

(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.

Parishes
Some of the Dunbartonshire parish records are indexed in *Dunbartonshire, Scotland, Extracted Parish Records.
 * This database is a collection of historical parish registers from the county of Lanark 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 of Dunbartonshire (or Dumbartonshire) with their parish numbers. Click on a parish name to see 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 Dunbartonshire. 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 map, then click again on the larger version. Click on the 'Expand' button when it appears in the lower right-hand corner of the map.

Click here to see an outline map of Dunbartonshire.

Click here to see detailed town plans, c. 1847-1895

Poorhouse Records
Dunbarton Combination

Helpful Websites

 * Dumbartonshire Resources and help pages on RootsChat Dunbartonshire Resources and help pages. (Free).

[Return to county list.]