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Access to Historical search room records

We now have computer terminals in the Matheson Dome and the Reid search room which give day customers access to some of the electronic records that are available in the Historic search room.

Customers can look up Kirk Session records, Wills & Testaments , Soldiers' Wills, Valuation Rolls, Sasine records and the Scottish Criminal Index without having to go up to the Historical search room.

Screen prints can be purchased. See our charges page for details.

For more information, please speak to a search room supervisor.

Census Street Indexes

The street indexes for the censuses have now been imaged and added to the ScotlandsPeople Hub website.

The images are shown as .pdf documents.

These books make it easy to find the registration district and enumeration book details for an address.

The streets are arranged alphabetically and the bookmarks allow you to navigate your way through the book.

These street indexes are also available through the ScotlandsPeople centre software.

Statutory Records Update

The statutory records available in the ScotlandsPeople centre are now being updated fortnightly.

While the indexes are as up-to-date as possible, you will find that most of the newest index records do not have images associated with them.

The images will be added as each registration district is examined and the images of the register pages are added to our image store.

Doors Open Day 2010

We opened the ScotlandsPeople Centre on Saturday 25 September from 10:00 to 16:30 for the annual Edinburgh Doors Open Day. A programme of events has been arranged, including:

• talks about the ScotlandsPeople Centre and our records

• short taster sessions

• tours of General Register House

Visitors will also be able to walk round the Archivists' Garden, visit our shop or try a tasty treat in the café! (Please note it is not possible to book any of the events in advance and places will be allocated on a first come first served basis).

The talks about the ScotlandsPeople Centre will be held throughout the day in our Seminar facility in New Register House, with the first one commencing at 11:00. The last presentation is scheduled for 16:00.

Short 20 minute taster sessions will take place in the Reid search room in General Register House. These are ideal for first-time visitors to the ScotlandsPeople Centre and will help you become familiar with our digitised records and let you see how easy it is to start tracing your family tree. The first taster starts at 10:15 and further sessions will be held at 45 minute intervals thereafter. The tours of General Register House will start from the Adam Dome. These will run between 10:15-12:15 and 14:00-15:30 and each tour is expected to last around 30 minutes.

Archivists' Garden opening

The Archivists' Garden has long been one of Edinburgh's best kept secrets - until now. It has now been officially opened by one of Scotland's best-loved TV presenters.

The garden is situated between New Register House and General Register House, and we were pleased to welcome the BBC's Beechgrove Garden presenter Jim McColl to do the honours. He planted a tree to mark the official opening.

The event was filmed and will feature on an episode of the Beechgrove Garden, to be broadcast on BBC Scotland on July 14. Jim McColl spoke to Saltire, the Scottish Government's internal website, before the official opening and admitted he was thrilled by the spectacle.

Pictured with Dave Brownlee (Deputy Keeper, NAS, on the left) and Raymond Evans (ScotlandsPeople Internet Manager, GROS, on the right), Jim said:

"I was aware of the raison d'être for the garden, having seen the plantingplan. It was absolutely fascinating. This garden is chock-a-block with an amazing variety of plants. All the plants you see here have earned their place. They are each uniquely significant because of their connection to Scotland and its culture. We will be highlighting many of them on the show".

Jim planted the symbolic tree (below), alongside the garden's designer, David R Mitchell of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. He then switched his attention to an altogether more fascinating type of tree, taking advantage of the Centre's unique facilities to research his branch of the McColl family tree.

I've never investigated my family history before. I discovered facts about my great-grandparents from 1890. My mother worked in an Ayrshire lace factory and her mother before that. My grandfather drove steam engines from Carlisle to Glasgow."

Dave Brownlee said: "I emailed Jim to ask if he would be interested in visiting the garden to perform a formal opening ceremony. Jim was not only delighted to do so, but suggested that it would make an excellent feature for an episode of the Beechgrove Garden. Many people know Jim - he is the doyen of Scottish gardeners, and we can't think of anyone better to open it.

Our mission is to make not only the garden, but the wonderful treasure store of records held by the ScotlandsPeople partner organisations, as accessible to as many people as possible - we are sure the Beechgrove Garden feature will help to achieve this."