Feature: Don't know where to start?

Our guides to topics and specific record types may help you. A good way to start your research is to get an overview of the records available for a particular topic or in a particular collection of records. There are nearly 50 online guides relating to records held in the The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) which do this very thing. The guides cover diverse topics such as buildings history, education, lighthouses and crime and criminals, as well as dealing with specific record types such as court records or wills and testaments. The guides to topics tell you in which records you will find information, citing reference numbers; what sort of information you can expect; whether some records still exist (or not) and where they can be found. Some guides will also indicate if records on a particular topic are also held elsewhere.

The guides to specific record types give information on the time period and geography covered, how the information is presented, reference numbers and how to look for the records in our online catalogue.

Consulting the guides can save you a good deal of time and reveal sources which you might otherwise have missed. Start your research by reading the guides to records in the NAS.