21/08/2026
Great advice! Get in touch if you’d prefer someone else to do it for you.
Five ways to trace A House Through Time in Scotland
It was great to have a small part in researching for the first Scottish ‘A House Through Time’.
1 - Old Maps:
I like to start with the georeferenced maps on the National Library of Scotland. Move the transparency overlay to 0%; find the house of interest on the modern map or satellite image then slide the transparency overlay back to 100%; you can now see the same house on an old map. You can change the year of the map and travel through time.
The NLS have guides to help you get the most out of their website. There is also a tutorial available on our website: https://www.scottishindexes.com/pastconferences.aspx
2 - Valuation Rolls:
From 1855 to 1989 valuation rolls were created annually for the purpose of taxation. They tell us the ‘Proprietor’,‘Tenant’ and Occupier’ as well as the rental value.
This is a quick way to find out who owned a property and who lived in a property from 1855 to 1989.
Every tenth valuation roll is available to search on the government website ScotlandsPeople commencing with 1855 and 1865 up to 1915. From then on they are available for every 5 years until 1940.
Searching on ScotlandsPeople is free, and you can search by name or/and place. You can pay a small fee to see the original image.
This is usually the best place to start your search. Of course, you may also want to look at intervening years such as 1857 or 1892. You can do this in person in the National Records of Scotland. Also, county libraries usually have a set of Valuation Rolls for their respective counties.
Now you have a list of owners, tenants, and occupiers; what next?
3 - Sasines:
Sasine comes from the Old French word ‘seisine’, meaning to seize or take. When property was transferred a ceremony took place. Symbols of ownership (such as a clod of earth and some stones) were given on the ground of the property being transferred, and written proof of the transaction was made. This written proof was called an instrument of sasine. There were variations on this ceremony which dates back to at least the 1200s.
A complete record of land ownership for Scotland has been compiled since 1617. There were some earlier attempts to establish records but these are not complete.
The good news? From 1781 there is an index to most sasines. This index is available in the Digital Archives Search Room of the National Records of Scotland.
There are also some indexes to pre-1781 sasines. Find out more, including links to online indexes in our Learning Zone article ‘Sasines - Scottish Property Records’: https://www.scottishindexes.com/learningsasines.aspx
Valuation Rolls and Sasines will give you the basic information, the names of owners and when the property changed hands.
4 - Census Records
The census is another useful tool. It gives us a snapshot of each household every ten years from 1841 to 1921. (The 1931 census will be released when it is 100 years old). The census will tell us who lives in each house, not who owns it.
On ScotlandsPeople, you can view the original census enumeration books but you cannot search the census by address. On Findmypast, you can search by address but you can only view a transcription of each entry.
A word or two of caution: Street names change, and many house numbers have changed over time. The census may only name a village or street with no specific information about which household lived in each house. You can sometimes work this out, but not always. Don’t confuse the household schedule number with a house number.
5 - Valuation Office (Scotland): Field Books 1910 & 1915:
As well as local rates, duty was charged on property when it was sold or transferred, just as it is today. For this reason, the government wanted to know the accurate value of all properties. The Valuation Office (Scotland): Field Books 1910 & 1915 contain detailed information for 99.7% of all land in Scotland. This makes it very important if you want to find out the history of a building that was in existence at this time.
The records give us a description of the property, the terms of the lease, as well as the name of the owner and the tenant. For some properties, there is also a diagram giving details of the property.
The boundary of each property was marked on an Ordnance Survey map. This means that even in an urban area, you can pinpoint each property accurately.
The Valuation Office (Scotland): Field Books 1910 & 1915 have been digitised but are not available online. You can view them for free in the Digital Archive search room of the National Records of Scotland.
What next?
That’s just five helpful sources. You will also find information about Scottish houses and the people who lived in them in estate records, tax records, Post Office directories, electoral rolls, newspapers and on the Trove Scotland website.
Keep learning by reading related articles in the Learning Zone of the Scottish Indexes website.
