Registers of Deeds (Books of Council and Session) (Scotland)

Records from deeds which were legally enforceable agreements, contracts and other writs registered in the Court of Session. A deed could deal with a variety of matters such as bonds, trust settlements and marriage settlements (a form of will), wills and codicils, tacks (lease agreements), apprenticeship indentures and business contracts. Some deeds may concern the sale of land. The original document or warrant was copied by a court clerk into the register. Each party to the agreement received a certified extract with only the warrant having the original signatures of each person. The clerk often made a brief note of the registration in the minute book which can act as an index. Otherwise a run of indexes to the main Register of Deeds registered with the Court of Session is available at the National Records of Scotland. If the relevant register is not extant or unreadable, try looking for the minute book, extract or original.

Deeds could also be registered with Sheriff Courts, Burghs, Hereditary Jurisdictions (such as Baronies, up to 1748), Commissary Courts (up to 1809) and some local courts (up to 1748). Unlike the deeds registered with the Court of Session, not all these deeds are indexed.

Other Scotland Resources
Census Returns
Charter Rolls
Clan & Tartan Records
County & Local Histories
Court Records
Directories, Trade, Professional, Telephone & Street
Electoral Registers or Burgess Rolls
Emigration Records
Estate Records & Maps
Hearth Tax
Heraldic Coats of Arms & Seals
Kirk/Church Sessions
Land Tax Assessments & Returns
Maps & Gazetteers
Militia Lists
Monumental/Memorial Inscriptions
Newspapers, magazines & journals
Old Parish Registers-Baptisms (OPRs)
Old Parish Registers-Burials (OPRs)
Old Parish Registers-Marriages & Proclamations (OPRs)
Passenger Lists
Pedigrees and Family Histories
Poor Law Records
Retours of Services of Heirs
Sasines, Registers of
Statistical Accounts of Scotland
Statutory Registration-Birth
Statutory Registration-Death
Statutory Registration-Marriage
Surname Origins and Distribution
Valuation Rolls & Stent Rolls (Names of tenants)
Wills/Testaments and Inheritance

ScotlandsPeople Centre (The ScotlandsPeople Centre is the official government resource for family history research. Holdings include: Official copies of deeds presented to the Court of Session; Indexes for the Register of Deeds of the Court of Session for the years 1554-1595, 1661-1702, 1705-7, 1714-15, 1750-2, 1765, and from 1770 to the present. ScotlandsPeople Centre is a partnership between the National Records of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon. The National Records of Scotland was created on 1 April 2011 by the amalgamation of the National Archives of Scotland and General Register Office for Scotland)
Society of Genealogists (Indexes to deeds)

1200 - Onwards

Names, addresses, family relationships

www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/deeds (National Records of Scotland: Research Guides: Deeds)
www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/inheriting-land-and-buildings (National Records of Scotland: Research Guides: Inheriting Land and Buildings)
www.dsl.ac.uk (The Dictionary of the Scots Language: Electronic editions of the Older Scottish Tongue [DOST] and the Scottish National Dictionary [SND])
www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk (Scottish Language Dictionaries: The nation's resource for the Scots language)
www.scots-online.org/dictionary (Translate from Scots to English)
www.scottishlaw.org.uk/lawscotland/abscotslawland.html (Scots Law - Scottish Land Law Glossary/Dictionary)
http://landregistryservice.co.uk/index.php?page=service&act=list&country=3 (Land Register Scotland: Land Registry Title Deeds)

www.findmypast.co.uk (Scotland Deeds Index, 1769. The index consists of over 1,000 transcripts, each containing an index of the details found in minute books kept by the Court of Session, Scotland's supreme civil court. The collection contains a variety of different types of deeds including, assignations, discharges, bonds, obligations, protests and leases)
www.ancestry.co.uk (Perth Register of Deeds, 1566-1811)