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How to Research the History of Your House

Tracing the history of the house is not easy. If possible consult your own title deeds. Since 1617, any transfer of ownership of heritable property should be recorded in the Registers of Sasines, and therefore, a house's ownership should be found there (though not if it was part of a larger estate). From 1781, it is easier to search the Sasines using printed and indexed Sasine abridgements.

From 1855, until 1990, valuation rolls record annually (up to 1975), the owner, occupier, address and rateable value of every heritable property. Used in conjunction with electoral registers, street directories and decennial census returns (1841-1901), a picture can be provided of changing house ownership and occupation over 150 years.

Information about buildings within burghs can be found in the Dean of Guild Court records, which exercised building control functions. Building plans presented to the Court usually date from c. 1880-1975. Within county areas, Council planning committees approved plans from 1948.

Maps provide another visual record of buildings, especially 6" and 25" to the mile Ordnance Survey maps, dating from the 1860s. The Ordnance Survey name books compiled in the 1860s describe buildings, as do Inland Revenue field books, dating from 1910. Prior to Ordnance Survey maps, estate or feuing maps should be sought.

If a property is scheduled, a description of the building will be held in the County Planning Department. If it has any historical or architectural interest, contact should be made with the National Monuments Record, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Edinburgh.

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