Scotland Gazetteers

A gazetteer is a dictionary of place-names. Gazetteers describe:
 * Towns
 * Villages
 * Parishes
 * Counties
 * Rivers

Gazetteers may provide more information about towns, such as:
 * Distance from nearby places.
 * Religious denominations.
 * Major manufacturing works.
 * Canals, docks, and railroad stations.
 * Seats of landed-gentry families.

You can use a gazetteer to find the places where your family lived and to determine the civil and church jurisdictions over those places. Gazetteers are also helpful for determining the county jurisdictions used in the FamilySearch Catalog.

A sample gazetteer entry might be "Burrelton, a village in the parish of Cargill, near the Woodside railway station, 13½ m. NE of Perth. It has a post office under Coupar-Angus, and a Free church."

Many places in Scotland have the same or similar names. A gazetteer can help you identify the most common spellings and the counties that have a place by that name.

Online Resources
There are some very good gazetteers available online that are helpful in finding the place where your ancestors lived. They are:

Vision of Britain
A Vision of Britain Through Time

To use this resource, click on the link and then on the first page. Then go to Step one: Select a location. In the location you need to identify the city. It will come up with one or more choices to choose from. Next you have your choice as to what you want to know. At the bottom on the right hand side it gives you a choices of maps.

For instance, by putting in "Paisley," the following choice of kinds of maps was displayed:


 * 20 Century: New popular
 * 19th Century: OS First Series (Ordnance Survey)
 * 1930's: Land Utilisation
 * 2003: Digital Chart of the World

At the bottom of the home screen, you may also click on Expert Search. On the next screen, select the "Descriptive gazetteer search," then you may search for a place of interest to see a gazetteer description from Francis H. Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, the 1885 edition.

Electric Scotland
Electric Scotland

This website also has a searchable, printer-friendly copy of an 1890's edition of Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland.

Gazetteers of Scotland, 1803-1901

 * Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, by Samuel Lewis, originally published in 1846. (British History Online)
 * Gazetteers of Scotland, 1803-1901. Described on the website as "20 volumes of the most popular descriptive gazetteers of Scotland, providing a comprehensive geographical encyclopaedia of Scotland in the 19th century. Principal places in Scotland, including towns, counties, castles, glens, antiquities and parishes, are listed alphabetically. Each entry includes detailed historical and geographical information about each place."
 * Scotland Maps, Atlases and Gazetteers, bibliography

Undiscovered Scotland
Undiscovered Scotland

This site has an interactive map and a clickable map. You can click on any of the areas and it will take you to that area. It will give you information on the area as well. You can also go to the Alphabetical Listing and choose from the place listings there.

Gazetteer for Scotland
Gazetteer for Scotland

On this site, by clicking on the link, an interactive map is displayed. You have the following choices:


 * Maps and Places
 * History Time-line
 * Search pages

When you can click on any area of the map, it will take you to that area. If you click on the Maps and Places option, it takes you to a map where you click until you locate your area of interest.

For example, if you want Paisley, click on the Orange area and it will take you to that area. Next, by clicking on Renfrewshire and then Paisley, it will tell you about the place. The explanation is similar to the Ordnance Survey discription for the place.

For other information on maps see Scotland Maps.

Gazetteer for Scotland - scottish-places

Other Helpful Gazetteers
Groom, Francis H. 'Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland.' 6 vols. Edinburgh, Scotland: Thomas J. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, 1883-6. (Family History Library .) This set of gazetteers alphabetically lists place names as they appeared during the 1880s. A brief description includes distance from other nearby places, name(s) of the church denomination(s) in the area, historical background, and the civil district.

Wilson, John. 'The Gazetteer of Scotland'. Edinburgh, Scotland: W. &amp; A. K. Johnson, 1882. (Family History Library .)

The Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog lists gazetteers and similar place-name guides under:

GREAT BRITAIN - GAZETTEERS

SCOTLAND - GAZETTEERS

SCOTLAND, [COUNTY] - GAZETTEERS

In 1974, Scotland’s county boundaries were realigned, and many counties were renamed. For some research purposes, such as correspondence, you may need to identify modern county names for the area where your ancestors lived. Knowing the modern names is also helpful if you wish to find an ancestor’s town on a modern map. A good atlas and gazetteer showing modern county names is:

Mason, Oliver. 'Bartholomew Gazetteer of Places in Britain'. Edinburgh, Scotland: John Bartholomew &amp; Son, 1986. (Family History Library .) Places are in alphabetical order. The town descriptions in the gazetteer will tell you where to find each locality on the maps included in the book.