The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS)
The General Register Office for Scotland (New Register House, Edinburgh; www.gro-scotland.gov.uk) holds all of Scotland's civil registration records, census records, and Old Parish Registers. However, the GROS also is a repository for some of the more esoteric and obscure registers compiled by the Registrar General throughout Scotland's history, some of them dating back to 1553.
The following is a list of some of the most important of the lesser-known information registers held by the GROS. Much of this information can be accessed on microfilm, but some of it (indexes, and in some cases, digital scans of the actual records) may be available online; refer to the next section, Scotlandspeople, for information on availability of online records.
- Register of Neglected Entries. One top priority of the Registrar General following the introduction of mandatory civil registration in 1855 was to reach back to compile historical information not recorded elsewhere, before it could be lost. The result was a register of “neglected entries” – all confirmed births, deaths and marriages taking place in Scotland from 1801 to 1854 not included in the old parish registers. Access to the actual registers is by microfilm.
- Adopted Children Register. Records are maintained for all persons adopted under orders of the Scottish courts; the register does not include records of any adoptees born prior to October, 1909. Contact the GROS for information on accessing these records.
- Service Records. These records include Army Returns of births, deaths and marriages of Scottish servicemen stationed abroad from 1881-1959; Service Departments Registers (starting on April 1, 1959) of births, deaths and marriages involving HM Forces and their families occurring outside the UK; and marriages dating from 1892 performed by Army chaplains outside the UK.
- War Registers. These registers record the deaths of Scottish soldiers who fought in the South African War (1899-1902), World War I, and World War II.
- Register of births, deaths and marriages in foreign countries. From 1860-1965, the GROS compiled a register of the foreign births of children of Scottish parents, and of marriages and deaths of Scottish people living abroad.