FreeCEN Scotland

Putting 19th century Scottish census transcriptions online
Scottish thistle FreeCEN logo

Scottish Shipping 1861 & 1871 completed

A big thank-you to all who have contributed to putting more than five thousand records online.

Renfrew 1871 completed

A big thank-you to all who have contributed to this milestone — all the census years from 1841 to 1871 are now complete for Renfrewshire.

Clackmannan 1851 completed

Congratulations to all involved with completing this census year. Thank you all for putting more than 21 thousand records online.

Kinross 1861 completed

Congratulations and a big thank-you to all our volunteers who contributed to this milestone, together putting 8,724 records online.

This completes all the Kinross census years for which we have images — 1841–1871.

Argyll 1871 completed

Congratulations to all involved! Thank you all for getting more than 79 thousand records online.

Ross & Cromarty 1851 — can you help?

Are you someone who was working on the Ross & Cromarty census for 1851? Do you still have the census images you were working from? Or perhaps you are still in touch with someone who was working on that census?

If you can answer Yes, or Maybe, to any of these, please contact Scotland Coordinator, Margaret Singleton. Thank you!

The project

Welcome to the the Scotland Free Census Project. This project’s aim is to provide a “free-to-view” online searchable database of the 19th century Scottish census returns. It is part of the larger UK Free Census Project (FreeCEN).

For more information on the project and how to get involved, please read the project questions and answers.

Records online

More than 6.5 million Scottish Census records are now available for searching! Uploaded returns can be searched in the UK FreeCEN database. If you need help searching the database, or would like more information on the Scottish transcriptions, please read Michelle Jeffery’s database search hints.

For information on a specific county, please select the relevant county home page in the summary table below, or email the County Coordinator.

Please keep in mind that most of our County Coordinators also work full time and have personal priorities. We try to answer immediately but that isn't always possible. Please give us a week or so to answer. If we don't answer in that time, please contact the Scotland Coordinator, Margaret Singleton, for assistance.

Volunteers

Unfortunately, we currently have no more Scottish census images to transcribe. We still have opportunities for experienced volunteers to work as checkers, but we are not recruiting transcribers. If you would like to become a transcriber for another part of the UK, please contact FreeCEN Chairperson, Brenda Bowers, who will gladly get you started.

We would like to extend our gratitude and appreciation to all the people who have contributed to the Scotland Free Census Project.

Please bear with us a little longer as we bring our pages (here and on the county sites) up-to-date and sort out any (RootsWeb) wonkiness. Thank you!

Page last edited:
18th March 2019

On this site

On the FreeCEN UK site

Other FreeCEN projects

Scotland project status

Transcription status by county and year, with coordinator email addresses and county websites.
Completed years are marked  thus , external links with a 
County Current coordinator 1841 Pop.
(approx)		 Records online
1841 1851 1861 1871 Later years
Totals 2,527,249 2,335,766 872,236 717,966 64,962
Scotland (approx.) 2,620,200 2,888,700 3,062,300 3,360,000
Completed 96.5% 80.9% 28.5% 21.4%
Total records online = 6,518,179
Aberdeen Rena Mitchell 192,400 194,159 213,844 221,816 246,038 X
Angus Rena Mitchell 170,500 171,833 85,406 X X X
Argyll Rena Mitchell 97,400 101,338 29,710 71,084 79,311 X
Ayr Bill McKinlay 164,400 168,142 189,045 X X X
Banff Susan Snowdon 49,700 46,399 50,906 56,003 X X
Berwick Suzy Cairns 34,400 27,550 X X X X
Bute Bill McKinlay 15,696 15,696 16,538 16,141 16,753 X
Caithness Betty Martin 36,300 37,285 40,025 42,122 40,831 1881: 39,029
1891: 25,933
Clackmannan Rena Mitchell 19,200 17,794 21,493 X X X
Dumfries Nicky Young 72,800 72,960 X 75,757 X X
Dunbarton Nicky Young 44,300 45,794 46,690 X X X
East Lothian Inactive 35,838 35,838 36,301 37,588 X X
Fife Nicky Young 140,100 [1] 105,423 154,412 X X X
Inverness Susan Snowdon 97,800 93,201 86,035 X X X
Kincardine Rena Mitchell 33,100 33,515 34,943 X X X
Kinross Rena Mitchell 8,800 9,557 9,616 8,724 7,918 X
Kirkcudbright Kenny Mair & Kathy Litwin 41,100 41,000 X X X X
Lanarkshire Margaret Singleton 427,000 427,261 532,054 X X X
Midlothian Inactive 225,500 225,256 258,328 X X X
Moray Rena Mitchell 35,000 37,134 41,074 44,239 44,521 X
Nairn Rena Mitchell 9,200 7,173 8,018 8,335 8,353 X
Orkney Paul Hercus 30,500 30,488 31,297 X X X
Peebles Nicky Young 10,500 10,542 10,783 11,311 12,191 X
Perth Nicky Young 137,500 96,979 64,767 X X X
Renfrew Rena Mitchell 155,100 153,832 157,474 167,938 194,564 X
Ross & Cromarty Fiona Downie 78,700 79,811 15,501 X X X
Roxburgh Janis Hall 46,000 45,434 51,569 53,730 X X
Selkirk Joan Gerhard 8,000 8,125 9,781 10,407 14,334 X
Shetland Paul Hercus 30,600 30,170 X X X X
Stirling Nicky Young 82,100 79,633 83,621 X X X
Sutherland Grant Forsyth 24,800 11,240 12,950 X X X
West Lothian Inactive 26,900 27,428 X X X X
Wigtown Rena Mitchell 39,200 39,219 43,585 41,864 38,403 X
Scottish Shipping Rena Mitchell With parish Destroyed 5,177 14,749 X

Footnotes

  1. In 1841 a small ferryboat sank in the Forth estuary, on its way to Edinburgh, and returns for fourteen Fife parishes were lost. These were Abdie, Auchtermuchty, Balmerino, Ceres, Collessie, Creich, Cults, Cupar, Dairsie, Dunbog, Kinghorn, Kinglassie, Kirkcaldy and Leslie. In addition, some parishes (Arngask, Burntisland and Kennoway) are known to have missing books.
  2. A 0 (zero) in one of the “Records online” columns means that year has been started for that county.
  3. An X in any cell in the table indicates that we at FreeCEN Scotland do not at present hold data images for the census in that county for that year. As we are currently unable to obtain any further images, it seems unlikely that these records will become available through FreeCEN for the foreseeable future.