ScotlandsPlaces and other HES sites currently down

Several websites hosted by Historic Environment Scotland are currently down, including ScotlandsPlaces (www.scotlandspalecs.gov.uk), Britain from Above (www.britainfromabove.org.uk) and Canmore.

The sites have not been available since Friday afternoon. Hopefully they will be back up soon!

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) for just £11.99 at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. Details of my genealogical research service are available at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

ScotlandsPlaces records now free to access

Major news from Scotland, in that the records collections on ScotlandsPlaces (www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk) have now been made available free of charge. In the past the site hosted a mixture of records, some of which were free to access (as was the case when the site was originally launched), and others which required a subscription of £15 +VAT, i.e. £18 (the only records collection I ever saw in the UK which advertised its sub on that basis!), although transcripts of some of those records were free to access. The sources for the collections are the National Records of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland, and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (now part of Historic Environment Scotland).

The records that are now completely free on the site are:

Historical Tax Rolls

Carriage Tax, 1785-1798, (20 volumes)
Cart Tax, 1785-1798, (14 volumes)
Clock and Watch Tax, 1797-1798, (2 volumes)
Consolidated Schedules of Assessed Taxes, 1798-1799 (32 volumes)
Dog Tax, 1797-1798, (2 volumes)
Farm Horse Tax, 1797-1798, (13 volumes)
Female Servant Tax, 1785-1792, (28 volumes)
Hearth Tax, 1691-1695, (43 volumes)
Horse Tax, 1785-1798, (33 volumes)
Inhabited House Tax, 1778-1798 (64 volumes)
Land Tax, 1645-1831, (129 volumes)
Male Servant Tax, 1777-1798, (27 volumes)
Poll Tax, 1694-1698, (88 volumes)
Shop Tax, 1785-1789, (8 volumes)
Window Tax, 1748-1798, (218 volumes)


Ordnance Survey Name Books

Aberdeenshire, 1865-1878, (91 volumes)Argyll, 1868-1878, (81 volumes)
Ayrshire, 1855-1857, (64 volumes)
Banffshire, 1867-1869, (28 volumes)
Berwickshire, 1856-1858, (41 volumes)
Buteshire, 1855-1864, (7 volumes)
Caithness, 1871-1873, (15 volumes)
Clackmannanshire, 1861-1862, (7 volumes)
Dumfriesshire, 1848-1858, (55 volumes)
Dunbartonshire, 1860, (18 volumes)
East Lothian, 1853-1854, (55 volumes)
Fife and Kinross-shire, 1853-1855, (135 volumes)
Forfarshire (Angus), 1857-1861, (84 volumes)
Inverness-shire, 1876-1878, (86 volumes)
Kincardineshire, 1863, (20 volumes)
Kircudbrightshire, 1848-1851, (159 volumes)
Lanarkshire, 1858-1861, (50 volumes)
Midlothian, 1852-1853, (135 volumes)
Morayshire, 1868-1871, (23 volumes)
Nairnshire, 1869, (7 volumes)
Orkney, 1878-1880, (26 volumes)
Peeblesshire, 1856-1858, (47 volumes)
Perthshire, 1856-1858, (79 volumes)
Renfrewshire, 1856-1857, (21 volumes)
Ross and Cromarty, 1848-1852, (187 volumes)
Roxburghshire, 1858-1860, (42 volumes)
Selkirkshire, 1858, (15 volumes)
Shetland, 1877-1878, (26 volumes)
Stirlingshire, ca 1864, (27 volumes)
Sutherland, 1871-1875, (35 volumes)
West Lothian, 1855-1859, (69 volumes)
Wigtownshire, 1845-1849, (88 volumes)


RCAHMS Archives

Alexander Curle diaries, 1908-1953 (14 volumes)
Inventories, 1909-1992 (30 volumes)


Burgh registers

Aberdeenshire Burgh Registers, 1398-1511 (8 volumes)


Official Reports

Medical Officer of Health Reports, 1891
Land Ownership Commission Reports, 1872-1873


Published Gazetteers and Atlases

Hay Shennan, County and Parish Boundaries, 1892
An Atlas of Scottish History to 1707


Hydrographic Surveys

Bathmetrical Surveys of Scottish Lochs, 1898-1909


Archaeological and architectural sites, and historical maps and plans

1st edition 6-inch series1st edition 25-inch series
2nd and later edition 6-inch series
2nd and later edition 25-inch series

The ScotlandsPlaces team are still looking for volunteer transcribers to help with deciphering some of the collections from their older script forms, so if interested, do drop them a note!

Have fun! :)

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Beginner's Guide to British and Irish Genealogy, A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Historic Environment Scotland takes over as heritage body

As of today, the new merged body of Historic Environment Scotland takes over from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland and Historic Scotland as Scotland's national heritage body. Here's the announcement:

Welcome to Historic Environment Scotland

Historic Environment Scotland is the new lead public body established to investigate, care for and promote Scotland’s historic environment, and takes up its full statutory role from 1st October 2015. Created by the Historic Environment Scotland Act 2014, the new body incorporates and will build on the strengths and expertise of Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) who have been managing and recording the historic environment for over a century.

Historic Environment Scotland will lead and enable delivery of Our Place in Time, Scotland’s first ever strategy for the historic environment, which sets out how our historic environment will be carefully managed to deliver real and increasing benefits to Scotland’s people. The success of this strategy will ensure our diverse historic environment is cared for and protected, understood, valued, enjoyed and enhanced now and for future generations.

We are already developing our Corporate Plan 2016-19, demonstrating how the new organisation will meet the expectations of stakeholders. We will be launching the plan for public consultation in November.

This is an exciting new era for Scotland’s historic environment and we look forward to your support as we explore the challenges and opportunities ahead.

The full announcement, and other statements, can be found in the body's newsletter at http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=76aeda34e6e524553f9f38500&id=359cbf27c1&e=a5dfe4fb65. There is no new website as yet, so keep an eye out at www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/historicenvironmentscotland for further news.

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.