Learning Zone - Scottish Criminal Database

Whether you are trying to find a missing link in your family history or simply want to add some colour to your family tree by discovering stories, Scottish criminal records can help.

It is perhaps ironic that when our family fell on hard times that we can often find out a lot more about them. These records can help us overcome brick walls and understand the lives of our ancestors.

Our index includes records from a variety of records. We have indexed High Court records, Sheriff Court cases, prison registers, Crown Counsel Procedure Books and the ‘Registers of Pardoned or Ticket of Leave Criminals on New Charges’. All of these records are different and will tell you different information. Although our database now includes over 800,000 entries it is not yet complete. See our coverage page for a breakdown of what we have indexed so far.

The paperwork varies greatly. High Court cases can contain hundreds of pages of information while Crown Counsel Procedure Books entries are very basic. We have articles on each of these record sets so you can learn more about them.