Gazetter of Scottish Locations

Question

If you are researching in Scotland, having good maps that span time frames are a great aid.   Genuki Scotland is a great resource and it has a Gazetter that really helps identify where some of the smaller hamlets are located.

This is a great URL that I use a lot!

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/

Another great resource for historical maps is the National Library of Scotland  http://maps.nls.uk/os/

And a third great gazetter for Scotland http://www.scottish-places.info/

The above are all free.  

Anyone else have some good resources to share?

Comments

The GENUKI link is amazing! Opens doors substantively. Thank you, Laura Bozzay! If we need a pinpoint, we'll find it there.

Answer 1

Thanks for sharing Laura.

Answer 2

Thanks for the post Laura.

I use the NLS maps a lot. They are fantastic for locating a small farmstead that you've never heard of where an ancestor was born back in 1732 or whatever. It really is an amazing resource and I can spend hours just browsing.

It is also possible to purchase prints of most of the maps, and they are great for framing and as a conversation piece. Strange as it may seem, we've had many parties where everyone was grouped around a map discussing it.

Comments

Oh Julie I have old maps framed along with indentured servant vellums  and coats of arms all over my house.  For Christmas one year I gave binders ofd old maps that pertained to those on my gift list.   Some people took some of those and framed them and hung them.   Some of these are very affordable coming out of old atlases and the like that were incomplete or damaged so not useful as an atlas per se any more.  But the maps are still treasures!  

Some are reproductions that are still really fun and informative.  And what I like is the younger children (around 8 and up) seem fascinated by some of them.   Great way to get them interested in history and geography.  We did a party game where you had to find a city based on clues and they were all on the maps on my first floor.  It was a team game and people really had fun with it.  I made sure to use cities that had meaning to each of the party attendees genealogy.  Needless to say it really broke the ice with people who had nothing in common or so they thought!

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Good to hear that I am not the only one who thinks that maps are fun!

I used to enjoy visiting castles as a child - one of my first maps was of Scottish Castles. Then I started to get to know the history of the families who held the castles. Then I became interested in my own family history. And then, of course, you need access to reliable old maps and the NLS's online collection is a real Aladdin's Cave.

My favourite is the series is John Thomson's Atlas of Scotland, 1832

and I have copies the East Lothian , Midlothian and Caithness from that collection.

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My Scottish family were all from the Aberdeenshire area for the most part.

My cousin who was born in Scotland and moved to Australia when she was 16 came to visit us here in the middle of the US.  She spent most of her time correcting my really bad pronunciation!   My oldest son caught on so well he can sound native.  Her birthday is the same as my husband's and those two became thick as thieves.  She talks to him via skype at least weekly!  I have family all over the world and it is really interesting to see where they are.