The SCAN Gazetteer answers specific problems relating to places encountered by researchers using historical records in Scotland, such as valution rolls; census returns; civil registers of births, marriages and deaths; and tax records. It concentrates on places which are problematical, such as those which have changed parish or county; inhabited islands; and burghs. The basic functions of the SCAN Gazetteer are to ascertain the status of a place prior to 1975, note which civil parish(es) and county (or counties) it belonged to, and explain problems such as boundary changes. There are links to pages explaining where to find archive services and key historical records. Data from the SCAN gazetteer has (in 2009) been assimilated into the ScotlandsPlaces website, which is much more comprehensive.

Sources of information
To see further details of published sources used to compile the Gazetteer click here.