Location of historical records

Sheriffdoms
Historical records of sheriff courts pass to the National Archives of Scotland. For further details go to the National Archives of Scotland website or see Cecil Sinclair, Tracing Scottish Local History (HMSO, 1994) or Cecil Sinclair, Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors (HMSO, 1990). The following sheriff courts operated in Ayrshire:
Ayr
Kilmarnock

JP court records
Justice of the Peace records for Ayrshire are held by Ayrshire Archives.

Register of sasines and sasine abridgements
Registers of sasines for Ayrshire are held by the National Archives of Scotland (RS.11-14). Sasine abridgements for Ayrshire, 1781-1978, are held by the National Archives of Scotland and also by Glasgow City Archives.

Other records
Over the next two years the SCAN website through its Online Catalogues and Knowledge Base will become the definitive guide to the location of historical records relating to places in Scotland. At present the best online guide to the location of historical records is the National Register of Archives' ARCHON website.