Location of historical records

Sheriffdoms/Stewartry
Very few records of the stewartry court of Kirkcudbright survive. The National Archives of Scotland hold court records, 1693-6 (D170/5), and papers relating to two individual cases, 1625 and 1686 (RH11/46/1-2). The records of the sheriff courts of Dumfries and Kirkcudbright are held by the National Archives of Scotland. For further details go to the National Archives of Scotland website or see Guide to the National Archives of Scotland (HMSO, 1996); Cecil Sinclair, Tracing Scottish Local History (HMSO, 1994); or Cecil Sinclair, Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors (HMSO, 1990).

JP court records
Justice of the Peace records for Kirkcudbrightshire are held by the National Archives of Scotland.

Register of sasines and sasine abridgements
Registers of sasines for Dumfries and Stewartries of Kirkcudbright and Annandale are held by the National Archives of Scotland. Sasine abridgements for the county of Dumfries, 1781-1970, are held by the National Archives of Scotland. Published index 1617-1780, abs and indexes for Stewartry of 1781-1970 (with minor gaps)

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.