The SCAN Gazetteer answers specific probelms 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. For more general gazetteers and place name searches go to the section on other gazetteers etc below.

Other gazetteers and online place name searches
The SCAN Gazetteer does not aim to be a comprehensive database of places with historical information. There are other online gazetteers which do this. Here are links to some useful gazetteers and projects relating to places in Scotland:

Gazetteer of Scotland: a gazetteer of geographical and historical information compiled by Edinburgh University and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society
Ancestral Scotland: the VisitScotland genealogical tourism site, which contains a search device for places and parishes.

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