1920 Valuation Rolls Online at ScotlandsPeople

ScotlandsPeople have put the 1920 Valuation Rolls online.

These are lists of properties, the rent or annual value, their owners, and occupiers and sometimes their occupation produced for the purposes of taxation.

They include the first council houses in Scotland; the Logie Estate in Dundee and the first housing estate in Europe to have a communal heating system. The tenants included an architect, artists, clerks, a grain merchant, a jeweller, a journalist, managers, a surveyor, a telegraphist, a telephone engineer as well as many manual workers.

Inheritance tax rose sharply in 1918, income tax also rose after 1918, as did the rates to help pay for local government and services, and these rolls show the new owners of properties sold by the landed gentry including the Duke of Sutherland to help meet the bills.

More about the 1920 valuation rolls. Search the 1920 Valuation Rolls.

If you didn't manage to ask your question on the ScotlandsPeople stall at our Family History Fair in Galashiels in May, there's another opportunity.

ScotlandsPeople are offering free family history surgeries at Adam House, 3 Chambers Street, Edinburgh from 2pm to 4:30pm on Tuesday, 19th to Friday, 22nd November and 10am to 4pm on Saturday, 23rd November. No booking needed, just turn up.

ScotlandsPeople working on Digitising the 1895 Scottish Valuation Rolls

ScotlandsPeople's newsletter today announced that they're currently working on digitising the 1895 Scottish Valuation Rolls and they will be launched soon on their website.

These Valuation Rolls could help you to corroborate information about people in the 1891 census. The 1905 Valuation Rolls and the 1915 Valuation Rolls are already available.

They're looking for people whose ancestors appear in the 1891 Census, but have disappeared from that address in the 1901 Census so that they can cite them as interesting examples when they launch the 1895 Valuation Rolls.

They'll try and find those ancestors for you, by searching the 1895 Valuation Rolls.

So if you think that the 1895 Valuation Rolls might well contain a missing ancestor of yours, then please drop them a brief email at press AT scotlandspeople.gov.uk.

Come and see ScotlandsPeople at our History Fair on 11th May 2013 in Galashiels, Scotland.

3 reasons to use Scottish Valuation Rolls

Until 1855, works carried out for the benefit of the public, for example, repair of the roads, removal of refuse and soil heaps, care for the sick and relief for the unemployed poor were carried out sporadically.

Initially these works were funded by the landowners, by the Crown, and public benefactors; as towns and cities grew in the 19th century, increasingly by levying a tax on householders.

However, with no standard system for determining the rate of the tax, its frequency, or penalties for non-payment; collection was often erratic, people refused to pay, could not be found to pay, could not afford to pay; in most years, the authorities had to scale down the works or relief offered to match the sums collected.

The most used valuation rolls are lists of properties, their owners, and occupiers produced for the purposes of taxation between 1855 and 1989 by assessors in council areas.

The Lands Valuation (Scotland) Act 1854 established a system of Assessors’ offices in each county and royal burgh in Scotland. Until the abolition of counties and burghs in 1975, these Assessors produced annual valuation rolls, listing properties whose actual or theoretical annual rental value was above a statutory minimum.         

Why use Valuation Rolls in your research ?
Well, mainly for 3 reasons:

1. to put some flesh on the bones of your family history
2. to help with finding people in the censuses
3. to check information in the census

The rolls include the address of the property, its description (cottage, dwelling house, shop, workshop, etc), the owner's name, the name of the tenant, and, in most cases, the name of the occupier, the annual rental value.

Scotland's People have announced the availability of Valuation Rolls for 1905. This adds to their collection for 1915.

The 1895 valuation rolls are expected to be released later in the year.

Alternatively, come to our conference on 11 May at Galashiels and search the rolls there on Scotland's People's stand.

1915 Valuation Rolls online

Have you had at look at the 1915 Valuation Rolls on the Scotlands People website yet? It’s another option when you are searching for people especially if you can’t get to the local archive.

You still have to use your credits but there is an introductory reduced rate of 2 credits to view each image. The 1911 Census was made available last year and now, we have 1915 owners, tenants and occupiers of properties so you can see where the head of the family was living at the beginning of WWI and between censuses.

I’ve only looked for 2 of my great grandfathers so far – one of them was where I expected him to be but my Dumfriesshire great grandfather was living in a cottage that I didn’t have recorded. I think that’s 8 houses - so far - that grandpa Henry lived in.

The Valuation Rolls are available online at Scotlands People and at the Scotlands People centre.

If you are looking for Borders residents, the original Valuation Roll books are also available at the Scottish Borders Archive and Local History Centre in Hawick and for East Lothian residents, they are available on microfilm, or microfiche, at the East Lothian Archive in Haddington.