Place:Midlothian, Scotland

The County of Midlothian was a traditional county of Scotland which covered Edinburgh, Scotland's capital, some area to both the east and west, and a sizeable area to the south, so that its size was 362 sq. miles or 937 km2. In the 19th century it was often called Edinburghshire. From 1890 Edinburgh was a separate burgh or independent local authority responsible for its own administration. However, the administration offices for Midlothian were in Edinburgh. The industry of the county was based on farming to service the local markets of Edinburgh, fishing to make use of its coastline along the Firth of Forth, and mining--for coal and for building materials such as stone and limestone. In 1975, Scotland abolished its traditional counties and was divided into twelve regions. The regions were each divided into a number of districts to handle local government. Midlothian became part of the Lothian Region whose boundaries were substantially reduced on the southern side, but expanded east and west to include East Lothian and West Lothian respectively. Several of the southern parishes in the former Midlothian became part of the Borders Region.

In 1996, the regions were abolished and since that time Scotland has been divided into 32 Council Areas, each of which is unitary in nature. The Lothian Region was separated into the Midlothian Council Area, the East Lothian Council Area and the City of Edinburgh Council Area. As can be seen on the map, some of the parishes were transferred to neighbouring Council Areas.

The above notes were based on Scottish Places' article "Old County of Midlothian", Wikipedia's article on Midlothian, and a description of 19th century Midlothian found in "Bartholemew's Gazetteer of the British Isles, 1887" and reproduced online by GENUKI Scotland.

Research Tips

• Scotlands People, the website of the Scottish Register Office provides

• official civil (from 1855) and parish registers (from when first produced) for births, marriages and deaths for all of Scotland
• original census images for all years available (1841-1911).
• collections of wills and testaments and
• property tax listings
• an extensive collection of local maps
• kirk session records for individual parishes (added in 2021 and not yet complete).

This site is extremely easy to use. There are charges for parish register entries, collections of wills, and census listings (the 1881 census is free to view, also on Ancestry and FindMyPast). The charges are reasonable and payable by online transfer. Viewing the kirk session records is free, but a charge will be made for a copy.

• The National Library of Scotland have an online map collection of historic and modern day maps which can zoom in on a specific farmhouse or street in a town. Their collection also includes London and some counties of southeast England.
• Gazetteer for Scotland contains an article for each parish from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland by F. H. Groome, (published 1882-4) and short details about each parish today including names of small settlements within a parish.
• The FamilySearch Wiki explains a great many legal terms only found in Scotland and provides a gazetteer for genealogists for each parish across the county. It reviews the availablility of parish registers.
• GENUKI Scotland which provides for each Scottish parish (indexed by county), amongst other data, complete quotations from A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1851) by Samuel Lewis, John Bartholomew's A Gazetteer of the British Isles (1877), and possibly other gazetteers from individual counties and regions. It is worth reviewing one of its county pages to see what is available online or in print from local archive providers. Each county page has a "Where in ---shire is .... ? section--very helpful in pinpointing the small places below parish level.
• A list of Burial Grounds in Scotland is now available on the website of the Scottish Association of Family History Societies.
• The Statistical Accounts of Scotland Online provides access to digitised and fully searchable versions of both the Old Statistical Account (1791-99) and the New Statistical Account (1834-45). These uniquely rich and detailed parish reports, usually written by local Church of Scotland ministers, detail social conditions in Scotland and are an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Scottish history.