Place:Shotts, Lanarkshire, Scotland

source: Family History Library Catalog

Shotts was a parish which was located in the old county of Lanarkshire, which, like the other counties of Scotland, was abolished following the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1974. It is now situated in the North Lanarkshire Council Area, some 7 miles (12 km) east of Coatbridge in North Lanarkshire and 8 miles (13 km) north of [[Place:Carluke, Lanarkshire, Scotland|Carluke in South Lanarkshire. It is also known as Calderhead. The Town of Shotts (population about 30,000) was located in the Parish of Shotts.

Shotts had an area of 102.4km² (39.5 sq. miles) and had 7 neighbouring parishes; namely Bothwell and New Monkland in North Lanarkshire, Cambusnethan and Dalziel in South Lanarkshire, and Bathgate, Torphichen and Whitburn, all in West Lothian.

Shotts was known for its mining and ironworks. In the years leading up to World War II there were 22 coal mines in the area. The last of these (Northfield Colliery) closed in the 1960s.

Research Tips

Sources for Old Parish Registers Records, Vital Records and Censuses

• FamilySearch (Indexes only)

• Scotland's People This is a pay website providing vital statistics and census data for all of Scotland with original images. There is a description at Scotland under Genealogical Resources.

Notes for Lanarkshire

• GENUKI has a list of references for Lanarkshire. Some of these may be superseded by more modern material.

• The Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society has a vast website containing a great variety of information (including some databases), not only on Glasgow but on Lanarkshire outside the metropolis.

• There is also the Lanarkshire Family History Society based in Motherwell which caters for Lanarkshire outside of Glasgow. Its publication list may be of interest.

• FreeCen index includes the whole of Lanarkshire for 1841 and a substantial section for 1851. The Genealogical Society of Utah sponsored the collection of 1881 census records and these will be found at FamilySearch. A search of all the censuses for Scotland may be done for a fee at Scotland's People

• The Shotts Parish Registers for the Church of Scotland provide information on baptisms (1707-1755 and 1786-1854), marriages (1704-1755 and 1786-1855) and burials (1709-1736 and 1794-1855). See the FamilySearch Wiki article on Shotts for other church denominations.

Further Sources of Reference

Please note and respect the copyright warnings on these websites.

• GENUKI article on Shotts.

• Scottish Places article on the parish of Shotts. The tabs of the right provide more information, and comparative maps.

• Scottish Places article on the town of Shotts

• The FamilySearch Wiki article on Shotts provides direct reference to FamilySearch holdings on many topics with respect to the parish.

• The National Library of Scotland have a website devoted to maps from the 1600s right up to the present. Comparisons of modern-day and old maps of the same place can be made. From the home page click on "Find by place" and then follow the instructions on the next page. Once you are viewing the place you want, use the slider <----> at the top of the map to compare the layout of roads and the place names of smaller areas, perhaps even farms, with the landscape today. The website takes some getting used to. The One-inch 2nd edition, Scotland, 1898-1904 OS is a series of maps with the parishes delineated. Each of these maps cover an area of 18 x 24 miles and will zoom to comfortable reading size with a couple of mouse clicks on the map itself. Unfortunately, they are not geo-referenced, and it is necessary to go to the OS One Inch 1885-1900 series to locate places by latitude and longitude.

• The Statistical Accounts for Scotland In the 1790s and again in the 1830s, the ministers of the all the parishes of the Church of Scotland were asked to provide a description of their parish to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The original account request included 160 questions to be answered. These accounts are available in print in 20 volumes and are also online where it is freely available to browse. The browsing portal is below the viewing area of most computer screens. Scroll down to "For non-subscribers" and click on "Browse scanned pages". This brings you to another page on which one can enter the name of the parish in which you are interested.

• Excerpts from The Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885 are provided by Scottish Places. Selections from Groome and other gazetteers from the 19th century are also found on GENUKI.