West Lothian Council delivers

Family history and genealogy

Find our your family's roots in West Lothian with the help of the West Lothian Local History Library and and the Archives and Records Management Centre.  

At Archives , you will find some

• school records (closure periods may apply)
• poor relief records (closure periods may apply)

At the Local History Library , you will find (for West Lothian parishes):

• Census Records 1841-1901
• Old Parish Records
• Monumental Inscriptions (pre-1855)
• Poll and Hearth Tax records of the 1690s
• Valuation Rolls 1855 to the present
• Voters' Rolls 1869 to the present

For areas outside West Lothian, the Local History Library holds :

• IGI for Scotland and Ireland
• Index to the 1891 Census for the whole of Scotland
• the 1881 Census for Britain on CDs
• 1851 census indexes for many parts of Scotland
• Monumental Inscriptions for many parts of Scotland

Local newspapers are held from 1873 onwards.  The three main ones - West Lothian Courier, Linlithgow Gazette and Midlothian Advertiser - are indexed, and the newspaper index (new window)  can be searched online.

Photographs, maps and books can all help to fill in the background to your ancestors' lives.    You can search through thousands of photographs, maps and books covering all parts of West Lothian in the main library catalogue (new window) .

We can give help and advice on getting started with your family history, and free internet access is always available.  In partnership with the West Lothian Family History Society (new window) , the library holds family history workshops throughout the year.