Learning about Scottish land records

 

                                                            Glenegedale, Islay is now the site of the Islay airport

My Scottish genealogy research has centred on the islands of Islay and Skye although, according to the ethnicity maps at Living DNA, my Scottish lines may also come from other places in the country. So far, I have only been able to follow the lives of specific family members back to those two Scottish islands and that is where I have concentrated my research.

I began my research by looking for Islay records back before I know what I was doing. I amassed a lot of information, like copies of documents taken from microfilms. Unfortunately, many of those records have no references about the sources they came from written on them although I probably kept a research log at the time. That's the problem with keeping research logs separate from the results.

Another problem is knowing the correct terminology to refer to these documents. Scottish land records were the hardest to wrap my head around. Through the years I've been researching there had been times when I'd run across different terms for Scottish land records, like sasines. I had no idea what they were and, as my lot didn't own land, I thought that none of my relatives would have been involved with those strange sounding documents.

Fast forward to the present and the Pharos course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers. Lesson four is about land records so I'm finally going to try to understand the Scottish system of land holding which was a lot different from the system to the south. From what I had gathered through my research, there were a few landlords with large holdings and most people were renters. When looking for Islay records I was lucky. Early on I'd purchased The Day Book of Daniel Campbell of Shawfield 1767 with relevant papers concerning the Estate of Islay. The hope was that I would be able to find my ancestors somewhere in there. I did. In the book, I found some of them in the lists of rentals living in Glenegedale.

Further digging back then, this time in LDS microfilms, netted me more records related to the land. I was surprised to  learn that tenancies were inheritable, but when you think about that it makes sense. Land usually does pass to the next generation. I was just not aware that there would be legal records related to those inheritances, like this one that I transcribed:

From what I've read in the Pharo's lesson on land records so far, this would be a record of a sasine or at least the indication that there was one. I'm still not sure what an actual sasine is but now I know that there was at least one sasine attached to my family's history. So the term used in Scottish land holdings that I had initially dismissed because I was sure it wouldn't apply to my family, was something I needed to know more about. The record above references a rental bequeathed in a will. It's a good thing that this record exists because I've been unable to find the will itself and I fear that it was lost.

Islay's published land records make them accessible but Skye seems to be another story. I'm not sure if I will be able to find similar land records for my family on that island. I'll have to read on further in the Pharo's lesson to see if there are hints on where to look.

Sources:

LDS film (number unrecorded) containing rental records for various places in Islay

Ramsay, Freda The Day Book of Daniel Campbell of Shawfield 1767 with relevant papers concerning the Estate of Islay Aberdeen University Press, Aberdeen 1991