Dear Anne, Many thanks for your very complete and interesting answer. I have some addresses for my relations from Nairn so i will follow up. Best regards Peter Ferguson ----- Original Message ----- From: "Anne Burgess" <anne.burgess@btinternet.com> To: <MORAY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2005 8:58 AM Subject: Re: [MORAY] Burnside of Lethen, Auldearn, 1906-1910 >> I have not heard of Valuation Rolls before. What are they and what >> information is held in them? > > Valuation Rolls were compiled regularly in order to assess how much people > should pay in rates, which were the principal means of raising the funds > for local authorities (cities, counties and burghs). > > The valuation rolls used to list every building, and every subdivision of > the buildings, with the name of the proprietor, tenant and occupier, and > the 'rateable value'. > > So for example you might look up a shepherd's cottage, and find that it > was owned by the Earl of Seafield, that the tenant was say James Leslie > and the occupier John Smith. This tells you that James Leslie rented the > cottage, presumably as part of a farm, from the Earl of Seafield, and that > the cottage was used by his employee or dependant John Smith. > > The VRs were compiled afresh every year, so they are a means of tracking > where people lived over a period of time. > > They don't tell you who else lived in the dwelling, or what their > occupations were. > > They are also a pointer the the landowner, which helps because you then > know which estate records you want to look for. > > They aren't indexed as a rule, and are arranged by address within parishes > or burghs, so you do need to know where the house you are interested in > was, or be prepared for a long search. > > They are a bit patchy until the 19th century, but from the mid 19th > century until the late 20th century you should be able, in theory, to get > hold of an unbroken set of VRs for all of the UK. > > To find them, you need to know which modern local authority covers the > area you are interested in, because in general the VRS are likely to be in > teh archives of the local authority which now deals with most of the old > county or burgh to which they refer. > > Unfortunately in the late 20th (I forget the exact year but it was in the > 1980s) the rating system was abolished and replaced by the short-lived and > unpopular community charge, which in turn was replaced by 'council tax' > and the registers kept for these purposes are not nearly as informative. > > HTH > > Anne > > > ==== MORAY Mailing List ==== > MORAY OPR's. The OPR's for the Moray area are now starting to be > transcribed and volunteers are needed. Would anyone interested in > transcribing the OPR's for our area please contact me via my usual email > address or visit the Moray Rootsweb pages and contact me via the mailing > list Admin. > > ============================== > Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the > last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx >