Did your ancestors own or rent property in Dundee? These valuation roll records allow you to trace who owned property or the name of the person who was the tenant, and in some cases, a person may have been both.
Did your ancestors own or rent property in Dundee? These valuation roll records allow you to trace who owned property or the name of the person who was the tenant, and in some cases, a person may have been both.
Each record is available in a PDF format. Use the previous and next buttons at the top of the page to browse through the publication. The PDF search experience can be different from searching transcribed records. Use our search tips below to get the most out of this collection.
To the left of the PDF, you will find the Transcription Box, which includes:
Image number and image count – this will tell you where you are in the publication and help you to explore the publication further.
Valuation rolls were local tax records which listed properties and people for each Scottish county and burgh between 1855 and 1996.
First compiled in 1855 when the Lands Valuation (Scotland) Act established a uniform valuation of landed property throughout Scotland with an assessor responsible for each of Scotland’s 35 counties and 83 royal and parliamentary burghs, the number of burghs was eventually increased to 90.
Local taxes were based upon the rental value of a property, the assessor for each county of parliamentary burgh would compile an annual valuation roll, listing most buildings and other properties in their areas along with the names and designations of the owner, tenant and occupier along with the annual rateable value.
The rateable value for each property was based upon the annual rental value of those properties which were actually rented or notional in the case of an owner-occupied or otherwise unlet property.
A valuation roll had to be drawn by the 15 August each year by the assessor, this was to allow appeals by owners or occupiers who disputed the rateable values, an appeal had to be submitted by the 15 September. Once the process of appeal had ended, the resulting valuation roll was authenticated and then made available for public inspection. The valuation roll was then in force from Whitsunday in the year of collection to the following Whitsunday, in Scotland, this was fixed as the 15 May.
Every six years all counties and burghs were required to send copies of the six preceding valuation rolls to Register House in Edinburgh to become part of the national series of valuation rolls for Scotland.
Searching through a PDF (Portable document format) is different from searching through fully transcribed record sets. Here are some tips to keep in mind while you search for your ancestors:
Direct Search
Name searches
A name search will return results which have the search terms on the same page within the document. This means that searching for John Smith will return pages where the names 'John' and 'Smith' occur. For this reason your search may return the name William Smith or John Brown. By inserting quotations around the full name the search function will locate the terms together; for example, “John Smith.”
To search for your ancestor by their name, write it as it would appear on the document. For example, if your relative was known as ‘Will’ it is likely that the name used for official records was ‘William.’
If you are unable to find your relative on your first search you can try different name variations. A number of register books only use abbreviations for first names. For example, if your search is unsuccessful for William Smith, try W Smith or Wm Smith.
Perusing the PDF
If you wish to read through the whole document you are searching, then order the results by page number. You can start from the beginning of the document and read through to the end using the next button above the image.
Page numbers often correlate with the individual images of the documents rather than the page numbers used within the publication. Therefore page 1 starts with the cover page.