European History Since 1789 - Scottish Diaspora: Digital Collections

Using letters, journals, official documents, photographs and maps from the National Library of Scotland's archives, a picture of Scots abroad is pieced together.

The Highland and Island Emigration Society was set up by private subscription to alleviate destitution in the Highlands by promoting and assisting the emigration of Highlanders to Australia. Their passenger lists for the years 1852-1857 have survived and are organised by ship and by family and record the name, age and residence of each emigrant (HD4/5) as well as occasional notes on their health and situation. This is one of the few sources for emigration held by the National Archives of Scotland. To find out more about sources for Emigration held by Scottish archives, go to the Knowledge Base.

The Scottish Emigration Database currently contains the records of over 21,000 passengers who embarked at Glasgow and Greenock for non-European ports between 1 January and 30 April 1923, and at other Scottish ports between 1890 and 1960.

A guide to researching Scottish immigration in Canada. Contains some digitized materials available in the Collections Search.