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Visitor Information

Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives Service is re-opening on Tuesday 29th April 2025.

 

Our public service will be re-opening at our Town House site following our collections' move out of Old Aberdeen House. We look forward to welcoming you back. Appointments will be availabe to book from Tuesday 1st April 2025.

 

Opening Hours: Tuesday - Friday, 9:30-12:30 and 13:30-16:30

Appointment only via email: archives@aberdeencity.gov.uk

Please wait for confirmation of your appointment before making any travel plans.

 

Search room location: Town House, Broad Street, Aberdeen AB10 1AQ

Access via reception desk at the Town House extension (corner of Broad Street / Queen Street)

 

Additional information:

We are anticipating a high volume of access requests on our reopening. In the first instance, we will be limiting how many appointment spaces an individual can book each week, depending on demand. We will also be prioritising appointments based on deadlines. If your research has an urgent deadline, please include this information in your appointment request.

 

Due to some records being moved offsite, we may need additional time to process requests. Please provide as much notice as possible.

Subject Access and Data Requests

If you want to make a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act for records held by the archive, or a Freedom of Information request, please contact the relevant council via:  

 

Aberdeen City Council  

 

Aberdeenshire Council 

 

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Archive Offices

 Town HouseOld Aberdeen House
Address Broad Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1AQ
View location map

PERMANENTLY CLOSED 

Dunbar Street, Old Aberdeen, AB24 3UJ
View location map

Telephone01224 070777 PERMANENTLY CLOSED
Emailarchives@aberdeencity.gov.ukPERMANENTLY CLOSED
Searchroom opening hours

Tuesday - 09:30-12:30 and 13:30-16:30

Wednesday - 09:30-12:30 and 13:30-16:30

Thursday - 09:30-12:30 and 13:30-16:30

Friday - 09:30-12:30 and 13:30-16:30

PERMANENTLY CLOSED
Facilities
  • reference library
  • catalogues and information sources
  • internet access, including free access to Deceased Online and access to Kirk Session records
  • laptop facilities
PERMANENTLY CLOSED
Getting here

A number of buses stop on Aberdeen's Union Street and Broad Street. 

The service is accessed through the Town House Extension reception at the corner of Broad Street and Queen Street. Please let the reception team know you are for the Archives. 

PERMANENTLY CLOSED

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Planning your Visit

Before you visit the Archives, you can find out what we have that might be useful to your research on our Online Catalogue or using our Guides and Indexes. If you see something you want to look at, note its reference number, title and covering dates and contact us to make an appointment.

If you haven't found anything on our catalogue (it is being updated regularly as we catalogue more of our collections), or if you're not sure what we have that could help your research, please contact us with your query via email or telephone.

Preparing for your visit

It helps if you do the following:

  • Bring as many of your notes with you as you can!
  • Think about what you're aiming for in your research - what do you want to find? Try and focus on one person / research interest at a time before moving on to the next.
  • If you are looking at a large date range, try and narrow it down - this saves you having to look through multiple volumes with the same information (and reduces unnecessary handling of the collections).
  • Bring some notepaper, a pencil and a rubber - pens cannot be used in the searchroom.
  • You can bring your own digital camera to take copies - there will be a small charge for using your camera and you may need to complete a form. Details of our charges are available via our Table of Fees or on request.
  • You can bring your laptop / tablet / iPad. Wifi is available onsite.

Records that you have requested will be ready for you on the day of your visit. If you need to request more records, this will be subject to availabilty as some of our records are held offsite. 

In the searchroom

When you make an appointment to visit, you will be asked to comply with our Searchroom Guidelines: 

Access restrictions are in place for records containing personal data covered by the Data Protection Act.

Staff are always available to answer any questions you might have both before and during your visit. If you are unsure of what you are looking at, please ask, we will be happy to help!

If you are planning on staying for a whole day, please remember that we close for an hour over lunch 12:30-13:30. There are no facilities for you to eat your own lunch on site but there are a number of cafes nearby.

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Accessibility

The search room in the Town House is on the third floor. Alternative access arrangements may need to be made, particularly for larger wheelchairs that may not fit in the lift. Please contact us at archives@aberdeencity.gov.uk. 

Parking

There are several city centre car parks available near the Town House. Disabled parking is available on site: please let us know in advance to access this car parking.

Frequently Asked Questions

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The Archives houses the records of Aberdeen City Council and its predecessors dating back to the twelfth century. In addition, the Archives currently administers the records inherited by Aberdeenshire Council at a local government re-organisation in 1996. The Archives also hold the Assessor’s records for the Grampian Joint Valuation Board.

Our collections also include the records of local businesses, churches, charities, voluntary organisations and individuals. Some records are held under the Charge and Superintendence of the Keeper of the Records of Scotland.

Our major holdings are:

  • Local authority records for the City, including those relating to the burghs of Aberdeen, Old Aberdeen and Woodside
  • School and education records
  • Burial records for City cemeteries
  • Architectural drawings and papers relating to many (but not all) City buildings
  • Registers of shipping and sea fishing vessels for the Port of Aberdeen
  • Burgh Register of Sasines (including Town Clerk’s Protocol Books) from 1484 - 1809
  • Kirk Session records for St. Nicholas, St. Clement’s, St. Clement’s Free, John Knox, Langstane and Greyfriars parishes - original Church of Scotland records for Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and Kincardineshire can be found at the National Archives for Scotland
  • Congregational, Episcopal and Methodist Church Records for a number of congregations in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire
  • Private records of individuals and businesses
  • The surviving records of local government administration in the former counties of Aberdeen, Kincardine and the part of historic Banffshire now in Aberdeenshire
  • Valuation Rolls and Registers of Electors

Please note that we do not hold or have access to census records, Old Parish Registers, or birth, marriage and death certificates. These can be accessed via the pay per view website Scotland's People or by visiting your local Registrar.

Some of the burial registers we hold for Aberdeen City have been digitised and are available to view at Deceased Online.

Kirk Session Records for the whole of Scotland can now be accessed in our searchrooms. This follows a collaborative project between the Church of Scotland and the National Archives for Scotland.

Our research and copying services have also been temporarily suspended whilst we move out of Old Aberdeen House site and prepare for re-opening at our Town House site.

No, readers tickets are not required with our service. However, identification may be required to access certain records under the Data Protection Act. Please consult us for further information.

We do not hold, or have access to, birth, marriage or death certificates. The best way to find this information is by using the pay-per-view site Scotland's People or by visiting your local Registrar (if resident in Scotland).

While access to most records held by the Archives is free to the public, users of certain classes of records for commercial purposes will be subject to charges (details available on request).

Charges are applicable for various services such as photography, copying and research carried out by members of staff on behalf of an enquirer. Please see our Table of Fees for further information.

Our research and copying services have also been temporarily suspended during our move out of Old Aberdeen House.

Because our documents are irreplaceable, we do not let them leave the Archive searchroom. If they are not too fragile or subject to copyright and other restrictions, we may photocopy individual items, or you may be allowed to photograph them.

We offer a range of outreach activities, which includes visits to the archives. These can be done either during the day or in the evening depending on our capacity at the time. Visits will include a tour of the archive rooms at the Town House, followed by an exhibition of archive material.

We are also happy to come to you and provide talks on various topics of interest. We are unable to bring original documents with us but this can be during the day or in the evening. Please contact us for further information.

Charges apply for both group visits and talks.

Archives are original documents produced by official bodies, societies and individuals that are no longer in current use. They can be used for all sorts of research, including local history and tracing your family history.

In an archive, you may be able to find plans, maps, photographs, ledgers, volumes, and individual documents and letters, estate records, business and industrial records, records created by various organisations, associations, trade incorporations, trade unions and societies, and collections created by individuals and families.

If you use a pen when working with archive material, you could accidentally mark a document. As pencil marks can be more easily erased, we ask all our readers to use a pencil.

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