Statistical Accounts of Scotland
Statistical accounts can help you learn more about the area in which your ancestors lived. The contain a wide variety of topics, including wealth, class and poverty; climate, agriculture, fishing and wildlife; population, schools, and the moral health of the people. For the most part, they were compiled by the parish minister.
The following three works include histories for each individual parish. The histories were written in the late 1700s and early 1800s, usually by the minister of the parish.
Sinclair, John, ed. The Statistical Account of Scotland. Wakefield, England: EP Publishing Limited, [197?]. (FS Library book 941 B4sa; on 322 FS Library fiche beginning with 6026527.)
The New Statistical Account of Scotland. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1845. (FS Library book 941 B4sa 2nd Series.)
Mather, Alexander S., ed. The Third Statistical Account of Scotland. Glasgow: Collins of Glasgow, 1987. (FS Library book 941 B4sa 3rd Series.)