About Us
National Records of Scotland (NRS) was established on 1 April 2011, following the merger of the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) and the National Archives of Scotland (NAS). For administrative purposes we sit within the Scottish Government’s Culture and External Affairs portfolio.
We are headed by Tim Ellis, our Chief Executive, who fulfils the roles of two non-ministerial office holders – the Registrar General for Scotland and the Keeper of the Records of Scotland.
We have a wide and diverse community of stakeholders and play a central role in the cultural, social and economic life of Scotland, supporting several of the Scottish Government’s key National Outcomes and measuring its Population Purpose Target.
We perform the registration and statistical functions of the Registrar General for Scotland, including responsibility for demographic statistics and census, and the archival functions of the Keeper including maintaining the archives as one of Scotland’s five National Collections, and providing a leadership role for Scottish archive and record professionals. We are also responsible for the service for family history provided under the highly successful ScotlandsPeople brand. ScotlandPeople is available online, in our offices in Edinburgh and, increasingly in Local Family History Centres.