ScotlandsPeople is a superb on-line source of original genealogical information. It is invaluable for anyone researching UK genealogy, Scottish ancestry or for anyone building his or her Scottish family tree. ScotlandsPeople has almost 90 million records available and a new, additional, resource was added last month with the addition of the Scottish Valuation Rolls for 1885.
These 1885 valuation rolls include the names of owners, tenants and occupiers of each property. The named person in the roll is usually the head of the household and, in many cases, occupations are also listed. Since the rolls list every type of rateable property in Scotland, the records include people from all social classes.
There's fascinating information about the West End in 1885 to be gleaned from this resource and ScotlandsPeople highlights the properties in the West End associated with Sir William Arrol, the civil engineer who planned and supervised the building of the replacement Tay Rail Bridge. You can read more about Sir William Arrol here and view the valuation roll entry covering the property where he was tenant on ground at Tay Bridge Station owned by the North British Railway Company. The entry also includes the address of "47 Magdalene Green", which would appear to be where the site office for the new Tay Bridge project was based.
You can also view the valuation roll entry for a dwelling house at 24 Strawberrybank, where Arrol was also tenant. This would most likely have been Arrol’s main residence in Dundee during this time.
ScotlandsPeople is well worth a visit and can be accessed at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.