Over 100,000 Scottish prison records added online

New records | Source information: 14 April 2026.

More than 100,000 prisoner records from Ayr and Inveraray have been added to Scotland’s People. Announced on 14 April 2026, the release gives family historians more opportunities to follow people who appear only briefly in other records.

What has been added

The additions include 98,000 entries from Ayr Prison covering 1841-1911. Scotland’s People says the release brings its historical prison-record collection to more than 400,000 entries. The archive highlights physical descriptions and information about literacy and health as features that can make these registers useful alongside names and dates.

Reading an entry in context

A name match is a starting point for comparison. Check the age, occupation and other identifying details against records already linked to the family. Keep the register’s wording separate from your interpretation, especially when describing an offence or the circumstances of imprisonment. Several entries may concern the same person, so a count of entries should not be treated as a count of different prisoners.

A possible connection to Polish family history

For a family with both Scottish and Polish branches, the useful question is whether a record helps establish a person’s identity or origin. A birthplace or a spelling variant, where recorded, may help connect the British evidence to civil or parish registers overseas. This release does not establish that any particular Polish ancestor appears in the collection.

Official source

Scotland’s People: prison-record release. Source checked on 18 October 2026.