Internet resources: 400 years of Scottish history goes online

More than 400 years of Scottish history has been put on the internet after the launch of an archive containing 57,000 of historic records. The records from the Perthshire area were made available by the website Ancestry.co.uk.

The records date from 1566 to 1901 and cover records from school admissions and surveys of the local militia. It includes the Perthshire School Registers of Admissions and Withdrawals, which contains the names of around 75,000 pupils covering the period 1869 to 1901. The Perthshire Militia Survey of 1802 also forms part of the archive. It contains more than 1,300 records of men in every household who were eligible to fight in the militia.

A spokesman for the Ancestry.co.uk website said the records were "of huge significance" to anyone trying to trace an ancestor from the area.

The launch coincides with the Perth 800 - a year-long programme of events which celebrates the 800th anniversary of the granting of the Royal Burgh Charter to Perth by King William the Lion of Scotland in 1210.