Looking for your own records
If you are looking for your own school records, you will need to contact the archives so that we can check to see what records we hold. To prove your identity you will need to provide us with a copy of valid ID (e.g. a driving licence or a passport), your full name at the time you were at school (if it has changed you will need to supply evidence of this, e.g. a marriage certificate), and the names of the school(s) you attended along with when you roughly attended them (don’t worry if you don’t have exact dates, it just helps us know roughly where to start looking). Few records are indexed or digitised, so please give as much information as you think will help our searches.
As school records containing personal data are closed for 100 years, you will not be able to look through registers from this period. We will provide you with a transcript or copy of any records we find. In most cases the only records we have for schools which mention pupils are registers of admissions and registers of lefts. Please note that we do not hold records for every school.
Please note that some records are open to the public, if they were previously publicly available. This includes items such as school magazines, lists of prizewinners and newscuttings. As these records are open, we will not necessarily search them for your name. You are welcome to visit the archives to look through any relevant open records – please see the relevant catalogues to see what records we hold.
Looking for people in records less than 100 years ago
Due to the personal data that school records contain, records relating to individual pupils are closed for 100 years. If you are looking for your own records, please see above.
If you are looking for the records of someone who is deceased, you can apply for their records. You will need to provide a copy of their death certificate. If not recorded on the certificate we also need to have their date of birth, and full name at the time they attended school. If you know which school(s) they attended, please let us know. If not, it will help us if you can tell us where they lived, either specific addresses or areas of Dundee. If their name at the time they were at school is not recorded on their death certificate, then we may require evidence of this.
Looking for records over 100 years old
These records are open and available for everyone to view. You can view lists of what records are available here. Find out more about visiting the archives.
All admission registers up to 1924 have been indexed by volunteers at Dundee City Archives. You can search indexes on the Friends of Dundee City Archives website.
We aim to update this index every few years, so there may be a year or two that have not been indexed but are available to view. Please contact us for more information.
Please note that records do not survive for every school.