I don't know how I missed this, but in case others are in the same state of ignorance, I'll post the link.
http://books.google.com/books
If you check "full view books" and search for, say, Aberdeen, you will get lots and lots of out of print books which you can search, browse through and download the whole thing! For instance, I found names of interest in:
Selections from the Records of the Kirk Session, Presbytery, and Synod of Aberdeen By John Stuart, Church of Scotland Synod of Aberdeen
Records of Old Aberdeen, MCLVII-[MCMIII]
which includes, among many things:
Register of Merchant and Trade Burgesses
Valuation Roll of Old Aberdeen 1796
etc. etc.
Another one was: Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire
Edited by David Littlejohn, LL.D.
Many of these (specifically the Aberdeen ones) were published by The Spalding Club, started in 1841 with these goals:
Rules of The Spalding Club (1841)
I.
The name of the Society shall be "The Spalding Club, for the printing of the Historical, Ecclesiastical, Genealogical, Topographical, and Literary Remains of the North-Eastern Counties of Scotland."
II.
The objects of the Club shall be the printing of inedited manuscripts, and the reprinting of works of sufficient rarity and importance to make such reprints desirable.
etc.
Lots of good stuff here (UNLESS, as I suspect, you are looking for something uncomplimentary about someone related to a member of the Spalding Club, which is my case
![[rant]](./images/smilies/rant.gif "Rant"){kind=small}
) I hope they just failed to publish that bit, rather than destroying the whole record Anyway, my personal annoyances in reference to the Spalding Club aside, this is a brilliant resource!
Regards,
Sarah
P.S. I also found many family and county histories from the U.S. and elsewhere that previously had to be searched and ordered by interlibrary loan.
![[book]](./images/smilies/book.gif "[book]"){kind=small}