The MacThomas Index was  prepared to enable those interested in the sept names of the Clan MacThomas to more easily search for a Scottish will or testament. The data was extracted in early 2010 from the official index on the ScotlandsPeople website.

 

An entry for "Thomas" on our Index does not indicate that the person listed is a MacThomas. In the book The History of the Clan MacThomas by Andrew MacThomas of Finegand, 19th Chief of the Clan MacThomas (published 2009) it states that: “only those Thomas's whose ancestors who originally come from Eastern Scotland, particularly the counties of Perthshire, Angus, Aberdeenshire, and Fife are likely to be MacThomases because the name Thomas is claimed also by other Scottish clans.”

Thomson is also a sept name of the Clan MacThomas but, as there were over 5700 entries on ScotlandsPeople these have not included any in this index. In his book the 19th Chief writes:

“ Thomsons tend to come from three distinct areas of Scotland:

a) Those coming originally from the counties in Eastern Scotland mentioned above, who anglicised their names on leaving the Highlands, are likely to be MacThomases.

b) Those originating from Argyll in the west of Scotland are likely to be MacTavishes,

c) Those coming originally from the Borders Region in south east Scotland. Being lowlanders, such Thomsons are not linked to a Highland Clan.”

The foremat of the index is:

- Family name, given name(s), date recorded after lodgement.
- Summary details.
- Type of document(s).
- Name of Court, and a figure in brackets indicating multiple entries.

It should be appreciated that this information has been taken from an index and therefore both indexes may contain transcription errors. Despite his best efforts it is possible that the Sennachie may not have included every relevant entry. Therefore please take this list as a guide and do check the index on the scotlandspeople website.

Not being all that familiar with the spelling of Scottish place names, there may be some errors. If anyone finds such an error could they please contact the Sennachie.

Whilst editing the list the Sennachie noticed that some people with the same family name lived in the same locality. Therefore, he recommends that researchers should scan the full list for a particular family name to see if there are other likely relatives that have been included in the list.

The ScotlandsPeople index includes many multiple entries for the same person. In order to reduce the size of this index, entries that obviously relate to the same person have been brought together. The number of multiple entries are indicated by a number at the end of each entry; for example (2).

It is likely that each entry for the same person will be for different documents. One could be an inventory and another a will. Therefore the researcher should consider obtaining the documents for each entry where there are multiple entries for the same person.

In at least five cases there are two entries that appear similar, but as Sennachie could not say with certainty that the two entries related to the same person, both entries have been included.

For several entries the family name is indicated as Thom (Thoms). In other words both family names were applicable to the same person. These entries have been included under both family names.

Reference details have not been included as this can be obtained by visiting the ScotlandsPeople website.

Copies of all the documents on the file can be ordered from the ScotlandsPeople website. There is a charge for this service.