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When dealing with Scotland (and Ireland too for that matter) the Estate Owner may be Brittish so you may have to research there also.
Administrative Divisions of Scotland
In order to do research in Scotland, you will need to do an extensive amount of research to find out where in Scotland your ancestor came from. As in Irish research, it is almost impossible to ask "My GGGF was born in Scotland, how do I find him?" and expect to get a good answer.
Just like any research, you must start with the known and work to the unknown one generation at a time. This means start with yourself and work backwards, documenting everything, until you have a place in Scotland to begin looking. As we will see, it is also important to know when (the year) you are looking in Scotland for records. January 1, 1855 is an all-important date for Scottish research. This was the date that civil registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages became mandatory by law.
Before we discuss what types of records are available in each of these groups, we should first talk about how to find out in Scotland where to begin your search.
Start with yourself - The journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step. Think about yourself, when were you born, who were your parents, when were you christened, who were your godparents, when did you get married and so on. No one in your family tree will be as well documented as yourself. Document everything you think about, no matter how small a detail or how trivial it seems. When you have completed with everything you can about yourself go on to your parents and answer as many of the same questions as you did for yourself. If your parents are living, talk to them. Ask them about their lives and family. Get all the family stories you can written down or recorded. Ask your parents about your grandparents, everything is important - write it all down. I can not stress this enough, DOCUMENT EVERYTHING - WRITE IT DOWN. You never know when you will run across something that will remind you of something that someone said. If you have it written down you will never have to ask "What was it my mother said about Uncle Joe, I remember she said something about this but I just can't remember what." Don't forget to get copies of important documents.
What is an important document? Anything that will be used in any way shape or form to prove a genealogical fact is important. Birth Certificates, Death Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Obituaries, Confirmation records, newspaper clippings, wills, land records, Divorce decrees, Naturalization Records, Declarations of Intent, School Records and Cemetery Records are all common examples of things you want copies of. A general rule to follow is this: If there is a piece of paper or film that you read that tells you something about an ancestor, get a copy an file it. Joyce has made a habit of scanning documents and saving them on zip disks to preserve the original. This works especially well with pictures.
When you run out of living relatives to talk to, visit an LDS Family History Center if at all possible. The amount of information that the Mormon Church has filmed and makes available for you to look at is phenomenal. I can't think of a single resource that would be of more value to you in your search for your ancestors.
The International Genealogical Index (IGI) is one of the first items that you will want to become familiar with when you search at an FHC. This index is a collection of surnames, submitted by researchers like yourself, and contains birth, christening and marriage dates alphabetized by location. There are two versions of the IGI, Microfiche and Computer. Both have the same information. The IGI is part of the basic setup of an FHC. Every FHC has this in both microfiche and computerized version.
If you want to look at MUNKENBECK in Bavaria you would fist go to the Germany portion of the IGI and then look for MUNKENBECK. Don't forget about the possibility of surname spelling changes. The IGI will have almost all the common variations grouped together so you would find MUNKER listed with MUNKEN and MUNKENBECK. Check them all and write them all down. Better yet you can get a photocopy or even save them to a computer disk if you are using the computerized version of the IGI.
The advantage of the computer version and saving to disk is that it gives you the ability to search more carefully at home when you have more time. Using the MUNKENBECK example above, we saved the information to disk and then at home we used the FIND feature in our word processor to search for the place we knew they came from. We copied all of the ones that met the new search criteria to a new file and were able to clearly show the relationships between all the people that were in the IGI for our location. And if we ever need to do another search for something else, we already have the data to work with.
Census Records are also very valuable to you as a researcher. From the census records you might be able to see when your ancestor was naturalized or get an idea of when they died. If you see an ancestor living with his family in 1870 and only find his family in 1880 at the same place that could be a clue that the person died in that ten year period. You can also use the census to look in the area that your ancestor lived to see if any more of his family lived in the same apartment building, house or just near by.
Mortality Schedules are a listing of persons who died between census. This schedule depended on the person responding to a census taker that a person had died so it will not list everyone who died in the ten-year period between censuses. While it is no where near complete for people who died, it is still worth looking at. Mortality Schedules are also part of the basic setup of an FHC.
There are a lot of other records that you will want to look at when you are at the FHC but they are to numerous to mention here. Ask a volunteer to explain all the types of records they have for you to use. The collections available at an FHC are a topic in itself and would require more time to talk about than we have tonight.
Newspapers of the period contain a lot of useful information for the researcher. We all know that the newspapers contained obituaries but sometimes we forget that the newspaper was the primary means of staying in touch with common events in the 19th century and before. There was no radio or television for people to use so the newspaper listed all information that they could for whatever was happening at the time. Marriage announcements, births, new people arriving in the area, major social functions and who attended, court reports and a lot of other personal events were listed in the newspapers. Don't make the mistake of only looking at the obituaries, look at the personal pages, social columns and legal postings as well. It may very well be that it is in a newspaper that you find the parish of your immigrant ancestor.
Naturalization records provide a lot of information for the researcher also. Not so much the naturalization Certificate itself but the Declaration of Intent that was filed well before the actual naturalization took place. The naturalization Certificate typically was a document that certified that the applicant renounced his or her allegiance to the King/Queen of Great Britain. The Declaration of Intent gave information such as exactly where in Scotland your ancestor was from, at least to the town and county level. From there the list of parishes is a lot more manageable.
Other sources of information include Family Bibles, Cemetery Records, Headstone Inscriptions, Land records, Tax records and so on as mentioned before. Make sure you look at everything possible to determine where and when in Scotland your ancestor came from.
ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS IN SCOTLAND
In this section we will describe the various administrative divisions of Scotland. This is important to you as you do research because you will find that some of these divisions will help you locate where exactly in Scotland your ancestors were from and where the records on your ancestors are actually to be found.
DEFINITIONS OF JURISDICTIONS
Hamlet: A settlement with a population of less than 50 people. Hamlets did not keep genealogical records.
Village: A settlement with a population of more than 50 people. Villages did not keep genealogical records.
Burgh or Borough: A town incorporated by a charter which gives special privileges or jurisdiction.
Parish or Parochin: An area of land that includes several hamlets or villages. These areas were created for ecclesiastical reasons and the inhabitants were offered the services of a minister. The government later used the parishes for civil purposes. Parishes kept most of the genealogical records for Christenings, marriages, and deaths that occurred within its boundaries.
Quoad Sacra Parish: When a large parish is sub-divided into separate places for worship to make things more convenient for the people the new "parish" is called a Quoad Sacra Parish. The genealogical records are kept by the main parish and NOT by the Quoad Sacra parish.
Kirk Session: This is the lowest level governing body of the church. It consisted of the minister and at least two elders. The Kirk Session handled matters that are not defined as the sole responsibility of the minister such as disciplining church members for misconduct.
Presbytery: The next level of church governing body. It is between the Kirk Session and the Synod. It is made up from of the ministers of all the parishes within its boundaries, the Professors of Divinity of any university within its boundaries (if they are ministers) and one elder from each Kirk Session. The Presbytery approves and appoints ministers to see the gospel is preached, to observe the actions of the ministers and act as judge for all matters referred to it from the Kirk Sessions.
Synod: The next level of church governing body between the Presbytery and the General Assembly. It consists of members of Presbyteries within its boundaries. It meets twice a year to hear problems referred to it from the Presbyteries. And review the proceedings of the Presbyteries.
General Assembly: The highest governing body of the church in Scotland. It consists of ministers and elders elected by the Presbyteries. The General Assembly hears and decides cases referred to it by the Synods.
Commissariat: In pre-reformation days the various Bishops in Scotland delegated much of their jurisdictions to Commissaries (Commissioners). In 1563, these were established as courts and are referred to as Commissariats. They have control over the registration of wills and inventories.
County: An area that consists of many Hamlets, Villages and Parishes and is used for governing purposes. There are 34 counties in Scotland. A county in Scotland is also called a Shire (PerthSHIRE, ArgyllSHIRE).
Sheriffdom: A Sheriff is the chief officer in a county or Shire. And has civil and criminal jurisdiction. The area he controls is called a Sheriffdom.
CHANGES MADE IN 1975
The government reorganized the counties into areas known as REGIONS in 1975. The 34 Counties were organized into 9 Mainland and 3 Island Regions. The creation of the Regions should not affect your research as no records were transferred out of parishes into the new Regions. The new regions are as follows:
BORDERS: - Counties of Berwick, Peebles, Roxburgh, Selkirk and a small section of Midlothian.
CENTRAL: - Counties of Clackmannan, most of Sterling and parts of Perth and West Lothian.
DUMFRIES and GALLOWAY: - Counties of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright and Wigtown.
FIFE: - County of Fife
GRAMPIAN: - Counties of Aberdeen, Kincardine, Banff and most of Moray.
HIGHLAND: - Counties of Caithness, Nairn, Sutherland and most of counties Argyll, Inverness, Moray, Ross and Cromarty
LOTHIAN: - County of East Lothian, most of Midlothian and West Lothian.
STRATHCLYDE: - Counties of Bute, Dumbarton, Lanark, Renfrew, Ayr and parts of Argyll and Stirling.
TAYSIDE: - Counties of Angus, Kinross and parts of Perth.
ISLAND REGIONS
ORKNEY: - County of Orkney
SHETLAND: - County of Zetland (also known as Shetland)
WESTERN ISLANDS: - Islands in the counties of Inverness, Ross and Cromarty.
CHANGES DUE TO 1995 REORGANIZATION
Following the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1994, Scotland was divided into 29 unitary authorities and 3 island authorities. They are as follows:
Aberdeen City
Aberdeenshire
Angus
Argyll and Bute
Clackmannan
Dumbarton and Clydebank
Dumfries and Galloway
Dundee (City of)
East Ayrshire
East Dunbartonshire
East Lothian
East Renfrewshire
Edinburgh (City of)
Falkirk
Fife
Glasgow (City of)
Highland
Inverclyde
Midlothian
Moray
North Ayrshire
North Lanarkshire
Perthshire and Kinross
Renfrewshire
Scottish Borders
South Ayrshire
South Lanarkshire
Stirling
West Lothian
Islands
Orkney
Shetland
Western Isles
A QUICK WORD ON MAPS USAGE
Along with knowing the various administrative divisions of Scotland, or any other country for that matter, it is very important that you have access to a good map of the area that you are researching.
As you have seen, some of the jurisdictions kept records and some did not. If you know an area where your ancestors lived and you can't find records in that parish then you can look at neighboring parishes that kept records.
You know the parish that your ancestor lived in but can't find any records. By referring to a map that shows mountain ranges and rivers you can determine the general terrain that the parish they lived in was like. If that parish was in a narrow valley, it would be more likely that they attended church in a neighboring parish up or down the length of the valley rather than over the steep side of the ridge.
There are two points I would like to bring out before we get into the actual contents of the records and they are:
1. Events are indexed by the date the registration occurred not by the date of the event itself. What this means is that if a birth occurred on December 31, 1866 you would need to look in the 1867 books to find it.
2. In the USA when we date things we use a Month, Day, Year format so 9/10/66 would be read as September 10, 1966. In the British system (Irish also) the format is different. They use the Day, Month, Year format so 9/10/66 would be October 9, 1966. This is very important to remember when you are copying information down and recording it in your files.
Scottish Records After 1855
So you are researching in Scottish Records after January 1, 1855. You are in for a real treat!! The records are a dream for the genealogist
BIRTH RECORDS
1855 Birth Certificate has
The full name of the child and the sex;
Date and time of birth;
Address at birth;
Name, age, place of birth (and if registered there) and occupation of the father;
Name, age, place of birth (and if registered there) and maiden surname of mother;
Usual address of the parents;
Date and place of parents marriage;
Number and sex of children born prior to this child and if these children were still alive;
Name of the informant and relationship of the informant to the child (if any).
Alternative Birth Records
Marine register of births (from 1855) - Certified returns received from the Registrar-General in respect to births on British registered vessels at sea if the father was Scottish subject.
Register of Births in Foreign Countries (1860 - 1965) - A record compiled by the General register office relating to the births of children of Scottish parents. The entries were made based on the information supplied by the parties concerned after due consideration of the evidence.
Service Records (from 1881) - Include the Army returns of births of Scottish persons at military stations abroad during the period 1881 - 1959. After 1959 the service departments register recorded the same information for persons whose normal residence was Scotland, who are serving in, or employed by, HM Forces including the families of members of the Forces.
MARRIAGE RECORDS
1855 Marriage Certificate has
The date and place of marriage;
Which religion;
Bridegrooms name, rank and occupation, Birthplace, where and when birth registered, age and marital status (single or widower), whether 2nd or 3rd marriage, children by each of the former marriages; Usual residence at time of marriage; name and occupation of father and if he were deceased at the time of the marriage; Name and Maiden name of mother and if she were deceased at the time of the marriage;
Same information on Bride as on Bridegroom;
Name of officiating minister or priest and names (and sometimes addresses) of witnesses.
Alternative Marriage Records
Register of marriages in Foreign Countries (1860 - 1965)
Service records (from 1881)
DEATH RECORDS
1855 Death Certificate has
Names of the deceased;
Date and time of death;
Address at time of death;
Age and occupation;
Name of spouse if married;
Names of any children, their ages at the time of the death, the children's ages and when they died if they died prior to this death;
Name and occupation of the deceased father and if he was deceased on the date of this death;
Name and maiden surname of mother and if she was deceased on the date of this death;
Cause of death and name of medical attendant;
Burial place and name of undertaker;
Signature of informant and if relative of deceased.
Alternative Death Records
Marine Register of Deaths (from 1855)
Register of Deaths in a Foreign Country (1860 - 1965)
Service Records (from 1881)
WAR REGISTERS (from 1899)
There are three of these: South African War (1899 - 1902); World War I (1914 - 1918) and World War II (1939 - 1945). All three of these records are arranged in chronological and alphabetical order.
CENSUS RETURNS AFTER 1855
The first census taken after 1855 was the 1861 Census. Census information was collected every 10 years. The latest census record available for viewing is the 1891 census because of the 100-year Privacy of Information Law in Scotland. While the information collected on each of the census is slightly different you would be able to see
The Parish,
Quoad Sacra Parish,
Town, Village,
Street address,
Name and surname of each person,
Relation to Head of family,
Marital Condition,
Age (divided column for males and females),
Rank, Profession or Occupation
Where born
Number of Children age 5 - 15 attending school
Number of rooms with one or more windows
Alternative Census Records
Census, Merchant Navy - conducted in 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891. This census contains a list of persons on board merchant vessels that were in Scottish ports on the night the census was taken. Information from these census include:
What port
Name and type of ship and to which port she belonged
Name and Surname of each person on board
Age
Marital status
Place of birth
Census, Royal Navy - conducted in 1881, 1891 - listed drill ships and cutters in Scottish ports and recorded the usual census information.
Now is the time when your research really needs to be in order. One of the first places you will want to look at is the Old Parish Registers (OPRs). These records contain just what you might expect in a modern day parish record. They will contain Birth, Death and Marriage information for all the parish members. Other sources will include Kirk Session records, Military Records, Monument Inscriptions and Newspapers. We will take them in order but first I must stress again � you MUST have your research in order and know where and when you are looking in order to use the effectively.
INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX
This was a list of births, and marriages in Surname order listed chronologically. This listing also grouped like sounding names together, so you would find SMYTH listed close to SMITH. From this list you should look for the surnames you are researching and copy down every entry for that surname. Previously we said that you could copy the info to computer disk to analyze it later at home. Hopefully, you have done that by now.
Whether you have copied the information down on paper or have it on a computer disk, you now need to find all the people with the surname you are looking for and locate them by parish. Once you have done that you can look and see what time frames you are researching. The parish will be critical to your success from this point on. You MUST know the parish.
OLD PARISH RECORDS
The OPRs are sorted and indexed by events. In other words there is an index for christenings and another for marriages. In order to use these records you would first find the parish that your ancestor lived in and the approximate time frame. Next you would look through the index to find out where and when in the records the information is and finally look at the entry itself and record all the information about the birth or marriage,
OPRs were kept by he session clerk or the minister of the parish concerned. The vary in content and accuracy because there was no standard for what had to be recorded for the events. They are also very old and faded and hard to read, but they are valuable because they may be one of the only records you can use to trace your ancestors. The earliest records go back to about 1500.
The real challenge with the OPRs is going to be reading the old writing and deciphering what it is saying. Some of the information can be hard to read because of the old script used. The records were written in the Scot script and not in Latin as you might suspect. Realizing this you must learn to know what to look for with the old script. You will probably see letters that look like an f without the cross n the middle. This is actually the letter "S". if you see "ff" this could actually be the capital letter "F". In order to get better acquainted with this type of script, start with the newest records and work backwards in time to the earliest. This way you will become more accustomed to reading the old script before tackling the really old records.
KIRK SESSION RECORDS
These records were compiled by the Kirk Session which had jurisdiction within the parish over matters tat were not left to the minister alone. The records contain various kinds of information. Sometimes you will find information about births, deaths and marriages that were not recorded in the Parish Record by the minister. They may also contain recordings of residences and other items to give you more information about your family. You should always look through these records whenever you are looking through the OPRs in order to get the fullest amount of information. The Kirk Session Records may also contain parish census information, Certificate of Membership for people moving out of the parish and burial information.
Kirk Session Records cover the same time frame as the OPRs, and sometimes earlier, but are not indexed so you will need to search through them year by year. While this may seem to be a time consuming task, it may be the only record that gives you the information you need for your search.
MILITARY RECORDS
The military records for Scotland start in about 1707. Before that time there was no standing military force at all. If the need for troops came up then the landowners would raise an Army for the immediate need and dismiss it when the fighting was over.
1707 was the year of the Union of Scotland and England and the military forces of Scotland came under English law and control. In general you may be able to find information about births, deaths, marriages, residences and so far from these records. In order to search through them you will need to find the Regiment that your ancestor served in from other sources.
MONUMENT INSCRIPTIONS
Monument Inscriptions are an important source of information for Death and Burial information. Some inscriptions exist for the 1600's but most deal with burials in the 1700's, 1800's and 1900's. The inscriptions normally contain Name of the deceased, date of death and possibly burial date. They may also contain the names of parents and other family records.
Monument Inscriptions are indexed by parish. So if you were to look for them at the FHC, you would look in the Locality Catalogue under Scotland, (County), (Parish), Cemeteries.
The largest number of burials in Scotland before 1800 were in cemeteries associated with the Established Church, even if the deceased was not a member of that parish. While the information on the tombstone may not always be 100% accurate, it will always give you clues on where to look next.
NEWSPAPERS
Newspapers of the time are invaluable to the genealogical researcher. Besides obituaries they also contain birth, marriage and notices of death. Newspapers were a much more important means of communicating information about the surrounding area than they are today. Very often it was used to publish important events in the lives of the families, celebrations that were held or even the hiring of a new school teacher.
Searching in newspapers is a time consuming process as they are not indexed at present so you would have to go through them one issue at a time to see if there is any information about your family.
OTHER SOURCES
There are a lot of other sources, to numerous to mention, available for you to research in Scotland. The ones we talked about tonight are just some that you should be able to start using right away.
For a good basic guide on how to research in Scotland, I recommend that you visit a Family History Center and order the LDS publication "A BASIC RESEARCH GUIDE - SCOTLAND". This should cost around $1.00 and is a very good guide.
The LDS publishes a Research Guide for Scotland. I can be ordered from any Family History Center and is very reasonably priced. The last time I checked it was about $1.00. This guide tells you more about the records we discussed and some of the others that we did not mention. If you get nothing else, this guide is worth purchasing.
"Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry" by Kathleen B. Cory - This is an excellent book on Scottish research that describes in detail the records that are available and even helps you map out how to research your family. The book has quite a few illustrations that show you what the records actually look like. This book also covers topics like Heraldry, Clans and Tartans and the importance of naming patterns. There are five appendixes including A Glossary of occupations, terms, etc.; A list of useful addresses; A list of Parishes, Counties; A recommended Book List and Sample forms for researchers.
"Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry" by Kathleen B. Cory is available from the Genealogical Publishing Company in Baltimore, MD.
"A Topographical Index Of Scotland" by Samuel Lewis was first published in 1846. This book gives the location, size and description of the Islands, Counties, Cities, Towns, Parishes and principal Villages in Scotland. This is a two volume set available from the Genealogical Publishing Company in Baltimore, MD. Entries in this book are alphabetical. If all you know is a town name you can use this book to determine what county and possibly what parish the town is in.
"Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors" by Cecil Sinclair is another excellent source for Scottish research. This book describes how to do Scottish research and what types of records are available to use. The price of this book is about 7 pounds-sterling or $15.00, not counting shipping. It may be available in the States but I have never looked for it here. It is available from:
HMSO Publications Centre
PO Box 276
London, England SW8 5DT
We will just list some web sites about Scottish research here and let you discover what is on each at your own pace.
SFS Scottish Genealogy Resources
http://www.demon.co.uk/sfs/genres.htm
Scotland: Gateway to Scotland
http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/scotland/scotland.html
GRO(Scotland) - New Register House
http://www.open.gov.uk/gros/nrh.htm
Scotland: Genealogy
http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/scotland/genealogy.html
Welcome to the General Register Office for Scotland
http://www.open.gov.uk/gros/groshome.htm
Scottish Association of Family History Societies
http://www.taynet.co.uk/users/scotgensoc/
And one of the best Links to Genealogical information for the United Kingdom and Ireland on the Internet
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - UK Sites
http://www.cyndislist.com/uksites.htm
All of the above web sites have links to other areas on the web you can search for more information.
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