Scottish Church Records Index

The Scottish Church Records Index (SCRI) is an index of extracted data from microfilmed copies of the Church of Scotland Old Parochial Records (OPRs) held by the FamilySearch Library as well as limited entries from the library’s microfilmed non-conformist registers. The index contains the records of about ten million births, christenings, and marriages from around 1578 to 1854.

Issues

The SCRI is accessed by a disk operating system (DOS) platform. Because current technology no longer supports the DOS platform there is very limited accessibility to the ten million, searchable names available to look up in the database. Furthermore, patrons who are able to access the index at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, are generally unaware that it exists.

FamilySearch has two online databases, Scotland Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950 (SB&B) and Scotland Marriages, 1561-1910 (SM), which are generally used to find the same information. However, these indexes have known data issues and it was not known how completely they should be regarded substitutes.

Objectives of Study

A study was conducted to determine how accurate SCRI reflects the original parish registers by comparing the digital images of the OPRs to the entries in the index to the digital images of the OPRs. A secondary objective was to learn how SCRI compared to the other major indexes, whether the data it contains is more complete than FamilySearch’s SB&B and SM, as well as the searchable index at ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk (SP).

Test Sample

A test sample of records were extracted from the register of baptisms for Lasswade Parish. A five-year period from 1750-1754 was selected from which all entries were extracted. This resulted in 371 records that were searched for in the three indexes: SCRI, SB&B, and SP. SCRI was missing two entries - a 99% accuracy. The SB&B fell short at 68%, only including 253 of the 371 entries. The SP index was 99.7% accurate, missing only one entry. The preliminary study suggested the number of missing records in the SB&B index would be significant, creating a need for the SCRI. It also suggested data trends which could potentially define the parameters surrounding which entries are missing in the SB&B.

Methodology for Data Collection

Data was extracted for the study according to the following procedures:

1. From an alphabetized list of all of Scotland's parishes, each parish was assigned a random number using the random number generator in Microsoft Excel.
2. The random numbers with their associated parishes were arranged in numerical order, creating a new randomized list of parishes.
3. Record extraction began from the parishes at the top of the list and continued until at least two parishes from each of Scotland’s thirty-four historical counties were included in the study. This resulted in 105 participating parishes. The randomization process naturally selected more parishes from counties with higher populations.
4. A random decade ranging between 1700 and 1850 was assigned to each of the selected parishes, specifying the time period from which the data extraction would begin. Where possible, both baptism and marriage data extractions began in the same year. From the start date, fifty records were extracted from the baptism registers while 25 marriages were extracted from the marriage registers. A total of 5203 baptismal records and 2584 marriage records were extracted from the registers.   
5. The data were extracted from the original parish registers in the exact format that it appeared and was entered into a spreadsheet.
6. The entries on the spreadsheet were used to search the appropriate indexes. Each entry was searched for in SCRI, SB&B or SM and SP.
7. All baptism and marriage entries were also searched for in the Family Tree on FamilySearch. If the individual was located in the tree, surname and church ordinance data was collected for the analysis concerning data loss in SB&B and SM.

Results

How accurate is the Scottish Church Record Index?

The analysis of the Scottish Church Records Index shows it to be highly accurate, reflecting the original parish registers at 98.9% for both baptisms and marriages.

Which index conforms most accurately to the original parish registers?

A comparison between the FamilySearch indexes and SCRI showed that SCRI was more complete than the online indexes at FamilySearch. SCRI's 98.9% accuracy bested the 85.6% accuracy found in the SB&B for baptisms and the 83% accuracy for marriage data found in the SM. When comparing SCRI's data to the indexes at Scotlandspeople.gov.uk, they were essentially equals. Data from SP showed their indexes to be 99.2% complete in baptismal records and 97.1% in marriage data. A margin of error was not calculated into the analysis of this study.

Discoveries

Data analysis revealed some interesting trends. From the information gathered in the test sample, it was found that in every instance that an individual was found in the FamilySearch family tree without a surname, that record was omitted from the SB&B database. From the 371 baptismal records extracted from Lasswade parish, 118 were not in SB&B. Of these, 53 records fell into this category of no surname. This data was evident in the test sample only, and not confirmed in the overall study.

A search for Margaret Watson resulted in this example of an extracted record entered into the Family Tree without a surname. Margaret's surname is known only because she is attached to her father.

Another common marker revealed that 54% of the missing entries in the SB&B were records of individuals that had church ordinance work done in the time period surrounding the 1970s. Because the church ordinance dates covered a broad range, to have 54% of the missing records fall into a narrow time period is significant. Although this trend was noted in the information collected from both the test sample and the study, only the results from the study are reported here.

Chart showing the median number of missing records by decade.

Conclusion

Although the data shows interesting trends, the bottom line is that the study verified the SCRI to be more accurate than the other FamilySearch indexes. However, because the SCRI is not readily accessible, the recommended solution when researching at FamilySearch is to search the SB&B or SM indexes first. If the search produces negative results, the SCRI or SP indexes should be consulted.

Accessibility Solutions

1. The Scottish Church Records Index is not compatible with Windows 10 or 11.