Scotland Church Records

Church records are an excellent source for accurate information on names, dates, and places of birth, marriage, and death. Most people in Scotland before the mid-nineteenth century are listed in church records. Since civil authorities did not begin registering vital statistics until 1855, church records are the best source of family information before that date.

Understanding Church Organization

The Presbyterian Church (Church of Scotland) has been the 'established' or state church of Scotland since 1690. The organization of the Church of Scotland is as follows:

• The General Assembly is the highest governing body.
• The Synod governs several presbyteries.
• The Presbytery governs several parishes.
• The parish is the lowest governing body.

Each local parish (pairish, parochin) keeps records. The two major record types are parochial or parish registers and kirk session records(see details below under Searching).

It may be necessary to know the parish where your ancestor was born, married, or died so you can search parish registers. If you do not know the parish but know the name of a village or town, you may use a gazetteer to locate the parish. (See the “Gazetteers” section of this outline). The gazetteers provide:

• Maps show parish boundaries to help determine which parish records to search
• Identify neighboring parishes

Nonconformists

Any church that is not the established or state church is referred to as nonconformist. There were two categories of nonconformist churches in Scotland:

• Seceders -- Those who seceded from the established church but were still Presbyterian in form.
• Dissenters -- Those who were not Presbyterian in form, such as Baptist, Methodist, or Catholic.

Nonconformists had their own congregations and kept their own records. They could go to church whereever they wished and were not confined to parish boundaries. However, before 1834, nonconformist ministers were not authorized to perform marriages. After 1834 they could perform marriages if the banns had first been read in the parish church. Total authority was granted in 1855.

For more background information on churches in Scotland, including a historical time-line, see the section on Church History.

Identifying Churches

The following books contain maps that show parish boundaries:

• Civil Parishes and Counties of North East Scotland Showing Overall Dates of Old Parochial Records: Held in Edinburgh and Available Worldwide on Microfilm [Scotland]: Aberdeen and North East Scotland Family History Society[ 198-]. (FHL Map Case 941 E7c)
• The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers, 2nd ed. Chichester, England: Phillimore & Co. Ltd, 1995. (FHL Book 941 E7pa)
• Parish Maps of Scotland. Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1991. (FHL Book 941 E7ch; Fiche 6036350)
• Phillips’ Handy Atlas of the Counties of Scotland 1881. London, England: G. Phillip, 1881. (FHL Book 941 E7p; Film 423175)

Parish outline maps are also available online at http://www.scotlandsfamily.com/parish-maps.htm.

1851 Census of Places of Worship

Popularly called the 1851 Religious Census, this is a resource for identifying what churches existed where in 1851. Read more...

The Union List of Church Records

The staff of the Family History Library has compiled a resource called the Scotland Church Records Union List which strives to identify all pre-1855 churches in Scotland and whether they have surviving records. It also contains brief parish and congregation histories. This information, arranged by county then parish, is available through the Wiki by searching for a county or parish of interest.

Searching

The term “Old Parochial Registers” refers to parish registers kept by the Presbyterian Church (Church of Scotland) from the time the church began keeping registers to the year 1855. The amount of information in registers varies from parish to parish. Later records generally give more complete information than earlier ones. Some early parish registers may be in Latin. Scotland has its own version of English, so you may need to use a dictionary to understand some words. (See the “Language and Languages” section of this outline.)

Most parish registers begin after 1650. Some kirk session (parish court) records begin earlier than the parish registers. Kirk session records may have some christening, marriage, and burial records in them.

Before searching parish registers, the International Genealogical Index (IGI) and the Scottish Church Records databases are important sources to use as well as http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. These serve as indexes to the records. (For more information, see Indexes below.)

Christenings (Baptisms)

Children were usually christened (baptized) within a few days or weeks of birth. Christening records give at least the infant’s name and the christening date. You may find:

Father’s name and occupation
Mother’s first name and often her maiden name
Child’s birth data and legitimacy
Family’s place of residence or street address
Witnesses
Church officials recorded christenings in the parish registers. Therefore, it is necessary to know what church the person belonged to and in what parish the church was located.

Records of civil parishes and a listing of counties of Scotland, including the overall dates of old parochial records, are held in Edinburgh.

Marriages

Marriages usually took place in Scotland in the parish where the bride resided. Marriage records usually give:

Marriage date
Name of Bride
Name of Groom
The records may include:

Marital status (i.e., single, widow, or widower)
Parish of residence of both parties
Groom’s occupation
Bride’s father’s name
Church officials recorded marriages in the parish registers. Therefore, it is necessary to know what church the person belonged to and in what parish the church was located.

Records of civil parishes and a listing of counties of Scotland, including the overall dates of old parochial records, are held in Edinburgh.

Additional Information

Some records show a couple’s “intent to marry,” also called the proclamation of banns. Usually the intent to marry was proclaimed in the parishes of both the bride and groom. The marriage was usually recorded only in the parish in which the marriage actually took place.

Caution: The proclaiming of banns is not proof that the couple married.

Another acceptable practice acknowledged in early Scotland was that of the Handfast.

Burials

Few burial records were kept before 1855. It is important to know that many women, when their husbands died, reverted to their maiden names and were buried under that name. Burial records usually give:

The deceased’s name
Burial date
The burial records may provide:

Age at the time of death
The name of the spouse
The names of the parents
Witnesses

Additional Information

Instead of actual burials, the parish registers often list people who paid mortcloth dues. The mortcloth was a cloth used to cover the body during the burial ceremony. However, these lists do not mention everyone who was buried. The rich who donated the cloths to the church and the very poor did not have to pay to use the mortcloth.

If you cannot find burial records, try to find tombstone inscriptions. (See the Cemeteries section for more information on tombstone inscriptions.)

[Note: Quoad sacraparishes are those set up for ecclesiastical purposes to take care of those people who could not conveniently attend the parish church. To find records of people living in quoad sacra parishes, you must search the surrounding parishes.]

Accessing Records

The Church of Scotland sent all of its known registers up to the year 1855 to the General Register Office (GRO) in Edinburgh (for more information, go online to the GRO website and click on the link for Family Records.) The registers have been microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah and are available at the Family History Library, or can be ordered through Family History Centers.

Click here for a list of Scotland's counties, with links to parishes and their records (including film numbers).

To find microfilm numbers in the Family History Library Catalog, go to the catalog online at http://www.familysearch.org and use the 'Place Search.' Type in your parish and county of interest and click on 'Search,' then click on the link for the parish. From the list of topics, choose 'Church records.' Finally click on the link for the parish registers of the parish.

The Parish List for Scotland shows all of the parishes in alphabetical order, giving the parish number, county in which it is situated, and the date when the Old Parochical Records (Presbyterian Church records) began. 

Additional Information

Scottish parish registers were microfilmed twice. In the first filming, some information in the margins of the registers is not readable on the film. The second filming corrected this problem. The later filming also has frame numbers to help you find an entry that was extracted (see Indexes below).

Indexes

Before searching the original records, search an index.

After the registers were microfilmed, the baptism and marriage information was extracted from the records. The information is available in four important indexes:

• Index to the Old Parochial Registers of Scotland
• Scottish Church Records index
• International Genealogical Index (IGI)
• ScotlandsPeople

Index to the Old Parochial Registers of Scotland

This index is on microfiche at the Family History Library and family history centers.  It consists of two parts:

• Main Index. The main index is organized by county. Within each county are separate indexes for baptisms and marriages. The baptism and marriage indexes are organized once by surname and once by given name.
• Addendum. The addendum contains entries that were missed when the original index was created. It is not organized by county. It has countrywide indexes for baptisms and for marriages arranged alphabetically by surname.

Each index entry contains the event date and place. It also contains a reference you can use to find a microfilm copy of the original parish record. This reference consists of a batch number and possibly a frame number.

• Batch Number. The batch number will help you identify the microfilm that contains the original parish record. Look up the batch number in the Batch Number Index on microfiche (click here for an online version) to find the number of the microfilm that contains the parish register you want.
• Frame Number. Some index entries have a frame number listed in the Miscellaneous column. The frame number identifies the exact frame on the microfilm that contains the page of the parish register you want. If the index entry contains a frame number, it means that the record may be out of chronological order on the microfilm. Therefore, be sure to note the frame number, or you may have to search the entire microfilm frame by frame to find the page you want.

If the entry does not contain a frame number, the record is most likely on the microfilm in chronological order. You can find the page you want by finding the date the event was recorded.

To see if the records of your parish of interest are included in the index, go to the Family History Library Catalog online at http://www.familysearch.org (under the Library tab).  Do a Place search for the parish name and click on the topic of 'Church records - Indexes.'

Scottish Church Records Index

This DOS database version of the Old Parochial Registers of Scotland index is available on computers in the Family History Library and family history centers. For more information about the index, click here. It is not available online.

International Genealogical Index (IGI)

This database is available online at http://www.familysearch.org and contains much of what is included in the other two versions of the index.

If you do not find the people you are looking for in these indexes, consider the following possibilities:

• Your ancestors were not baptized or were not recorded in the records.
• Your ancestors did not belong to the Church of Scotland.
• Names of your ancestors were misread or misspelled when copied from the film. Try spelling variations.
• The records for the time period you need are missing or lost.

ScotlandsPeople

The baptisms and marriages are also indexed on a Scottish government website known as ScotlandsPeople.  See the link to it under 'Additional Web Sites' below.  Read more about ScotlandsPeople. 

Additional Information

For more information about the Old Parochial Registers of Scotland, see the publication Old Parochial Registers Index for Scotland.

Records of civil parishes are held in Edinburgh:

Registrar General
Search Unit
New Register House
Edinburgh EH1 3YT
Scotland
Internet: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/  

Additional Web Sites

Free Web Sites

National Archives of Scotland: http://www.nas.gov.uk

Part of the National Archives of Scotland: http://www.scottishdocuments.com

Access to British archives/catalog/documents: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Paid Web Site

For indexes to and images of the 1841-1901 censuses, church records, civil registration records from 1855 to the present (with some exceptions), and probate records for 1513-1901: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk  

[Return to the Scotland Strategies page.]

Family History Library (FHL); now called, FamilySearch Library (FSL)

International Genealogical Index (FamilySearch) - free

International Genealogical Index (FamilySearch) - free