Selkirkshire, Scotland Genealogy

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United Kingdom

Scotland

Selkirkshire County

Guide to Selkirkshire County ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Selkirkshire County

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History

Selkirkshire is an inland county in the south of Scotland, bounded on the north by the counties of Peebles and Edinburgh, on the south by Dumfriesshire, on the east by Roxburghshire, and on the west by Peeblesshire. It is 27 miles in length from south-west to north-east and 16 miles in breadth comprising an area of 263 square miles or 168,320 acres.

This county, along with Roxburgh, anciently formed part of the forest of Ettrick, which was a favorite resort of the Scottish sovereigns for the purpose of hunting. About two-thirds of the county is now the property of the Duke of Buccleuch. The county includes nine parishes. Selkirk is the county town and a royal burgh. It also contains part of the market town of Galashiels and numerous small hamlets.

The population of the county in 1851 was 7990.

ScotlandsPeople: An Important Online Source

ScotlandsPeople is one of the largest online sources of original genealogical information. If you are researching UK genealogy, your Scottish ancestry or building your Scottish family tree, they have more than 100 million records to look through.

The comprehensive choice of Scottish records includes:

Statutory Registers Old Parish Registers Catholic Parish Registers

CPR Others Census Valuation Rolls

Soldiers’ Wills Wills & Testaments Coats of Arms

For more detail on record availability, see Guides. For the content guide to what records are on the site, see Guides A-Z. More information on the site, its contents, and instructions for using it can be found in the ScotlandsPeople Wiki article. Indexes may be searched for free, and there is a pay per view fee to see the digitized record.

Census

Many census records have been indexed by surname. Some indexes cover one parish (and will be listed in the Wiki on the parish page) and some indexes are for the county as a whole. The FamilySearch Library has county-wide census placename indexes for Selkirkshire for 1881.  Click here for other census indexes available at the library.

• ScotlandsPeople, index, images, free index, pay per view ($)
• Scotland Census, 1841, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index ($); Findmypast, index ($); Ancestry.com, index ($).
• Scotland Census, 1851, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index ($); Findmypast, index ($); Ancestry.com, index ($).
• Scotland Census, 1861, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index ($); Findmypast, index ($); Ancestry.com, index ($).
• Scotland Census, 1871, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index ($); Findmypast, index ($); Ancestry.com, index ($).
• Scotland Census, 1881, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index ($); Findmypast, index ($); Ancestry.com, index ($).
• Scotland Census, 1891, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index ($); Findmypast, index ($); Ancestry.com, index ($).
• Scotland Census, 1901 at FamilySearch — index.
• Scotland Census, 1901, index & images ($). Also at MyHeritage, index ($); Findmypast, index ($); Ancestry.com, index ($).
• Scotland Census, 1911, index & images ($).

Church Records

• 1658-1919 Scotland Church Records and Kirk Session Records, 1658-1919 at FamilySearch — index
• 1736 - 1990 Scotland Presbyterian & Protestant Church Records, 1736-1990 at FamilySearch — index

Civil Registration or Statutory Registers

For details on information found in statutory registers and other methods of searching them, see Scotland Statutory Registers - Vital Records.

Refer to the ScotlandsPeople Wiki article. Images and Indexes Available at ScotlandsPeople Website ($) Images-Years Indexes Births 1855-1921 ◊ScotlandsPeople Website has indexes to 2021. Marriages 1855-1946 Deaths 1855-1971

Parishes

Some of the Selkirkshire parish records are indexed in Selkirk, Scotland, Extracted Parish Records.
This database is a collection of historical parish registers from the county of Selkirk in the country of Scotland. The records in this collection can range in date from the early 1500s to the mid- to late-1800s. The records include baptisms/christenings, burials, marriages, tombstone inscriptions, obituaries, tax lists, wills, and other miscellaneous types of records. Also included are some records from non-conformist churches. You will find interesting phonetic spelling. Some of the records may be in Latin or even a Welsh or Scottish dialect. Due to the nature of the records and because the records were originally compiled by a third party, it is difficult to absolutely verify the completeness and validity of the data.

Here is a list of the historic parishes for the county of Selkirk.  Click on the parish name to see information about records. Click this link for an outline map of the parishes of Selkirkshire.

Parish	No.
Ettrick	774
Galashiels	775
Kirkhope	776
Roberton	777
Selkirk	778
Yarrow	779

Court Records

The county of Selkirk is in the Sheriff's court of Selkirk (SC63). The Registers of Deeds for Sheriffs' courts contain much valuable information for family history research such as marriage contracts and deeds of 'disposal and settlement' (or assignment) of property, which both give names and relationships. The records are deposited at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh and are not indexed.

Probate Records

Probate records are those which deal with the settlement of the estate of a deceased person. In Scotland, until 1868, a person could only pass movable property such as household furniture, farm equipment, livestock, money and clothes through a document known as a 'testament.' Immovable property such as land was passed to the eldest son or heir through a document known as a 'Service of Heir,' which is not a record of probate. Read more about Scotland Probate Records.

Until 1823, the parishes of Selkirkshire were under the probate jurisdiction of the Commissariot Court of Peebles (CC18). Since 1823, the county has been under the jurisdiction of the Sheriff's Court of Selkirk (SC63).

Probate records for 1513-1901 (including inventories of goods) are indexed online at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. You must register on the website but use of the index to probate records, called 'Wills & Testaments,' is free. You may then purchase a copy of the document or, if the document is before 1823, it will be on microfilm at the FamilySearch Library. To find the microfilm numbers, search in the library catalog for the 'Place' of Selkirk (then select the county) and the subject of 'Probate records.' Then click on the link to the 'Testaments registers.'

Maps

• National Library of Scotland map collection

Poorhouse Records

NOTE: Workhouses in Scotland were commonly known as poorhouses. For more information on Scottish poorhouses, go to the Scotland Poorhouses, Poor Law, Etc page.

There was one workhouse in this county:

• Galashiels Combination

A description with drawings and photos of the workhouse today along with databases of those living there from the 1881 Census are provided on the link above located on the site entitled The Workhouse: The story of an institution... which is owned and operated by Peter Higginbotham.

Societies

Borders Family History Society
52 Overhaugh St
Galashiels
TD1 1DP
Scotland

Scottish Genealogy Society
15 Victoria Terrace
Edinburgh
EH1 2JL
Scotland
Tel. 0131 220 3677
Email: enquiries@scotsgenealogy.com

Websites

• Selkirkshire Resources and help pages on RootsChat Selkirkshire Resources and help pages. (Free).