Sutherland, Scotland Genealogy

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United Kingdom

Scotland

Sutherland County

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

Sutherland County

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History

Sutherland is a county in the north of Scotland, bounded on the north by the North Sea, on the east and north-east by Caithness-shire, on the south by Ross-shire and the Firth of Dornoch, on the south-east by the Moray and Dornoch Firths, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean.  It is about 62 miles in length and 49 miles in breadth, comprising an area of 2875 square miles or 1,840,000 acres, of which about 32,000 are inlets of the sea, forming salt-water lochs.

The proprietor of nearly the whole county is the Duke of Sutherland whose ancestors have been the proprietors of the territory since the 13th century.

The county, which contains thirteen parishes, includes the royal burgh and county-town of Dornoch, and several villages on the coasts. The population of the county in 1851 was 24,782.

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 Sutherland 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

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

Parish	No.		Parish	No.
Assynt	44		Strathy	502
Clyne	45		Golspie	51
Creich	46		Kildonan	52
Dornoch	47		Lairg	53
Durness	48		Loth	54
Eddrachillis	49		Rogart	55
Farr	50		Tongue	56

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:

• Sutherland Combination

A description with drawings and photos of the workhouse and almshouses 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

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

The Highland Archive Centre
Bught Road
Inverness
IV3 5SS
Scotland
Tel. +44 (0)1463 256444
Email: archives@highlifehighland.com

Websites

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