Scotland Church Records: Difference between revisions

Scotland Church Records (view source)

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 ''For information about records for non-Christian religions in Scotland, go to the [[Scotland Religious Records|Religious Records]] page.''
-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.&nbsp;
+Church records are an excellent source for accurate information on names, dates, and places of birth, marriage, and death. Since Civil Registration in Scotland began in 1855, they are a major source for genealogical research in Scotland before 1855.
 == Online Resources ==
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 Go to the [[Scotland Strategies for Locating Births, Marriages and Deaths|Scotland&nbsp;Research Strategies]] page.
-== Understanding Church Organization  ==
+== Understanding the Records  ==
-[[Image:United Presbyterian Church at Stonehouse, Scotland.jpg|thumb|right|403x600px|United Presbyterian Church at Stonehouse, Scotland.jpg]]The Church of Scotland (a Presbyterian church) has been the recognised national church of Scotland since 1690; it is not a state or "established" church (although that latter description has found its way into various official documentation such as marriage registers) and that independence from the state was eventually acknowledged in the Church of Scotland Act 1921. The organization of the Church of Scotland is as follows:
+[[Image:United Presbyterian Church at Stonehouse, Scotland.jpg|thumb|right|403x600px|United Presbyterian Church at Stonehouse, Scotland.jpg]]
+=== Church of Scotland ===
+The Church of Scotland (a Presbyterian church) has been the recognised national church of Scotland since 1690; it is not a state or "established" church (although that latter description has found its way into various official documentation such as marriage registers) and that independence from the state was eventually acknowledged in the Church of Scotland Act 1921. The organization of the Church of Scotland is as follows:
 *The General Assembly is the highest&nbsp;organizational body and serves as the&nbsp;final ecclesiastical court of appeals.
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 *A chapelry or chapel of ease is a small church which serves a distant part of a parish.
-Each local parish (parochin) keeps records.&nbsp;The two major record types are ''parochial or parish registers'' and ''kirk session records.''&nbsp; See details below under '''Old Parochial Registers (OPR'''), or go to [[Scotland Established (Presbyterian) Church Records|Scotland Established (Presbyterian) Church Records]].
+The two main types of records are '''Old Parochial Registers (OPR)''' and '''Kirk Session Records'''. OPR's list baptisms, marriages and burials. Kirk Session Records are the records of the Church Courts. They often list information relevant to genealogy.
-The [http://www.nas.gov.uk/ National Archives of Scotland] maintains these records. [http://www.nas.gov.uk/onlineCatalogue/. A more detailed description of each of these record types is available online at the University of Glasgow (Archive Services).]
-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. For more information, read the article [[Scotland Gazetteers|Scotland Gazetteers]]. Gazetteers may provide:
 *Descriptions of parishes can be found at [http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/ Genuki.org.uk].
 *Maps showing parish boundaries to help determine which parish records to search
 *Lists of neighboring parishes can be found at [http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/ Genuki.org.uk].
-'The Scottish Congregational Ministry 1794-1993' by Rev. Dr William D. McNaughton, 1993 includes the names of ministers throughout Scottish church entries.&nbsp;The following works by the same author cover Scotland in various sections from c. 1790-1870, give history of churches and those involved.
-*Early Congregational Independency in Shetland' 2005
-*Early Congregational Independency in Orkney' 2006
-*Early Congregational Independency in the Highlands and Islands and the North-East of Scotland' 2003
-*Early Congregational Independency in Lowland Scotland Volume I' 2005
-*Early Congregational Independency in Lowland Scotland Volume II' 2007
 === Nonconformists ===
-Churches which are not part of the Church of Scotland are often referred to as nonconformist although this word's correct use does not have valid application in a country with no state church and properly applies only in England where the Church of Scotland is a non-conformist church. There were two categories of so-called nonconformist churches in Scotland:
+Churches which are not part of the Church of Scotland are often referred to as nonconformist. There were two categories of so-called nonconformist churches in Scotland:
 *Seceders -- Those who seceded from the main church but were still Presbyterian in form.