Breaking Down those Brickwalls: Designations

To trace our Scottish family tree we begin by searching for birth, marriage and death certificates. Before 1855 we use church records but all too often we cannot find the records we need.

There are many reasons for ‘missing’ baptism records. It may be that the register was lost or damaged. By the mid 1800s, there were many different church denominations in Scotland, meaning you may need to look at many separate registers, not all of which are available online. To find out how to do this, visit our Learning Zone: Births, Marriages and Deaths in Scotland before 1855.

Even when you make a careful search, however, it may be that no baptism survives and you seem to have hit a brickwall in your research.

What we need to do now is be more imaginative, looking beyond the obvious records. In Scotland, a ‘designation’ is given in certain types of documents, particularly legal records. This designation was given to distinguish one person from another. At a time when many people did not know their date of birth and they certainly didn’t have a National Insurance (or Social Security number) or a postcode (or zip code), something was needed to identify the person mentioned in a document.

What is included in a Designation?

Generally, a designation will include the person’s name, residence and occupation. In the case of a child (and some adults) the father’s name may also be given along with his occupation and residence (it may also be stated that he is deceased). This information could help you get over a brick wall and continue on with your research.

Did you know?

A designation is the addition or description of a person. It is necessary in legal documents to design or identify the parties in such a manner as to distinguish them from all others; and in practice this was done by setting down the title of nobility, or the name and surname of the party, with his addition or description, by his estate, profession, trade, or place of residence. In certain instances it would also include the name of the party’s father.

The National Records of Scotland

Where do we find designations?

Legal records always give a designation. These may be criminal court records, wills and ordinary (civil) court records (such as ‘Actions of Affiliation and Aliment’) and sasine records (property records).

No matter what social class our ancestors were, there may be a legal record that survives and this could be the key we need to unlock our family tree.

Finding legal records

Wills are an easy place to start. Many Scottish wills are available on ScotlandsPeople and the index is free to search. You can search many sasine records (property records) in the National Records of Scotland.


We have indexed many Sheriff Court records and we update our index most weeks. You can search these for free (with no login or subscription) and just order the entry you need. Our index includes the designation. Click to see the entry for Agnew versus Carter in 1859, notice the pursuer is named as “Jane Agnew, daughter of and residing with John Agnew, Mason, Knockbrex, Penninghame”. We have also indexed some sasine records and deeds and we plan to add more.

Although prison registers do not generally give a ‘designation’ they do give an age and birthplace which can be helpful. The registers also tell us which court heard the case, and when the court records survive these give a designation. When you order a prison record from us we will tell you if there is (or may be) a corresponding court record. In fact generally, the person’s address is sufficient to identify which ‘John Smith’ we are talking about.

What to do next

Look over your family tree brick walls, which legal records might your family appear in? Did they own property, or were they more likely to end up in prison? Is there an illegitimate child in the family? Could there be a Sheriff Court record? Did your ancestor learn a trade? Then there may be an apprenticeship record.

Did you know?

Small words mean a lot!

‘Or’

Historically women were always recorded with their maiden surname in Scots legal documents. By the 19th century, it was the usual practice to record women with both maiden and married surnames in legal records. Let’s say our ancestor was born Margaret Scott and married James Thomson: we would expect to find her recorded as ‘Margaret Scott or Thomson’.

‘At’, ‘In’ and ‘Of’

The way the residence of a person is recorded is also important. The small words ‘at’ ‘in’, and ‘of’ all mean very specific things.

You can see the following example here on our website. “Aeneas McPherson of Flichity & Lachlan McIntosh in Nessendally” - Aeneas is described as ‘of Flichity’, the small word ‘of’ (instead of saying 'in' or 'at') shows that Aeneas McPherson had heritable possession of Flichity. This is a clue to more records. Lachlan, on the other hand, is described as “ Lachlan McIntosh in Nessendally” meaning Lachlan was a tenant of those lands.

In other records a person may be described as ‘at’ a place, this would indicate they were an occupier, not a tenant or owner.


Understanding these small, but significant words, can unlock your family tree. If you need more help just get in touch.

Illegitimate Ancestor? Try the Sheriff Court!

Thanks to our wonderful volunteer, Margaret Hamilton, we now have an extensive index to ‘paternity’ cases found in the Sheriff Courts of southern Scotland.

What are we indexing

We are indexing cases where the mother of a child took the father to court for aliment, to help her provide for the child. In these cases the child is almost always illegitimate. The mother had to prove who the father was: It’s genealogical gold dust!

See our help pages for more information on how the process worked.

Coverage

At the moment we have indexed the following courts for the following years:

Dumfries 1830-1914

Duns 1830-1914

Jedburgh 1831-1892

Peebles 1837-1914

Selkirk 1830-1914

Update September 2014

Hawick 1894-1914

Kirkcudbright 1748-1765, 1830-1914 (excluding the years 1877-78, 1890-91 and 1907-09 which are missing from the original register)

Stranraer 1887-1914
Wigtown 1830-1914
Edinburgh 1830-1836

Searching

Searching our online collections is absolutely free and there is no need to register. If you wish to keep up-to-date you can subscribe to my newsletter.

You can search by any one or a combination of the following search fields:

Mother’s forename

Mother’s surname

Father’s forename

Father’s surname

Year of birth

Year of case

Tip

If a child is recorded in the census with a different surname to the mother it is probably the father’s surname, use it to narrow down the search results.

Search Results

Our online index gives comprehensive results:

Pursuer's Name, Occupation and Residence

Defender's Name, Occupation and Residence

Year the Child was born

Year of the Case

Name of Court

Seeing the full record

The index should be enough to identify records relating to your family. You can then order the decree from us for just five pounds. For the research fee of five pounds we transcribe the entry and email that to you along with digital images* of the decree.

It may also be possible to find additional court material, such as witness testimonies. If it is possible in your case we will advise you of this when we send you the transcription of the decree.

*Please note that any images given to you by Scottish Indexes of National Records of Scotland documents are provided for your own personal research and may not be published [including online] without the relevant licences/permissions being granted.

Get Your Free Index to Quaker Marriages and Births in Scotland 1647-1874

Update - December 2014

You can now search Quaker births and marriages on our new website www.scottishindexes.com

With this months issue of Your Family Tree Magazine (Issue 140) not only will you receive an issue bursting with useful information but you will also receive two free downloads from Maxwell Ancestry!

• Index to Scottish Quaker Births 1647-1874
• Index to Scottish Quaker Marriages 1656-1873

Subscribe to Your Family Tree Magazine online today to make sure you will receive your free downloads. This isn’t a one-off either, they give a free download away every month!

About the Indexes

The Indexes to Marriages and births is taken from an alphabetical list of marriages and births recorded in the Digest of Quaker (The Religious Society of Friends) Births, Marriages and Deaths of Scotland, 1647-1874. The Digest can be viewed in the National Records of Scotland (NRS): their reference for this volume is CH10/1/64.

The digest was originally made around 1867 but seems to have been updated until about the mid-1870s. It was created by copying entries from individual meeting registers into one alphabetical volume. The original individual volumes can also be consulted in the NRS.

Marriages

Our index includes the name of the individual, name of their spouse, the year of marriage, monthly or other meeting record location, and the page number in the Digest.

The Digest contains the following headings:

Book, Page, Names of Parties, When and where Married, Residence and Description, Parents’ Names, Residence and Description, Monthly or other Meeting Record.

Before the digest of marriages starts properly there are two pages of marriages which “have been either considered irregular or to have been but imperfectly recorded”. These pages been included in this index; an example of this type of record is given below.

Book: 17

Page: 3

Names: Ormston Jane, Waldie John

Date of Minute: 1749, Novr. 26

Description: [Jane Ormston] daur of Charles (merchant) of Kelso: Fewar and Commissary Clerk

Information given: At Kelso Monthly Meeting a letter was read from Jane Ormston acknowledging her having married contrary to the Rules of the Society. {The first child of this Marriage is recorded in the Parish Register as born 5th September 1750.}

Monthly Meeting or other records: Kelso Mo Mg

Births

The Digest contains 1134 births and has the following headings:

Book, Page, Name [of child], Date and Place of Birth, Parents’ Names, Residence and Description, Monthly or other Meeting Record.

A Visit to the Carlisle Archive Centre

When researching it’s always vital to look at original records if you can. This principle was proved true yesterday when we made a trip to carry out some research at the Carlisle Archive Centre to help a client overcome a brick wall.

Using online resources, such as the IGI, we had found marriage entries. As this time we were researching in England, so we knew we were unlikely to find parents’ names on a pre-1837 marriage entry in the parish registers. Why look at the original then? If you live a distance from an archive with the records you need it may be a corner you decide to cut.

In England the registers of births and marriages before civil registration began in 1837 are very good, especially when seen in comparison to many Scottish Old Parish Records. One reason we say they are ‘good’ is that they are relatively complete. Also there are “Bishop’s Transcripts”, which were copies of the parish registers sent to the Bishop annually. This means even if the original has been lost, in many cases a copy remains. Of course unlike Scotland you rarely get mothers’ maiden names appearing on baptism entries, but we can’t have everything can we!

Things to remember:

• Whilst a contemporary source the Bishop’s Transcripts are a copy of the original register.
• An original post-1754 parish marriage entry will have the signatures (or marks, if they could not write) of the couple, and in the case of signatures these can be used as comparisons with other documents.
• There are at least two witnesses to a marriage. Sometimes, although by no means always, it is a family member, which can give a vital clue to overcome a brick wall.
• The original parish register entry may mention a farm name, or a small village within the parish. All these added details help to narrow down your search.
• Errors are made in indexing, even the best indexing projects will contain mistakes. Look at the original if you can.

Carlisle Archive Centre

It’s great now that more and more parish register material is becoming available online. Sites like Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk have opened up genealogy to people across the world and often give access to images of original documents. They are not the only good websites though, there are many smaller sites operated by local people across England helping you to dig into your past.

Local Archives too can help by mailing you copies of the original parish registers. The local family history society can not only offer expertise but may also have copies of the registers on microfilm.

So don’t settle for a transcription, especially if you have a brick wall in your tree: always look at the original if you can!

As I said we went to the Carlisle Archive Centre yesterday. It’s a relatively new building, although it’s joined to an older building.

Carlisle Archive Centre

As you can see from my photos the archive itself is bright and airy, very comfortable for research. There are plenty of microfilm readers and a good number of machines to make copies from. Copies from microfilm are fifty pence each and you pay at the desk when you are finished.

The archive has two sections: the first room is for looking at books, microfilm etc., and the second is for looking at original records. Both have large tables so you can lay your notepad and laptop out without bothering other users!

They have plenty of lockers in the reception and you can use your County Archive Research Network reader’s ticket that you may have from another county archive.

They allow digital photography which is excellent, although they do make a charge:

1 Day licence: £8

1 Week licence: £20

1 Month licence: £45

1 year licence:  £90

1 year licence (corporate users): £140

They say it’s to “... help generate the income we need to protect front line services.”

I noticed a number of help sheets around the room and everything was very neatly labeled so if you’re new to genealogy there will be plenty of information to help you. The staff too were very friendly, explaining how the archive works succinctly!

All in all, five stars for Carlisle Archive!

Finding births in the NRS - How the professionals do it!

Update - December 2014

You can now search Quaker births and marriages on our new website www.scottishindexes.com

We’re going to look today at one way to trace your family back that extra generation. We’re looking at a common scenario, no birth in the Old Parish Registers (OPRs). What can you do?

It’s not uncommon in Scotland to trace your ancestors using the census, and have an approximate year of birth and place of birth but you can’t find an entry for your ancestor’s birth or baptism in the OPRs. Of course there are many types of records you could look at, but today we’re going to focus on Church Records in the National Records of Scotland (NRS) catalogue. 

Civil registration began in Scotland in 1855, before that the church was responsible for keeping records of baptisms, marriages and deaths in each parish. There a number of reasons, though, why your search may not turn up any results. Here a few:

• The record was made but it has since been lost, burnt or in some other way damaged. Unfortunately there is not much we can do about this scenario.

• The parish didn’t keep a separate register of births, marriages and deaths for the period of time you are interested in but rather kept details amongst Kirk Session minutes or accounts.

• The family did not attend the Church of Scotland but were members of another church. I have dealt with Quaker records before. Most Catholic registers are now available through Scotland’s People. The family may, though, have attended a ‘breakaway’ church, such as the Free Church.

One simple thing you can do is look at the documents you already have, the post-1855 civil registration birth, marriage and death certificates. On a marriage certificate, for example, according to what religious form was the marriage ceremony performed? It will usually say “according to the forms of the Church of Scotland/Free Church etc.” If a member of the family married in the Free Church after 1855 it would be a good place to start your search in the pre-1855 records.

Now it’s time to turn to the National Records of Scotland (NRS) catalogue (formerly known as the National Archives of Scotland catalogue). Remember though, it is normally best not to proceed to this is the stage until you have researched thoroughly in the civil registration certificates. You should have a good indication of the parish your family were from and the rough year the event took place.

In the NRS catalogue, record references that begin with the code CH2 are from the Church of Scotland and records that begin with CH3 are records of other presbyterian churches which subsequently re-united with the Church of Scotland, such as the Free Church, United Presbyterian (UP), United Free (UF), Relief, United Secession, Original Secession, Burgher, Antiburgher, Associate and others.

So what are you going to start with? Did your family attend the Free Church after 1855? If you believe they may have done, begin with CH3.

Go to the catalogue

In the “Search for” box type the parish or town name, lets say “Hawick” in this example. In the Reference box, type CH3 and make sure you select “Starts” in that line. This means you will only be shown records starting with CH3, therefore reducing the number of entries you need to look through. Now click Search. So what do you get? Here’s what I was shown:

You now have two options, you can either refine the search by entering dates or just go through all the results.

Either way you’ll have to start to understand the reference numbers. Click on one you like the look of, what do you see?

In my list the sixth entry looks good, it says “CH3/1151 - Hawick, Free Church, St George's - 1842-1882.”

Click on the reference number and you will be given more information.

Do you notice the bit I’ve circled (click image to see it bigger), it says “Level - Fonds”. This means that you are looking at a collection of records, there could be many items within CH3/1151, each with a more specific reference starting with the code CH3/1151. So how do we find out more about the items or volumes within CH3/1151?

What I do is open up a new tab in my browser and open the catalogue again. This time put CH3/1151 in the reference, making sure the option “Starts” is selected, but this time put nothing in the “Search for” box.

You are now shown a list of items within CH3/1151, as it happens in this case there is only 1 but it’s the one we’re looking for: “CH3/1151/1 Title - Baptismal register 1842-82, Marriage register 1843-72.”

Perfect, we’ve found a register of baptisms for the parish. Now, how can I view it?

Click the reference number to go into the detailed description: 

At the top (circled) it tells us “Volume completely imaged”. This means the images can be viewed in the NRS in Edinburgh or any archive centre that has a “Virtual Volumes” link. Also (in the second circle) it says “Repository - Scottish Borders Archive and Local History Centre” This means the original volume has been deposited with the stated Archive, you can therefore view it there too.

You can now go back to your first tab (that’s why we left it up) to work your way through doing the same thing until you have a list of Churches with registers at the NRS for the period of time you need.

The principles of this search can be extended to any parish in any county.

Follow a similar process for the CH2 (Church of Scotland records), search for Hawick within CH2, a quick search shows CH2/1122 are the Records of Hawick, Old, Kirk Session. Go back to the search and just put the reference number in (leaving the “Search for” box blank), and now look through for anything of interest. You must do this stage or you will not see all the entries starting CH2/1122! This is a common mistake. 

Any difficulties, just send me an email and I’ll help you out.

In search of the Old Age Pension records - Part Three

I’m sorry to report that my search is not going well. I do have an idea of what we are looking for and have a greater understanding of how the process worked, but I also have also seen documentation that leads us to believe that valuable information was systematically destroyed.

Let’s start with the positive

With kind permission of the NRS here is an example of the form used to claim your old age pension from when the system commenced in 1909.

Click images to see detail

Considering that civil registration didn’t begin in Scotland until 1855 and that many of the pre-1855 parish registers have been lost, damaged etc. the information that must have been filled in on the forms above could have been really useful. This would especially have been the case in situations where a family member appears to have moved from one area of the country to another or has a common surname. The date and place of birth called for on this form could unlock many family histories.

These form were to be given to the postmaster who was to pass them on to a representative of HM Customs and Excise. This is a governmental department which has been subject to various changes over the years, making it difficult to trace what may have happened to specific records.

As I have discussed in previous blogs, when no proof of age could be presented by a Scottish claimant, a search could be made in the census or marriage records. It seems at first this was done by the GRO themselves; later (and no later than 1919) the searches were made by officials of the Customs and Excise.

We have again found sample forms: notice that they are perforated. It would appear that one part was kept by the Customs and Excise Department in Edinburgh whilst the other half was sent on to approve (or disallow) payment of the pension.

Where did these forms go?

Reading a file (GRO5/1250) in the NRS on Friday, worryingly called “Destruction of Documents”, I read that many records were systematically destroyed. The reason for much of this destruction was a paper shortage during (and after) the First World War. In fact across governmental departments documents not considered to be of “sufficient public value to justify preservation” were to be destroyed. It’s not looking good...

UPDATE: A followup blog

Scottish Quaker Marriages - Index Coming Soon

Quaker Meeting House 

Update - December 2014

You can now search Quaker births and marriages on our new website www.scottishindexes.com

We’ve been looking at the Digest of Scottish Quaker births, marriages and deaths again, with a view to creating an index. Interestingly before the digest of marriages starts properly there are two pages of marriages which “have been either considered irregular or to have been but imperfectly recorded”. Here are a couple of examples:

Book: 17

Page: 3

Names: Ormston Jane, Waldie John

Date of Minute: 1749, Novr. 26

Description: [Jane Ormston] daur of Charles (merchant) of Kelso: Fewar and Commissary Clerk

Information given: At Kelso Monthly Meeting a letter was read from Jane Ormston acknowledging her having married contrary to the Rules of the Society. {The first child of this Marriage is recorded in the Parish Register as born 5th September 1750.}

Monthly Meeting or other records: Kelso Mo Mg

Book: 14

Page: 17

Names: Cook James, Liddell Mary

Date of Minute:1703, 4, 25

Description: [James Cook] of Linlithgow: [Mary Liddell] daur of James [Liddell]

Information given: These Friends applied to Hamilton Monthly Meeting the second time for leave to marry and were directed to wait till Mary Liddell could produce a certificate from Ireland - The Marriage appears to have taken place as Mary Liddell, as James Cook’s widow, afterwards married George Cunningham, as below. - 

Monthly Meeting or other records Hamilton & Glasgow Mo Mg.

© Copyright National Records of Scotland reference CH10/1/64 and Emma Maxwell of www.maxwellancestry.com

We will index these two pages with the rest of the volume of marriages so that they can be easily found. I’m not sure what the total number of entries will be but it will certainly help to fill in some of the ‘missing’ entries that cannot be found in the OPRs. 

If you have arrived here from Google and wonder what we’re all about take a look at the ‘Online Indexes’ tab to see what we have available already to help you trace your Scottish family tree.

In search of the Old Age Pension records - Part One

It was brought to my attention recently that in Ireland there survive records of 'Age Verification' which drew on the 1841 and 1851 census to prove an individual's age so that they could claim their Old Age Pension.

The Old Age Pension was introduced throughout the United Kingdom (which then included what is now the Republic of Ireland) in January 1909. In order to claim, you had to be 70 years of age or older and you would have to prove you were old enough.

In Scotland and Ireland it could be very difficult to prove your age. In Ireland civil registration of births had not begun until 1864 so nobody of pension age in 1909, who had been born in Ireland, had a birth certificate. Although civil registration of births had began nine years earlier in Scotland it still meant that none of the first applicants for the Old Age Pension had a birth certificate.

What was to be done?

First of all a search could be made in parish records. Sometimes a baptism could be found, but in a number of cases (as you will know if you have ever searched for these) nothing could be found. It was decided that in Ireland and Scotland searches could be made in the 1841 and 1851 census to verify ages.

Ireland

This is a very valuable resource in Ireland as in the years that followed most of the 1841 and 1851 census enumeration books were destroyed. The remaining Age Verification forms are a really valuable resource. To read more about this see Chris Paton's excellent blog: Walking in eternity.

Scotland

In Scotland I cannot find these age verification forms. I have been able to demonstrate (contrary to the belief of some) that they did exist in Scotland and I also have some statistics. Here is an extract from a file held by the National Records of Scotland (their reference is GRO5/778):

STATEMENT showing NO. of SEARCHES in CENSUS RETURNS of 1841 and of 1851 on behalf of the LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD in each month from January 1911 to February 1912.

In the same file (GRO5/778) there is also a copy of a question raised by Captain Murray in the House of Commons on 7 August 1912. The question was: “To ask the Secretary for Scotland, whether he can state the number of persons in Scotland who were in receipt of old age pensions on 1st January 1909, 1st January 1910, 1st January 1911, and 1st January 1912.”

The reply by Mr. Masterman. - “There are no records to show the number of old age pensioners on the 1st January in any year except 1909; but the following figures represent the number of persons who were in receipt of old age pensions in Scotland on 1st January 1909, 1910, 1911, and 1912.

On 1st January 1909 64,770
On Friday immediately preceding 1st January 1910 76,037
On Friday immediately preceding 1st January 1911 80,502
On Friday immediately preceding 1st January 1912 94,243”

If the Scottish Age Verification forms could be found they would be really interesting. Whilst they concern a small percentage of the population, it is the percentage of the population that were struggling during their lifetime, to provide proof of their their age. If you are now tracing your family tree just think how useful it would be to have a record from 1909 for these individuals!!

If you have any insight into what has happened to these forms please get in touch.

England and Wales

Civil registration beginning in England and Wales in 1837 meant that some pensioners had birth certificates, but also the parish registers for the period immediately before 1837 are in much better order than in Scotland and Ireland. It therefore seems that the census was not often (if ever) used for the purposes of age verification.

Original Application forms

The Age verification forms should not be confused with the original pension application forms, which every claimant would have filled in right at the start of the process, regardless of whether they had evidence of their age or not. They would be interesting to find too and will be the subject of another blog.

UPDATE: Read part two