Breaking Down those Brickwalls: Scottish Death Certificates

New Register House, Edinburgh

As is the case with birth and marriage certificates, 1855 is a great year from a genealogist's point of view.

In this first year of registration Scottish death certificates included the following information:

Date, time and place of death, usual residence, deceased's name, sex, marital status, age and occupation, the deceased's place of birth, spouse's name, both parents' names (including the mother’s maiden surname) and whether deceased, occupations and whether they were deceased, the names and ages of children (or age and year of death if the child pre-deceased the parent), cause of death, duration of last illness, doctor's name, when the doctor last saw the deceased alive, place of burial, the name of the undertaker and details of the informant.

Much of the bounty of information recorded in 1855 was sadly not continued after that year. From 1856-1860 you can expect to find the name, marital status, occupation, date, time and place of death and usual residence, full names of both parents and whether deceased, cause of death, duration of disease and doctor's name, place of burial and undertaker's name, and details of the informant.

Did you know?

By looking at your ancestor's death certificate between 1855 and 1860, or even that of a close relative such as a sibling, you may get a clue as to where the rest of the family were buried. If it was a family plot you may then be able to trace your ancestors using transcriptions of the gravestone, if it has survived. It’s not unusual to find three generations recorded on one gravestone!


Find out more about Scottish civil registration on our website: http://www.scottishindexes.com/learningcivil.aspx

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!

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.

More collections go online - Scottish Marriages and Deaths

We have added two more collections to our online indexes: marriages/banns and deaths/burials.

As with our online birth/baptism search which we announced earlier this week you can now search all the entries in our pre-existing indexes in book form plus some new ones not available before. All of these are indexes of pre-1855 records that for some reason do not appear in the Church of Scotland Old Parish Records, or OPRs. This means when you search scotlandspeople.go.uk these records do not show up.

How does it work?

Deaths/Burials:

You can search by Forename, Surname, Year of Death, County of Death, Parish of Death, or a combination of the above. As with searching the census, less is often more. Perhaps the person didn’t die when you expect or not in the location you expect. Married or widowed females are often recorded only under their maiden surname and first names and surnames appear under an amazing variety of spellings.

Here’s how the search page looks:

Marriages:

When you search for a marriage you can search by either the Groom’s Name, the Bride’s Name or both. The results show:

 “Groom’s Name”, “Bride’s Name”, “Year” and “Register”.

Remember that the register and place of residence are not necessarily the same thing. With this in mind, we have also indexed by parish of marriage (or most likely parish of marriage), which at times may be different from the parish name on the register. If people attended a non-Church of Scotland Church they may have travelled across parish boundaries to be married by the minister of their choice. Also if the couple were from different parishes the banns would have been read out in both. Not all registers specify where the marriage took place, in these cases we have indexed the parish as the parish the register was kept in.

The full entries of the birth, marriage or death costs just £1.50 and you can pay through PayPal.

Remember you can also search our other indexes online, here’s a list of all our indexes:

Parish Register Births

Parish Register Marriages

Parish Register Deaths

Prison Registers

Sheriff Court Paternity cases

1841, 1851 and 1861 Census

Search on-line today 

www.maxwellancestry.com

Maxwell Ancestry, a member of the Scottish Genealogy Network

Sudden Death of a Montrose Woman - Elizabeth Sherret

I discovered this sad tale in the Montrose Standard and Mearns Register (August 26, 1864, page 4):

Sudden Death Of A Montrose Woman At Blairgowrie. – On Sunday morning last, a woman was observed sitting on a stair in the High Street, Blairgowrie, apparently in an exhausted condition. The neighbours removed her to a green at the back of one of the houses, and prepare to give her refreshments, but before these could be prepared the woman breathed her last. The body was conveyed to a house adjoining the churchyard, and was decently prepared for interment by authority of Mr. Robson, inspector of the poor. It has now transpired that the woman’s name is Elizabeth Sherret, about 49 years of age, and that she belongs to Montrose. Her sister is, we understand, presently residing here. The remains were interred in the Blairgowrie Churchyard on Tuesday afternoon.

We can search newspapers for you; did your ancestor have an untimely end? Contact us and ask how we can help you add more colour to your family tree.

www.maxwellancestry.com

Hobkirk Kirkyard photos

I had an enjoyable day out in the Scottish countryside today. It was a very cold but very sunny day. As traditionally gravestones face east I made a fairly early start to ensure I could catch the morning sun hitting the front of the stones.

I was looking for a particular stone, which I found quickly, but as I was there on such a beautiful day I decided to photograph all the gravestones in the older part of Hobkirk Kirkyard. An example is shown below, but someday we will try to make them all available online. In the meantime if you are looking for a particular grave e-mail me and I’ll see if I can find it for you.

In Memory Of

James Binnie Oliver son of

George Oliver Shepherd in Gatehous-

ecott who does at Carolcroft

June 21st 1853 Aged 20 years

Also

George Oliver who dies at Burnfoot Sept. 12

1878 Aged 76 Years.

Also

Elspeth Murray wife of George Oliver

who died at Gatehousecott, March 13th, 1862,

aged 62 years.

Also Robert Barnes their son in law

who died at Hawthornside 18th July 1894.

Aged 57 years

Also Elizabeth Oliver his wife who died

at Kinninghall 17th Aug. 1917, aged 86 years.

Records of Scottish Quakers 1669-1867

Update - December 2014
You can now search Quaker births and marriages on our new website www.scottishindexes.com


I was in the National Records of Scotland (formerly the National Archives of Scotland) yesterday and consulted a lot of interesting records. One register I consulted (which I haven’t had the need to consult before) was Records of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Digest of births, marriages and burials, Scotland 1669-1867. (NAS reference CH10/1/64).

The volume is a digest of birth, marriages and deaths from the various record books around Scotland. Whilst I didn’t find what I was searching for, it may contain what you are looking for! The books is a transcription of records dating back to 1669 and continues to 1867. A bonus I discovered yesterday is that it is alphabetical; making it much quicker to search.

Here’s an entry that caught my eye:

Book: 17

Page: 123

Name: Wood, George

Date of Death: 14^th of January 1762

Age: [Blank]

Residence and Description: Ednam. Weaver and Bleacher

Date of Burial: 16^th of January 1762

Place of Burial: Kelso

N.M. for Not Members: [Blank]

Monthly or other Meeting Record: Kelso Mo Mg

So if you can’t find a birth, marriage or death in Scotland have you considered the possibility your family were Quakers? If you would like it searched e-mail me and I’ll see what I can do: info@maxwellancestry.com

www.maxwellancestry.com

Church Denominations

As regular readers will know we have been publishing birth, marriage and death records which have been kept by non Church of Scotland churches. These are a very important source of information. Although the established church, the Church of Scotland, were supposed to keep a record of all births, marriages and deaths which took place in the parish in reality this did not always happen.

To understand more fully what was going on, how many denominations where in existence and therefore have a chance of finding your ancestors have a read at Chris Paton’s blog: Walking in Eternity. Chris also tells us he is writing a book entitled "Discover Scottish Church Records" which may help you in your quest to dig deeper into the past.

If you still need help though to find a specific elusive character in your family tree please email me and I’ll see what we can do for you. We give a free consultation to everybody!

info@maxwellancestry.com

New book - Applegarth Parish Register

Applegarth (Dumfriesshire) Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1694-1719 - £8.99

  

This book contains baptisms, marriages and burials which are to be found in the Kirk Session records of Applegarth Parish, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. These records are held by the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh.

The entries in the register are taken from two Kirk Session volumes: Volume 1 contains baptisms and marriages from 1694-1703; as well as four death entries from 1697-1702, and four baptism entries from 1763. Volume 2 contains baptisms from 1703-1719; marriages from 1703-1712; and a few mortcloth records from 1704-1715, as well as nine baptism entries from 1765-1766 and a marriage from 1763.

These entries are not to be found in the Old Parish Registers of Applegarth parish kept by the General Register Office (Scotland) at New Register House in Edinburgh, which does not commence until 1749, and it is believed they have not been transcribed or indexed before.

Buy Applegarth Parish Records - £8.99

Applegarth Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1694-1719 - £8.99

Well here is another new book for you: just made available this evening on www.maxwellancestry.com

This book contains baptisms, marriages and burials which are to be found in the Kirk Session records of Applegarth Parish, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. These records are held by the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh.

The entries in the register are taken from two Kirk Session volumes: Volume 1 contains baptisms and marriages from 1694-1703; as well as four death entries from 1697-1702, and four baptism entries from 1763. Volume 2 contains baptisms from 1703-1719; marriages from 1703-1712; and a few mortcloth records from 1704-1715, as well as nine baptism entries from 1765-1766 and a marriage from 1763.

These entries are not to be found in the Old Parish Registers of Applegarth parish kept by the General Register Office (Scotland) at New Register House in Edinburgh, which does not commence until 1749, and it is believed they have not been transcribed or indexed before.

Buy Applegarth Parish Records for just £8.99 from our bookshop