The Kirk Sessions - More than just fornication cases!

Canonbie Kirk as it is today

We often turn to the Kirk Sessions to look for cases of fornication when our ancestors were illegitimate. If it was discovered that a child was born to unmarried parents the couple would be brought before the Kirk Session, this was a group of men who would investigate ‘sins’ and discipline congregation members. The minutes of the Kirk Session are a wonderful resource when you are tracing your Scottish family tree and by far the most frequent cases are those of fornication but they are not the only ones you may come across.

While searching the records for a client today we found an entry in the Canonbie Kirk Session which is really very sad and quite different from the usual type of case. The entry has the National Records of Scotland reference CH2/1582/1/2:

1 August 1736

Canonbie Grave Yard 

“The session being informed that several people make graves in the church yard without acquainting the Beddel [Beadle] and sometimes encroach upon the property of others And John Armstrong having apprehended Gilbert Elliott in Broomiknow makeing a grave for a child of his complained to the Minester who ordered him to be summoned to the session which summons the session sustains and they resolve to rebuke him severely for his disorderly practice for a terror to others and if they do not desist to apply to Mr Lang chamberlane [likely Water Laing, chamberlain to the Duke of Buccleuch] to use his endeavours to prevent it But understanding that the said Gilbert is out of the countrey they order him to be summoned again to the session when he returns.”

Obviously you couldn’t have people going and digging up graveyards but it makes you wonder why the bereaved Gilbert Elliot had done it in the first place. Other than the fact that we learn that a daughter of Gilbert Elliot died (it doesn’t name the daughter) there is not a lot of genealogical information but it is interesting and it could help you understand your ancestors. So perhaps next time you are in the National Records of Scotland it may be worth looking at the Kirk Sessions even if you don’t have illegitimate ancestors!

Who Do You Think You Are? Live (this weekend!)

We’re looking forward to Who Do You Think You Are? Live in Glasgow this weekend, where we’ll be enjoying the displays, the talks and the hubbub of excitement when a group of genealogists get together. (How’s the research going? – It’s all relative).

For those not familiar with the television show, Who Do You Think You Are? researches the lineage of celebrities and documents their journey as they uncover secrets and truths about their ancestors. WDYTYA is enormously popular around the world, and the spectacle and scale of the live event is breath-taking. Hundreds of genealogy experts and thousands of enthusiasts gather together to learn from one another, discover some more about the past and to take in the buzz. We’ll be joining them, wearing our Scottish Genealogy Network badges with pride (stop us if you see us, we’d love to answer your questions).

Badges © Scottish Genealogy Network 

On Saturday morning, Graham will be giving a (free!) talk about tracing illegitimate ancestors. While such individuals can provide fascinating and sometimes touching stories, they are also notorious roadblocks in progressing your family tree. In the 1850s, around 9% of births in Scotland were illegitimate, so a number of genealogists will probably have discovered illegitimacy in their family line. Fortunately for posterity, mothers often took the fathers of illegitimate children to court to prove their identities and seek financial support. We still have records of these cases, providing details and facts which are absent from other records. Graham’s talk will explain how both amateur and professional genealogists can use these records to discover paternal lines and progress family trees.

We’re gearing up for the weekend – hopefully see you there! 

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.

Decreet, Armstrong v Kirk - 2 September 1847

“Decreet, Armstrong v Kirk - 2 September 1847”, sounds innocuous enough, you may think. Not far into this particular decree, though, we find out some very useful genealogical information. The following decree is taken from a so far unindexed volume of the Jedburgh Sheriff Court Register of Decreets (or Decrees). Much of the material in these volumes concerns the resolution of financial disputes and the like. Interesting perhaps, but not as useful to the genealogist as the paternity cases interspersed amongst the courts business.

After 1855 we generally know if there was a paternity decree as it would normally be recorded on the civil registration birth certificate. Before 1855, however there may be very little information. Sometimes we can find an entry in Kirk Session minutes, but these have not always survived, and not all families were members of the Church of Scotland or one of the other leading Presbyterian churches which kept such records. Even when such minutes survive, the entries may give only very limited information regarding the parents.

Sometimes we see an illegitimate child use a father’s surname (often this is the case in the early census returns), and we may speculate as to the identity of the father. Sheriff Court decrees like the one shown in the extract below can enable us to positively identify the father of an illegitimate child and therefore overcome a brick wall in our family tree. The decree is often only the starting point, as in many cases the processes also survive. The processes are court papers which often give us much more information than the decree and help us to see the case from the perspective of both the pursuer and the defender.

I am pleased to say work has now begun on indexing these wonderful records. Watch this space!

In the margin we read:

Decreet

Armstrong

v

Kirk

2d September 1847

The body of the text reads as follows:

At Jedburgh the Twenty eighth day of July and the Sixteenth day of August Eighteen hundred and forty seven years Sitting in Judgment John Craigie Esquire Sheriff Substitute of the County of Roxburgh in an action raised before the Sheriff Court of the said County at the instance of Jemima Armstrong Daughter of and residing with William Armstrong Blacksmith in Morebattle Pursuer against William Kirk Blacksmith in Morebattle defender. The Sheriff Decerned and Ordained and herby Decerns and Ordains that the said William Kirk Defender to make payment to the said Jemima Armstrong Pursuer of the sum of One pound of inlying expenses of a male bastard child of which the pursuer was delivered on the twentieth day of March eighteen hundred and forty seven of which the said William Kirk is the father. Item of the sum of one pound ten shilling per quarter for three quarters of nursing fee. Item of Four pounds per annum of aliment thereafter payable quarterly and per advance which aliment is to continue until the said child shall arrive at the age of ten years unless the said defender shall when the child shall attain the age of seven years offer to take it to his own home and provide suitably for it reserving to the said child its relations to apply and shew cause for a continuance of the aliment after it shall arrive at the age of ten years and to the Defender his Defences as accords. Item of Interest on the several sums as they have become or may become respectively due until paid. Item of the sum of Three pounds & eight pence of Expenses of process and Item of the sum of four shillings as the dues of Extracting this Decreet and of Recording the same. And I the said Sheriff &c

Written by Geo. Henderson Collated by I Stewart Newbigging

Taken from Jedburgh Sheriff Court, Register of Decrees (NRS reference SC62/7/9, pages 4 and 5).

This record now helps us to identify the William Kirk or Anderson seen here in the census of 1851 as the child of William Kirk seen here. Hopefully unravelling a little mystery for the Armstrong family!

Do you have this type of mystery? I hope the indexes that we are going to make available soon will help. In the meantime email me with your genealogical queries and we will see what we can do.

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