Named after first wife

I have seen examples of this before but not documented it.

I was looking at a Jessie Guthrie born about 1852. Father William Guthrie and mother Jane McKerrow.

She was baptised as Janet Morrison Guthrie in Ochiltree on 28 June 1851. (Jessie is a variant of Janet.)

She was married in Maybole in 1872 as Jessie Morrison Guthrie. Her first husband died within a few months of marriage and she married again in 1874 as Jessie McKerrow Guthrie. The parents are the same on both certificates.

Looking more closely at William Guthrie; his first wife was Janet Morrison so she was named after the first wife.  This seems a bit strange to us nowadays. I need to see if I can find the other examples of this I've seen.

Jessie must have decided to use her mother's name as her middle name in 1874.  Her death certificate has Morrison again as her middle name.

MOODIE/GUTHRIE

JANET MORRISON

82

1933

610/A 32

Old Cumnock

Link to Jessie Guthrie on the Cumnock Connections tree


Here's another example: Ann Moodie Henderson b 1871 in Kilmarnock

Who was he named after?

Middle names are often seen through the generations and this can help you be sure you have the right family.

See my previous post on naming patterns here.

The middle name Bigby or Begbie crops up in the Thorburn family of Ayrshire and descendants in the USA and New Zealand.   Originally though I think the name was Biggar and I think  I have traced it back to a John Biggar in the 27th Regiment of Foot, possibly born in Ireland and his daughter Mary Biggar born 1814 in Ayr who married William Thorburn and died aged only 23.  More about the Thorburns here

I spent a lot of time looking for the connection between several children with the first names William Vessie in West Kilbride, only to find that  William Vessie was the local minister! So don't assume that the unusual name in your family tree must be an ancestor!

A female ancestor of mine rejoiced in the names Christian Straton Allardice Sievwright  when all her siblings had a single given name. I thought I was on to something. But it turned out Christian Allardice Straton was the minister's daughter!

Scotland's counties and regions

The way Scotland is divided up into counties has changed several times and must be very confusing for researchers not familiar with Scotland.

 Undiscovered scotland explains the changes in administrative areas.

For example Brechin was in Forfarshire but that is now Angus.

The county town often had the same name as the county e.g. Ayr in Ayrshire, Kirkcudbright in Kirkcudbrightshire, Dumbarton in Dunbartonshire (note the change from M to N), Inverness in Inverness-shire but there is no town called Argyll.

Kirkcudbrightshire is now part of Dumfries & Galloway.

What is now the town of Dumfries is split by the river Nith - the east side was in the parish of Dumfries, Dumfriesshire and the west side was Maxwelltown in the parish of Troqueer in Kirkcudbrightshire.

Other confusions are with similar place names e.g. Kilmaronock in Dunbartonshire and Kilmarnock in Ayrshire.  Dalry in Ayrshire and (St John's Town of) Dalry in Dumfriesshire. There's also a part of Edinburgh called Dalry.

There is also the problem of parish names which may not actually be the name of a village or town such as the aforementioned Troqueer.

And the parish of Loudoun in Ayrshire covered parts of Galston, Newmilns and Darvel.  There was no actual place called Loudoun although there was Loudoun Rows, near Loudoun Kirk.
Although I live in that area, I still get confused. I tend to go by the street name e.g. Brown street, Loudoun I know is in Newmilns.

The family search wiki on Scotland is very helpful.

42nd cousins

 I shall explain how to work out relationships with cousins.

The starting point is the common ancestor.

If you both share a grandparent, you will be the same generation, you are cousins or first cousins.

Robert Murdoch and  Hugh Fleming are first cousins.

If you both share a great grandparent ( and you will be the same generation)  you are second cousins.

David Murdoch and Isabella Fleming are second cousins and her daughter Mary and David are second cousins once removed, meaning one generation removed.


See this chart for more distant cousins.

Illegitimate births - finding the father

There will be few family trees that don't have some illegitimate births in them. The question is - Who's the daddy?

I will share my experiences of researching illegitimate births here and I don't claim to have all the answers.

Most of those researched have been in Scotland the 19th century. I am not sure if the same stigmas applied then as is the 20th century. I suspect not.

If a daughter of the family had a child out of wedlock, in most cases the child was accepted into the grandparents' family. Sometimes the mother would be in a different household earning her keep as a servant. Sometimes when she later married her child would become part of her new family and sometimes would stay on with the grandparents.

The child if a girl would be named after her maternal grandmother following traditional Scottish naming pattern. A son though may have been given the name of his natural father. So do consider this.

Often the father would be someone close by, a neighbour as in the case of James Neil below. I have also seen cases where the reputed father suddenly upped sticks and emigrated!

As for how the birth was recorded, that depended on whether the father acknowledged the child.
From 1855 onwards either the mother alone is named on the birth certificate or the father also is named and signed the certificate. Illegitimate was written in brackets below the  child's name.

If the parents subsequently married the child, under Scots law, became legitimate.

Where the father did not acknowledge the child there may well have been a paternity case where the mother sued the reputed father for aliment. You may be able to locate court records. More excellent information on this from Maxwell ancestry.

Pre -1855 the OPR baptism records have various wordings for illegitimate - natural son/daughter, bastard son/daughter, conceived in adultery, conceived in fornication. Sometimes the father is named and the parish he is from.

The mother would be brought before the Kirk Session (elders of the church of Scotland for each parish church and the moral compass for the parish)  and asked about the father. If she named him he would be required to attend the Kirk Session  meeting and they would be asked to repent and pay a fee in atonement. Similarly, if a child was born less than 9 months after the wedding the parents would be called up and accused of prenuptial or ante-nuptial fornication. So Kirk Session records can be a great resource. They can be accessed at your local archives centre. They have also been digitised but are not available yet to view.

If the baptism/ birth record doesn't yield any clues, the subsequent marriage or death certificates of the child may yield further information - the father may be recorded as "reputed father".

On several occasions I have found the child in a census with a different surname to his mother. I think     to start with the child was given his father's name possibly in the hope that the father may do the decent thing and marry her or simply because that was the father's name and so the child should have its father's surname. Often the name later reverted to the mother's name.

Here is a typical example of Euphemia McCulloch born about 1850 ( no record) to Ann McCulloch, named Euphemia after her grandmother and recorded in 1851 and 1861 as McLeod. When Ann married Adam Todd she took his name.  Euphemia Mcleod/ McCulloch/ Todd

And another the birth of James Neil in 1861 where his father signed the birth certificate. His father lived at 104 Peesweep Row and his mother at 103!  The father soon  married another girl and emigrated to Australia. Being illegitimate did not hold James back as he became Lord Provost (the Scottish equivalent of Lord Mayor).

Children with the same name

I should have added this in the Scottish naming patterns post.

If, for example, you have done a parent search on familysearch.org and found 2 children with the same given name, it usually means the first one has died and the next child born of the same sex is also given that name.

If the age of a child in a census is younger than you were expecting, this also may indicate it is a second child with the same name and you should look for another birth.

Ordering certificates from scotlandspeople

When you have found the record you were looking for you will usually see 2 options. View 5 credits or Order.

You don't need to order a certificate, just download it for 5 credits. The certificate won't give you any more information anti will cost you £12. The downloaded image at 5 credits is £1.50.

 You only need to get a certificate if you need it for legal purposes or if the other option is not available, eg a modern record a 1918 birth record. This is because it is too recent. There's a 100 year cut off for births. However if you can bear to wait till next January, you will be able to download it then!

Your other option is to visit one of the scotlandspeople hubs where for a day you can look up as many certificates as you like for £15.

The hubs are in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Inverness.

Register House in Edinburgh

The Mitchell Library in Glasgow

Burns Centre, Kilmarnock

Highland Archive and Registration Centre, Inverness
Hawick Heritage Hub
Clackmannanshire Family History Centre in Alloa

Always phone first to check computer availability and opening hours.

Enhanced family stories

Family stories get embellished or distorted over the years.

My grandfather "drove the first bus in Edinburgh" or that is what I remembered.

Today I found his licence

As he was driver no 258 he certainly wasn't the first, but he does appear to have been one of the first drivers on the Mound to Corstorphine route.

James Rolinson at the wheel

Both of these photos appear in the 1976 staff magazine of the Scottish Motor Group and I suspect my father or my uncle supplied the information. So it is a secondary source and should be viewed with some suspicion.

Valuation rolls

Scotlandspeople have lists of valuation rolls online now for several years, namely 1855, 1865, 1875, 1885, 1895. 1905, 1915, 1920, 1925, 1930 and 1935

These records are  free to search!  The search will give you the name of the householder, either tenant or owner and the address, so you don't need to pay a further 2 credits to see the page.

Here are all the Flemings in Cumnock.

The page gives more information on who owns the property and the occupation of the householder plus all the neighbours, so not a bad result for 2 credits!
Here is part of the page showing Glengyron Row with at least 5 of my relations!

While this is not nearly as good as a census, it does fill in between the censuses, and they cover more recent records (post 1911) for which not much else is available.

So you have nothing to lose by typing in even just a surname and a county, as often as you like and see what comes up!

1930 valuation roll on scotlandspeople


updated 8 March 2018

Using the censuses

Censuses are a great help to family historians. They give so much information about a family. Where they lived the occupations they followed, where they were born, who the family members were - often uncles, grandparents, in laws, future spouses can be found in the census. And do check the neighbours too - they may be relations!

National censuses started in 1841 and were taken every 10 years. The latest one available for viewing in the 1911 census.

1841 census of Scotland was taken on 6 June 1841
It gives limited information. Family relationships were;t given but nevertheless they are ordered like the later census with head of household usually the father first, then the mother, and children in order of age.
Ages were supposed to be rounded up to the nearest multiple of 5 - e.g. 15, 20 25, 30 but often the proper ages were recorded. Someone aged 15 could be 15-19 years old.
Birthplace was yes if born in the county of residence or no if elsewhere in Scotland. If born elsewhere the country was recorded e.g. I for Ireland or E for England.

1851 onward censuses gave birth town or parish as well as relationships and whether deaf and dumb or blind and how many rooms with at least 1 window the house had.

1871 -1901 censuses also record whether 1. deaf and dumb 2. blind 3. imbecile or idiot and 4. lunatic. They didn't mince their words. I'm not sure what the difference between imbecile, idiot or lunatic was.

The 1911 census records if Gaelic was spoken, and gives more information against the wife's name as to the length of the marriage and the number of children born in the marriage and how many were still living. I realised from this census that I was missing a child of my great grandparents and eventually  found him being born and dying in Rotherham, Yorkshire in the 1880s. The only place you can see the 1911 census for Scotland is by getting it from Scotlandspeople.

If you need to see the original image for any census you need to pay for it at Scotlandspeople.  All other censuses apart from 1911 have been transcribed and you can find the transcriptions on subscription sites such as ancestry and findmypast.

There is also freecen.org - good for 1841 censuses in Scotland.

But the 1881 census is free to view. You can access it via findmypast. You will have to be registered but you don't need to subscribe.

http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-Records/1881-england-wales-and-scotland-census

Timeline

Making a timeline of events in your family is very helpful especially if the family moved around a bit.

My own great grandparents were in Cumnock in Ayrshire, Scotland in 1871 and 1881 but the 1881 census revealed that children in the 1870s were born in England. This puzzled me a lot and the only way I could make sense of it was to do a timeline. My great grandfather and his father were miners from the Dudley area in Staffordshire.

I even colour coded the timeline for places. You can really see how much they moved about to find work.

James Rolinson (great grandfather)

1852 born in Dudley, Staffordshire

1861 census Darlaston

1871 census Cumnock, Ayrshire

1873 married In Dudley

1874 Alice born Tipton

1877 Jessie born Dudley

1880 Delilah born Cumnock

1881 census Cumnock

1883 James born Rotherham, Yorkshire

1885 Frank born Rotherham

1886 Rachel born and Frank died Rotherham

1890 in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire (father John’s death cert)

1890 Frederick born and died Cambuslang 

1891 census in Calderbank, Lanarkshire

1891 Herbert born Calderbank

1892 mother Jane Holmes died Calderbank

1893 Herbert died Calderbank

1894 Clifford born Calderbank

1901 census Jacks Land, Holytown, Lanarkshire

1911 census Stone Row Calderbank

1920 valuation roll Stone Row Calderbank

1925 valuation roll 61 Main St Calderbank

1930 James died 61 Main st Calderbank

1931 widow Emma Ball died Calderbank

free census

As well as familysearch.org there are some other good free sites such as

freecen.org.uk

This has transcriptions of UK censuses. In Scotland there are mainly only 1841 and some 1851 ones available.

I use it a lot for 1841 and I like it because you can click on the previous or subsequent households to check out the neighbours and neighbouring addresses.

Search either on Census Place or Census County.

You can also try searching on street name if you don't get a result using the surname.

Scottish Naming Patterns

In the not too distant past the following conventions were followed by Scottish parents. This still happened in the early 20th century. Scots who went abroad often stuck to it too.

This practice is very helpful to family historians!

First born son named after paternal grandfather
First born daughter named after maternal grandmother
Second born son named after maternal grandfather
Second born daughter named after paternal grandmother

So it is possible to deduce what the parents in the previous generation were called.

2 children with same name usually indicates the first one died and the next child born of the right sex is given the same name.

Here are some examples from my tree

Thomas's father should be James Murdoch and his mother Ann Gibson and indeed they are. Middle names are not all that common, but where they are given it is usually a surname, as in this case. 

Wife Isabella's mother should be Agnes and her father Robert. 

The subsequent children should be named after the father/mother then great grandparents and so on. Less reliable.

Other names given to children could be an aunt or uncle or local dignitary, very often the minister.

Because of the practice of naming children after a grandparent there are often several children in an extended family of the same name. They will be cousins.

Can you deduce the wife of Thomas Burley?

Yes it's Amelia Clary and I have recently found a third Amelia Clary Burley born in 1910 in Michigan, another cousin. There may be more!

Further reading

http://www.brownlee.com.au/Pages/ScottishNamingPatterns.html

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~scottish/ScottishNamingPatterns.html

family search Batch Numbers

Batch numbers refer to the film of the records.

If you know that your ancestor was born in say Old Cumnock and the rough date you can get in to the records to browse them via the Batch Number. This is also very helpful when the name was spelt or transcribed differently from expected.

Go to Wallis Batch numbers for the Batch numbers for all of Scotland. They were prepared by Hugh Wallis some time ago. Familysearch changed its site hierarchy and the links are no longer valid, but you can copy and paste the link in.

Here are the Batch numbers for Old Cumnock. You'll see that they go up to 1875.
C… refers to Baptisms and Births and M… refers to marriages

C116101 refers to statutory births and C116102, and C116104 refer to old parish records. Note that they are not complete and I have found records in the OPRs on scotlandspeople that aren't on here. But it's always worth trying here first as they are free to search!

Don't click on the blue link, as I said it is no longer valid, but go instead  to https://familysearch.org/search/

click on Batch Number and paste the number in the box which appears.

You don't need to put in any place information, just put in a name and a date range. You can even leave it completely blank. 

and see your results. Note the varying spelling of the mother's name.

Familysearch

https://familysearch.org is the site of the Mormon church (church of the Latter Day Saints) and a fantastic worldwide resource and it's FREE.

Once you get your line back to 1875 you can find births and marriages on familysearch for free. You don't get to see the original documents but the way the search works is better than scotlandpeople, in my opinion.

For example:

• it will recognise similar names so you don't need to have the spelling absolutely correct
• you can do a parent search
• the results give you the parents where the search results on SP just give you the name so you have to pay even more credits to get the document which may turn out to be  the wrong person.
• you can also search by Batch Number more on this next time

Birth records prior to 1855

Before statutory recording was enforced in 1855, the  birth records that exist would be baptism records kept by the minister. They are on Scotlandspeople under Old Parish Registers.

They do exist in microfiche as well. The Carnegie Library in Ayr appears to have them and there will be other centres who have them, so do ask locally.

They vary in detail and style. The wording might be along the lines of

John, lawful son of John Brown weaver in Cumnock and his spouse Mary Smith was born on 15 March and baptised by my on the 18th

or the more colourful

Jean Black daughter in fornication of John Black smith in Glasgow and Jean White in this parish was born on 3rd April and baptised on the 18th May.

"natural" is another word for illegitimate as in "natural son of " slightly kinder than the previous wording.

Not everyone had their child baptised and not all ministers were very organised with their record keeping and not all of the parish records have survived so you may never find a birth record for your ancestor.

However if they were alive on or after 6 June 1841 they should be present in the censuses so you will have an idea of the year and place of birth.

If they married or died 1855 onwards you will get an age.

Otherwise a gravestone may give you a date and or and age.

A newspaper may give you a death notice or an obituary. Some newspapers have been digitised, and can be searched. Most sites require a subscription.

We'll look at illegitimate births in a future post.

Statutory birth records

In 2016, you can view on scotlandspeople.gov.uk the images of
births from  1855 - 1915   (100 year cut off)

On a birth certificate you will get the date, time and place of birth, the name of the child, its parents names including mother's maiden name, its father's occupation and the informant who was usually a parent but sometimes a grandparent or other family member or even a neighbour and from 1861 the date and place of the parents' marriage. The latter may be wrong as it was often the father who recorded the birth and he couldn't remember the date. Sometimes the mother was hazy on this information too!

If the parents' weren't married it usually only has the mother's name, but if the father has acknowledged the child as his he may sign the certificate as well as the mother.


If you are fortunate to have a birth in 1855 the first year of statutory recording you will get your money's worth. As well as all the above you will get the age and birthplace of the parents, how many other children born to the couple and the usual address of the parents and even whether the baby was present at the registration.

Tip:
When searching for a child's birth, once you have located it, widen your search. Remove the first name and extend the years and you may pick up some siblings too. Remember you can get up to 25 results for 1 credit.

What do I need to find out?

You can trace your direct lines.

A chart is really helpful.  You can download a chart to fill in by hand. I like the one on the lostcousins.com homepage.

You should note date of birth or year of birth and place of birth and the same for any marriages and death.
ancestry.co.uk has a good downloadable chart for this too.

You should also note where you found the information  - your source.

Always use a woman's maiden name on your records.

But it is really helpful to add aunts and uncles etc as well as your direct line. It is easier to track the right family in the censuses if you know all the members of the family particularly if it is a common surname and if they moved about a lot.  Family names will crop up in different generations.

We will look at Scottish naming patterns soon too.

Alternate names

In Scotland in the 19th century and before, there were not that many given names for children and they tended to run in families. (More about naming patterns another time)

Then as now the official, "Sunday" name was often shortened; Maggie for Margaret and Lizzie for Elizabeth are familiar to us today.

However here are some others. Jessie for Janet has caught me out before. I spent ages looking the birth of Janet, only to find her as Jessie.

Alternate given names
Jane = Jean = Jeanie 
Helen = Ellen = Nellie 
Janet = Jessie
Sadie = Sarah
Nan = Agnes
Minnie = Marion
Mina = Williamina
Ina short for Williamina, Donaldina etc Patrick = Peter
Ian = John (although I think this is more a 20th century variation)

Old forms (early 19th century and before)
Christian for Christina 
Grizzel for Grace 
Euphan for Euphemia

Old abbreviations
Jno =John
Jas = James 
Andro = Andrew 
Alexr - Alexander

Strange given names for girls
Boy’s names 
Nicholas, especially in Dumfriesshire, 
Charles

Surnames (frequently for girls) like Campbell, Sayers, Cochrane, Hamilton, Lewis - they often run in families.

Surnames
Some families fluctuated between having a Mc and not eg McConnell or Connel
McPhillips or Phillips

Irish and other nationalities often anglicised their names
McClurg became McLeod; Mullen became Milne; Scullion became Smith (actual examples!)

Widows often (helpfully) reverted to their maiden name.

Searching on scotlandspeople

Spelling of names can be very variable. Because your surname is e.g. McMeekin doesn't mean your relations spelt their name the same way. You could be related to McMeeking or McMeikan and more.  So when searching you need to try and include all possible variations.

There are several options on scotlandspeople, name variants, soundex

I personally use wildcards using an asterisk to represent any number of letters or no letters.

When searching for Muncie, I know they are often recorded as Munsie so a search on
MUN*IE will return both.

Ballantine can be spelt lots of ways
BAL*NT* will return Balantine, Ballantine, Balantyne, Ballantyne.
Ballantine may sometimes turn up as Bannatine so try that too. But searching on BA*NT* may bring you too many returns.

Note that it is often the vowels that change, so replacing them with an asterisk is a good strategy.

Just be glad you are not searching for McMeekin as I have had mcmeckan, mcmeikan, mcmickan, mcmiekin, mcmekine, mcmeeking, mcmekien, mcmeicken, mcmecken, mcmeken, mcmekin…

Statutory marriage records

You can download the image of marriage records from 1855 - 1940. This reflects the 75 year cut off period. Next year you will be able to get marriages for 1941.

Anyone who was married in Scotland from 1855 should have a record.

You can search on one person's name or better the husband and at least the bride's first name, since you may not know her surname.

You can specify all of Scotland,  a county or a county and up to 5* parishes in that county (or indeed 5 parishes from all of Scotland). This is useful for searching neighbouring parishes.

The couple may have married in a neighbouring parish. If you are not familiar with the area you can get some information on parishes in each county here

Sometimes they went to the next big town which may not be in the county of their residence so if you can't find them locally you can try a nearby city.

What information will you get?

The date and place of the marriage and the type of marriage.  Note that, until recently, marriages in Scotland took place in the bride's home, that of her employer, or in the manse. Church weddings are more recent, 20th century on.

The name occupation age and status and address of the bride and groom.

The parents of both the bride and groom and the fathers' occupation and whether deceased or not.

The witnesses to the marriage. The celebrant and the date the marriage was registered. Note that a marriage in December may not be registered until the following year.

* multiple select by Control (ctrl) clicking on PC or Command (cmd) clicking on Mac

Statutory records

Statutory recording began in 1855 (1837 in England) but Scottish records give good information e.g. both parents’ names.

In 2018, you can view on scotlandspeople.gov.uk the images of
births from 1855 - 1917   (100 year cut off)
marriages from 1855 - 1942  (75 year cut off)
deaths from 1855 - 1967 (50 year cut off)

For records after these cut off points, you can view them by going in person to the Burns Monument Centre in Kilmarnock or the Mitchell Library in Glasgow or the Scotlandspeople Centre in Edinburgh. (Please phone ahead to book and check opening times.) You won’t be able to print them, but you can make notes. You can also order a copy online at £12 each.

Births will give parents’ names and the date of the parents’ marriage.
Illegitimate births may only give the mother’s name but in some cases the father will sign the certificate as well as the mother.

Marriages will give the type - i.e. what denomination of church, or by declaration, names, ages, whether single/married/widowed, occupation of the man at least, addresses, names of parents, names of witnesses, clergyman and date registered. Note that previously marriages in Scotland usually took place in the bride’s home or in the manse rather than in church.

Deaths will give name, age, name of spouse, occupation, time and place of death, name of parents, cause of death and the name of the informant, relation to the dead person and address.

1855 was the first year of statutory registration and BDM records in that year give more information than later records e.g. all children are listed on a Death Certificate, birthplace of parents on a Birth Certificate. Worth getting for the extra information.

RCE Register of Corrected Entries - a note in the margin of a statutory record notes an RCE. Most commonly associated with a sudden death - the result of coroner’s report. Could also be a note of a bigamous marriage or a change of name on a birth certificate. An RCE costs an extra 2 credits

Reliabilty

Reliability of information on records

Think about who gave the information. Did they know or are they guessing?

It was (and is) an offence to give wrong information.  Misinformation was usually given in good faith.

Information on parents' names

On birth certificates - should be 100% accurate
One of the parents is giving the information so unless they are deliberately trying to deceive, it should be accurate.

An illegitimate grandchild may be brought up as a child, a "late" baby.  The birth certificate should reveal the truth.

On marriage certificates the information is given by the bride and groom, so should be 100% accurate unless they don't actually know the truth or have been given misinformation on their parentage.

On death certificates especially of an old person whose grandchild is giving the information, it may well be a best guess.

Where to find Scottish records

If you have Scottish ancestors, you are fortunate in that the records provide lots of information.

The online resource for Scottish vital records is scotlandspeople.gov.uk  (SP)

SP is the only place to see the original birth, marriage death (BDM) and census records for Scotland
- other than going in person to the Scottish Records Office SRO in Edinburgh, the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, or the Burns Monument Centre in Kilmarnock (£15 per day plus any photocopying)

Sites like Ancestry and Findmypast only have transcriptions (someone's interpretation of the handwriting) which are often quite badly done as regards spelling. It is good practice to look at the original. I find Ancestry and Findmypast very useful for censuses and tracking the family over the years. More on censuses here.

First you need to register with scotlandspeople. 

You can do searches for free, but to view or download a record it costs 6 credits (£1.50). Credits are purchased in multiples of 30 for £7.

Don’t “order” a certificate unless you need it for legal purposes or it is a modern record. They cost £12 each and are typed rather than images of the original handwritten document. 

An RCE (Register of Corrected Entries) may give more info e.g. on a sudden death or a later paternity case for an illegitimate birth.

Updated December 2018.

Spelling variations

Especially pre 1900, you will find huge variations in spelling of unusual names. If you are looking for Wilson or Smith you should be ok. But McKay could be Mackie or McKie. I will tell you how to search for variations in a later post.

The Education Act of 1872 legislated for compulsory schooling and many public schools were built as a result. The effects of education on the general population are filtering through by the 1890s.

Prior to this ordinary folk were largely illiterate.  You can tell, if they signed their certificate with an X mark. 

So the registrar just wrote down what he heard. Fine if the person was called Brown or Smith. If the person was not local and had an unfamiliar accent you get some strange renditions. Nowadays with television we are familiar with all sorts of accents.

It is often the vowels that change e.g. Breckenridge or Brackenridge, Drennan or Drinnan.

Try saying the name aloud.

Mckune could be McEwan


I've been looking at some Irish folk who came from Derry to Ayrshire and are variously record as Mawhinney, McWhinnie and Mahoney.

How far back can I get?

Provided your family history is straightforward, that is, no change of names, adoptions, frequent moving from place to place, you should be able to get back via records and censuses to before 1800.

Beyond that, ordinary working folk such as agricultural workers, miners, weavers, tradesmen etc will not have left a trail.  People with property, tenant farmers, professional people such as doctors, lawyers, clergy, military families will be easier to trace.

I've only got one line in my tree much beyond 1800 and they were educated: a minister, a lawyer, army surgeons. (And there was me thinking I was the first in my family to go to university!) I was able to handle the parchment degree  of my 5G grandfather Rev. Norman Sievwright who studied at Aberdeen Marischal College from 1744. It is held by Angus Archives. They wouldn't let me photograph it though.

Family history is more than how far back you get, in my opinion. It is finding out about their lives and not just about dates.

Start with what you know

The first thing I say to new family historians is, start with what you know and work back.

So many people start looking for a link to a famous person, that according to family legend, was related. In my family, it was "we are related to the whisky Haigs".  My granny was a Haig from Fife.  We are not related to the whisky Haigs!

There are no shortcuts. Work back systematically through the generations. You will no doubt find plenty of interesting, if not famous, characters.

my granny Margaret M Haig