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