certs

[julie d]

What sort of info can I expect to see on a birth or marriage cert from Scotland. Thanks Julie.

[DavidWW]

Place, date and exact time of birth (necessary for a full and proper horoscope!!, - the date of birth alone is insufficient, - the exact time is required, - which, in the English records, is only found for multiple births, i.e. twins and "above" !); the address; plus the usual residence if different; plus the names of the parents, including the maiden name of the mother (if married, that is!); plus the name and address, if different, of the informant; along with the very helpful info on the place and date of the marriage of the parents (apart from a few years from 1856 onwards before such info was restored in 1863 or whenever ??.........)

For a marriage register in 1855 onwards in Auld Scotia, you will find the names of the fathers and mothers of the couple, including the maiden names of the mothers; along with the "declared" ages of the couple; i.e. none of this "of full age" nonsense!, that can be the case in England and Wales <g>, - but watch out for "massaging" of ages where the ages of the couple differed to a significant extent so that one at least of the ages was "massaged", so to write, - far from unusual !! <bg>

In 1855 only, there was additional info ................

David

[Russell]

Hi Julie

If you click on 'Gallery' at the top of the page the second album gives examples of Birth and Marriage certificates. As David said, there are minor variations depending on when the document was completed, but they are detailed as he described and are probably the most useful records of their kind in any country.

Russell

[julie d]

Thanks for that, can I please ask another question, how do I get info on BDM pre 1855?

[Russell]

Hi Julie

That is a more problematic question. There was no legal requirement pre-1855 to record Deaths so they can be hard to find but most parishes kept records of Births and Marriages and they are known as the OPR (Old Parochial Registers) which are available on SP. They did not actually record births, instead they noted Baptisms so the dates given may only reflect these. To complicate matters sometimes parents would have several children baptised at the same time so the eldest child could be several years old.
Marriages could only be carried out after Banns were called (in case anyone had an objection to the marriage) so sometimes the dates refer to the calling of the Banns and fail to mention whether the marriage actually took place
To add another complication. - Most of the available records relate to the Established Church of Scotland. Where folk followed a different religious persuasion e.g. Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, Free or United Free Church their records may not have survived or were not handed over for transcription.
In my own research we have had most luck from visits to graveyards searching out family gravestones or by looking up the books of pre-1855 Memorial Inscriptions (M.Is). These gave us infomation about children who died in infancy and siblings we did not know existed.
It can be a slow process , but eminently satisfying when you find them

Russell

[julie d]

Thanks for the info Russell, I will try SP.