Shaking Your Family Tree, MAY 14, 1998

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Shaking Your Family Tree

MAY 14, 1998

Shaking Your Family Tree, by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, C.G.

SCOTS OPEN VIRTUAL DOOR TO THEIR VITAL RECORDS

by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, C.G.

The General Register Office for Scotland, at http.www.open.gov/uk/gros/, is blazing a trail on the World Wide Web by offering a fully searchable index of Scottish birth and marriage records from 1553 to 1897, and death records from 1855 to 1897.

The service is not free, but the convenience of being able to search these indices is an incredible breakthrough for genealogists. For a payment of about $10 you can see and download up to 30 computer-screen pages of index data, and for about $16 more, highlight a particular index entry and send an electronic order for an extract of the full record to which the index entry relates. This extract will then be sent to you via ordinary mail.

When accessing the database for the first time you will be taken to the payment server, where a form appears. This is a secure site (it does not transmit or store your credit card number), and after your credit card has been debited, you will be able to access the database.

The so-called "Old Parish Registers'' date from 1553 to 1854. The parish ministers or session clerks of the established Church of Scotland in some 900 parishes kept these registers. They recorded births and baptisms, proclamations of banns and marriages, and deaths and burials. There are approximately 3,500 registers, but they are far from complete. The oldest relates to baptisms and banns at Errol in Perthshire in 1553, but for some parishes the earliest dates are from the early 19th century, and for other parishes there are no registers at all.

Some of the "Genealogical Gems from the Old Parish Registers'' accessible from the main page or directly at http://www.open.gov.uk/gros/gems.htm, reveal the very human sides to the record keepers. One commented on errors he discovered in the Register of Baptisms, 1836-39:

"In one of these cases a child is represented to have been baptised (sic) about a week before birth, a circumstance not likely to have occurred.''

Naming patterns in the old days, just as today, were certainly a matter of personal preference as shown in these examples:

"9 April 1769. James Paterson and Jean Frazer in Thornhill had a daughter baptised (sic) before the congregation called William-All-Mina.''

"Born 11 Feb. 1853. Waterloo Wellington Kennedy, lawful son of James Kennedy Junior seedsman (the father's occupation) and Elizabeth Hayne.

After statutory registration was introduced in 1855, the Registrar General compiled a register of births, deaths, and marriages proved to have occurred in Scotland between 1801 and 1854 but which had not been entered in the old parish registers. Since 1855 civil registers have kept the vital records of events in Scotland.

Additionally, there are the marine registers of births and deaths (from 1855). These are records of births and deaths on British-registered merchant vessels at sea in any part of the world, where it appears that one of the child's parents or the deceased person was usually a resident of Scotland.

This index is said to include nearly 30 million names, and you can search by surname, event type, sex, forename (given name or first initial), year of registration (or range of years), and other options. The home page also provides information about the most popular forenames in Scotland. In 1997 the top three names for boys were: Ryan, Andrew, and Jack, and for girls: Emma, Rebecca, and Chloe.

(c) 1998, Los Angeles Times Syndicate

Myra Vanderpool Gormley and Julie Case are co-editors of Missing Links, a free weekly genealogy e-zine. To subscribe, send your request to: Missing Links Newsletter

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MAY 14, 1998
	SCOTS OPEN VIRTUAL DOOR TO THEIR VITAL RECORDS by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, C.G.
The General Register Office for Scotland, at http.www.open.gov/uk/gros/, is blazing a trail on the World Wide Web by offering a fully searchable index of Scottish birth and marriage records from 1553 to 1897, and death records from 1855 to 1897. The service is not free, but the convenience of being able to search these indices is an incredible breakthrough for genealogists. For a payment of about $10 you can see and download up to 30 computer-screen pages of index data, and for about $16 more, highlight a particular index entry and send an electronic order for an extract of the full record to which the index entry relates. This extract will then be sent to you via ordinary mail. When accessing the database for the first time you will be taken to the payment server, where a form appears. This is a secure site (it does not transmit or store your credit card number), and after your credit card has been debited, you will be able to access the database. The so-called "Old Parish Registers'' date from 1553 to 1854. The parish ministers or session clerks of the established Church of Scotland in some 900 parishes kept these registers. They recorded births and baptisms, proclamations of banns and marriages, and deaths and burials. There are approximately 3,500 registers, but they are far from complete. The oldest relates to baptisms and banns at Errol in Perthshire in 1553, but for some parishes the earliest dates are from the early 19th century, and for other parishes there are no registers at all. Some of the "Genealogical Gems from the Old Parish Registers'' accessible from the main page or directly at http://www.open.gov.uk/gros/gems.htm, reveal the very human sides to the record keepers. One commented on errors he discovered in the Register of Baptisms, 1836-39: "In one of these cases a child is represented to have been baptised (sic) about a week before birth, a circumstance not likely to have occurred.'' Naming patterns in the old days, just as today, were certainly a matter of personal preference as shown in these examples: "9 April 1769. James Paterson and Jean Frazer in Thornhill had a daughter baptised (sic) before the congregation called William-All-Mina.'' "Born 11 Feb. 1853. Waterloo Wellington Kennedy, lawful son of James Kennedy Junior seedsman (the father's occupation) and Elizabeth Hayne. After statutory registration was introduced in 1855, the Registrar General compiled a register of births, deaths, and marriages proved to have occurred in Scotland between 1801 and 1854 but which had not been entered in the old parish registers. Since 1855 civil registers have kept the vital records of events in Scotland. Additionally, there are the marine registers of births and deaths (from 1855). These are records of births and deaths on British-registered merchant vessels at sea in any part of the world, where it appears that one of the child's parents or the deceased person was usually a resident of Scotland. This index is said to include nearly 30 million names, and you can search by surname, event type, sex, forename (given name or first initial), year of registration (or range of years), and other options. The home page also provides information about the most popular forenames in Scotland. In 1997 the top three names for boys were: Ryan, Andrew, and Jack, and for girls: Emma, Rebecca, and Chloe. (c) 1998, Los Angeles Times Syndicate Myra Vanderpool Gormley and Julie Case are co-editors of Missing Links, a free weekly genealogy e-zine. To subscribe, send your request to: Missing Links Newsletter Return to Myra Vanderpool Gormley Main Page Return to Columns Main Page
Copyright 1998, 1999, Ancestry.com Inc. and its subsidiaries. Terms and Conditions \| Privacy Statement