Scotland - Death records pre-1855

[CaroleJ]

Hi everybody

I use Scotlands People to research my Scottish ancestry and I need to explore deaths before 1855 but unfortunately these are not available on SP. I don't know whether this is because they were not recorded or whether it's just that they have not yet transcribed them. I am also using the IGI via LDS, but I am wondering whether any one knows of any other websites where pre - 1855 deaths may be found.

I would also like to ask if anyone could let me know the most useful website for exploring Irish ancestry.

Thank you very much in advance.

Caz

[BigShaz McCreadie]

Caz you can look up births pre-1855 on SP.... although admittedly you'll only get births of those who were baptised Church of Scotland.

And you can view the images too as they have all been digitilised

Edit; Have you posted wrongly? did you mean Deaths pre-1855?
Just looked back at your post and you start with births but end up mentioning deaths :D

[Olde Crone Holden]

Caz

Scottish civil registration didn't start till 1855, so before that you will need parish records - these are on Scotland's People.

The IGI is useless for deaths as the Mormons do not record deaths and don't therefore transcribe them.

For Irish research - look at our WIKI (button above on blue bar). Sorry, I don't have any experience of researching in Ireland, I just know it is difficult, lol.

OC

[BigShaz McCreadie]

Caz

Scottish civil registration didn't start till 1855, so before that you will need parish records - these are on Scotland's People.

OC

I should have said it like that but as Caz mentioned that she uses SP to research then I guessed it was OPR's she is after but on further reading I am thinking it's the deaths and burials and not births.

Caz

SP don't have any plans as yet to index these records or digitilise them.
I'm afraid you won't get that online and to be honest its a bit hit and miss in Scotland for Deaths and Burial records. You'd be looking for Burial records, Mortcloth records and Bills of mortality if you are really lucky then you may get the age of the deceased as well as the name but in most cases that is about it.

Don't be put off though, where there is a will there is a way ;)

[Olde Crone Holden]

Ah, right - in fact Caz has headed her thread BURIAL records, lol!

Burial records are always the most difficult for some reason. You just have to dig around I'm afraid. EDIT Pun not intended there, it just happened!

Google sometimes helps - I stumbled across someone's list of burial records extracted from a very early register recently, which has been very helpful.

Often, the Family History Societies for the various areas have transcribed monumental inscriptions - again, really useful.

OC

[BigShaz McCreadie]

Ah, right - in fact Caz has headed her thread BURIAL records, lol!

OC

:o Doh...... Just read Scotland and clicked...lol

Caz

Scottish civil registration didn't start till 1855, so before that you will need parish records - these are on Scotland's People.

OC

:D and judging by this reply so did you!!! :D

Caz... its true as OC says about the monumental inscriptions.... as a matter of fact a good few years back the Scottish Genealogical Society carried out a survey on Scotland MI's and they are all held at the NAS

[CaroleJ]

Sorry yes I did mean pre 1855 deaths not births - I was watching tele at the same time as writing and got distracted !
Thanks everyone for your help here, there's a lot of things there that I haven't tried yet and things I didn't know. Any more ideas would help. Caz.

[Asa]

It probably depends where your ancestors are too, eg I know there is a Fife Burial Index.

[Uncle John]

Someone said above, where there's a will there's a way. And you might find a will on SP if you are lucky. The free summary is often detailed enough to give you the date of death.

[KiteRunner]

And as well as wills, there are inventories on there too. Well worth a look. And also, have a look at ScotsFind Scottish Genealogy to see if there is anything for the area you want.

[Uncle John]

My g-g-grandfather's will and inventory ran to nearly 40 pages between them. He owned a lot of property and there were long lists of rents etc. The down-side is the colour of the paper. They seem to come out blue on blue.

[SarahM]

It would depend where in Scotland. I have MI booklets for a couple of different areas in Scotland, which only detail stones pre-1855. There is a fantastic website with lots of burials and deaths in the Moray area. There is also a website which details MI inscriptions for the Kintyre district of Argyll.

Sarah

[Raven]

The Aberdeen and North East Family History Society has numerous booklets with MI transcriptions for most of the Burial Grounds in the North East. They have an online Index available unfortunately it only gives names and not the full transcription.

Welcome to the Aberdeen & NE Scotland FHS

[CaroleJ]

Thanks for all these tips - I have started looking into some of your ideas - really useful - keep them coming ! I'll get there in the end.

The family I am researching JARDINE/LAURIE/KIRKPATRICK seem to have come from the Closeburn Dumfriesshire area then on to Coatbridge Lanarkshire.


A couple of weeks ago someone did a look up for me in the Mitchell Library Glasgow - Google it - it sounds like a really useful place to visit for Scottish genealogy research.

He was able to give me details of four deaths in my family which I could never have found myself.

[Raven]

You could also try this site it has loads of Scottish Information on it..

Scotlands Family Tree