Marriage Certificates - Scotland

[Nodrogw]

I have obtained some marriage certificates for family in England from the 1840's and from them have found out the names of their fathers. Can anyone tell me if the certificates for Scotland for that period contained the same information.

[Elaine ..Spain]

Civil registration in Scotland didn't start until 1855, so before that time you would need to look at the parish registers.

If you are researching Scottish ancestors then Scotlands People is the website you need!

The following link gives you some idea what you might find in the parish registers.

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?r=554&631

[Uncle John]

If you are very fortunate and have a Scottish birth, marriage or death that took place in 1855 itself, you'll find a wealth of information. From 1856 onwards the amount of information is reduced but still a lot more than you get on an English certificate. The process for finding the correct event is different, and you do need the male or female surname to start a search.

But once you find the correct event in your 20p pre-searches, you can view and download the actual register entry for £1.

Pre-1855 parish register searches are more hit-and-miss. You will only find Church of Scotland entries (no dissenting churches and only a small number of RC records). The quality of the information recorded is down to the minister or session clerk who recorded the event. The IGI has pretty good coverage of Scottish events, so you can do quite a bit of searching for free.

[JBee]

If it was before 1855 then I would suggest looking on the IGI first to narrow down your search - many of the OPR records on Scotlandspeople are the same as on the IGI or Scots Origins (baptisms/marriages) where you can search by county.

Catholic baptisms for certain areas have been added to scotlandspeople (which saves having to go to the Catholic Archives) and they hope to have the other records on eventually.

If someone was born before 1855 but married or died in Scotland after 1855 - these images contain both the parents names including maiden names which is a godsend. You can search for a woman by married or maiden name.

You can download images from scotlandspeople - births over 100 years, marriages over 75 years and deaths over 50 years ago - this can really help.

However if you visit Edinburgh you can transcribe the more recent images

[Nodrogw]

Thanks again for your help. I know this is not quite the same subject, but does relate to the same research. I have four relatives in Scotland who died between 1873 and 1934. I have tried to bring up the death certificates on Scotlands people, but have only succeeded in getting one. Any idea what I might be doing wrong.

[GallowayLass]

Dunno, could be simply miss-spelling or a Mac and not a Mc in the surname. What are your missing ones and I'll try to see if I get a result.

[Uncle John]

Sometimes "less is more" when searching. A list of 25 possibles costs the same as a shorter list.