Scottish Ancestry
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Old Parochial Registers
These are records of Births, Marriages and Deaths compiled by the Established Church of Scotland prior to the commencement of Civil Registration in 1855. The session clerk or the minister of the church or parish compiled these registers. There was no standard form of recording information and dates of commencement and the contents of these records are variable, not many have survived before the 17th century. Only a few parishes recorded deaths or burials. Registration certificates and census returns should be the initial tools of research to locate family members and Old Parochial Registers can then be consulted to search for material recorded prior to the commencement of civil registration in 1855.