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Archiver > ABERDEEN > 2008-03 > 1204795655


From: Gavin Bell <>
Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] HELEN WILL
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:27:35 +0000
References: <151898.77895.qm@web88106.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <151898.77895.qm@web88106.mail.re2.yahoo.com>


Cameron MCBAIN wrote:

>Hi Gavin - where do I go to check out Kirk Session Accounts for Arbroath and Forfar?
>Angus archives? National archives?
>I know of a GGG uncle born in 1825 in Forfar or Angus who married an Aberdeen lass but there is no certificate - maybe he was recorded in a Kirk session?
>
>

A "certificate" is not what you are looking for. Both before and after
the start of Civil Registration in 1855, the principal record for any
birth/baptism, marriage or death was (and still is) the entry in the
Relevant Register. Anything else is an "Extract".

But if they did marry, and paid to have that fact recorded, then the
information will already be with the Registrar General, and consequently
accessible via ScotlandsPeople or on the microfilms of the OPRs. When
Civil Registration was set up, the legislation specifically required the
parishes to surrender not only their formal Registers, but also any
other documents which contained information concerning baptisms,
marriages and deaths (such as lists of "Consignation of Pledges" and
"Mortcloth Accounts") so if the their marriage is not already with the
Registrar General, it will not be tucked away in the KS records.

What the KS records can do (and did, with depressing regularity - had
the Session nothing else to do with their time?) record instances where
a couple had been guilty of Fornication. The evidence for the
Fornication was generally the appearance of an illicit pregnancy, but
while the Session will have "encouraged" the couple to marry and have
the child baptised, neither any marriage nor baptism (nor the name nor
even the sex of the child) is likely to be mentioned in the KS records.

If you still wish to pursue the KS records, then ask NAS first - they
have most of them. The records for Forfar were exceptionally still, a
few years ago, in the keeping of the Parish, but I don't know if that is
still the case.


Gavin Bell

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