"Our fathers find their graves in our short memories,
and sadly tell us how we may be buried in our
survivors." This was the gloomy conclusion of Sir Thomas
Browne, writing in 1658 as he meditated on the find of some
ancient burial urns in Norfolk, but fortunately with the
present widespread enthusiasm for genealogy, the knowledge of
our forebears is much more far-reaching and long-lasting. The
best place to start research on family history is at home. An
assiduous search of cupboards and drawers may bring to light
an unexpectedly wide selection of interesting documents - old
letters, the family bible, legal documents, newspaper
cuttings, certificates, medals and photographs. Some often
pose problems - letters may lack dates and refer to people
only by Christian or nick names, while photographs are too
often uncaptioned and have to be identified by fashions in
ladles' hats or gentlemen's collars, or by the style
of setting of the picture.
It is at this point that the reminiscences and memories of
older members of the family can be of great value in building
up the knowledge of the family. Some of the stories handed
down about earlier generations may be apocryphal - many
families cherish traditions of an heiress who ran away with
the coachman and was disinherited, or connections with Burns,
Flora McDonald and other well-known figures - but sometimes
there is a foundation of truth in these tales and they should
never be summarily dismissed.
Having collected as much knowledge of the family as
possible orally and through material at hand, it is always
wise to start systematic research to check the information
gained. Memories are always valuable but frequently fallible.
In Scotland, statutory registration of births, deaths and
marriages commenced in January 1855 and the amount of detail
given on certificates is vastly superior to that provided on
English certificates. Copies of registers for the whole
country are kept in New Register House, Edinburgh, where for
a fee, (dally, weekly, monthly or three monthly) one can
search the annual indexes and order up any certificate which
seems to be of interest.
The best method is to search backwards - a birth
certificate, for instance, will in most cases give the date
and place of marriage of the child's parents: that
marriage certificate will give the ages of the two persons
concerned, their occupations and addresses and name their
parents, noting whether they were still alive at that time.
By systematically working back from generation to generation,
it is usually possible to trace a family into the eighteenth
century - though there may sometimes be difficulties if they
lived in a large city or had a very common surname. On the
whole, the information given on certificates is correct but
it is always wise to bear in mind that errors did occur - for
example, a grandson informing on the death of an aged
grandparent might find it difficult to remember the maiden
name of his great-grandmother which was required by the
registrar, and ages were often inaccurate.
Many interesting details emerge from a study of these
certificates - ages at marriage, causes of death which may
illustrate the scourge of tuberculosis and ravages of typhus
or smallpox - notes of where the family lived, how many
children they had, occupations, even indications of literacy
in the signing of certificates. The picture of earlier
generations can then be filled out further by consulting .the
census schedules. The earliest named census which covered the
whole country was taken in 1841. This is the least
satisfactory of the enumerations as those for 1851, 1861,
1871, 1881 and 1891 - all of which are open to inspection -
provide much more information. All members of a household are
listed, their relationship to the head of the house stated,
and ages, occupations and parishes of birth given. Sometimes
the details given are a little surprising - one woman was
described as -uninvited guest- and a man was - perhaps
truthfully - put down as -card-sharper-. The 1861 and later
censuses state how many rooms with windows the family lived
in - a note which often illustrates the appallingly cramped
housing conditions of the time.
As well as adding to the knowledge of the background of
the family, the census entries can be crucial in locating
earlier generations and in bridging the gap between the
statutory registers and the parish registers. These are as
yet - not indexed over the whole country though work is in
hand in compiling a county by county index to baptisms and
marriages recorded in the parish registers and the northern
counties of Scotland - but not Argyll - are now covered. It
is therefore essential to know in which parish a 'person
was . born or baptised - information which can be found in
censuses (except that for 1841) ,
Before 1855, registration of births and marriages (or
baptisms and proclamations which were the events more
commonly recorded) was not obligatory. These were entered, on
a voluntary basis, in the registers of each parish which
were, in the main, only concerned with members of the
established church of Scotland and particularly after the
Disruption a high percentage of families did not record the
births of their children there. Marriages (or proclamations)
were more often recorded since this provided proof of the
legitimacy of subsequent children. Some dissenting
congregations did keep their own records; many have been sent
to the Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh - others are still
kept locally by the churches concerned or are in private
hands. The registers of the established church are all in the
hands of the Registrar General.
The Old Parish Registers are a source of fascination and
frustration to the genealogist. It is not uncommon to find
gaps in the records, so due to the forgetfulness or
incompetence of the session clerk - in Hawick in the early
1800s many entries were prefaced by the admission
"almost forgot ..." Other blanks were caused by the
disruption of civil disturbances, the unwillingness of
parents to give in the names of their children for baptism or
the loss of whole volumes by fire, flood or mice. The
starting date for registers in each parish also varies
greatly. The earliest is that for Errol, in Perthshire, which
goes back to 1553, while those for Skye and the Outer Isles
in the main are not extant before the nineteenth century. In
Kintyre the oldest register belongs to Campbeltown,
commencing in 1659.
There was no standard form for entries and the amount of
detail given depended on the whim of the session clerk whose
task it usually was to keep the registers. A baptism often
only supplied the name of the child, the name of the father
and perhaps his place of residence: others, more helpfully,
gave the mother's maiden name, father's occupation
and details of witnesses who were often relatives.
Proclamations were in many cases even less informative and
sometimes consisted merely of the date of crying of banns and
names of the two parties concerned and the parish to which
each belonged.
The pleasure of searching the parish registers, however,
comes in the element of surprise in entries - unexpected
details of when a child who is being baptised cut its first
tooth or a hint at a hidden family drama. In Strontian in
1833 the proclamation for Donald Cameron at Woodend and Mary
Cameron was duly put in the parish register but a note was
added underneath: "N.B. There has been something very
odd about the above parties. They fast contracted and then
split. Then agreed and with much regularity married, were not
married passing 5 days when lo - the weaker vessel set sail
and steered her course for her mammy." Another marriage
entry - in Campbelltown in 1726 also arouses one's
curiosity as beneath the proclamation of Hugh Thompson and
Jean Greenlees was written the terse comment "She
rewed".
The death or burial records were the least well kept. Many
parishes had none - others only noted the payments made for
the hire of the parish mort cloth, while a few records
vividly depict the tragedies of the past shipwrecks at sea,
cholera epidemics or deaths of children falling through the
ice in winter, some entries giving whole obituaries of the
dead. One can never be sure what will be found - and
sometimes the minister or session clerk took the opportunity
to make totally irrelevant comments on the weather, the state
of the crops or to enter the cure for the bite of a mad dog
in man or beast.
One of the problems of researching ancestry in pre-1855
records is in proving the relevance of any entry found.
Lacking information from a statutory marriage or death
certificate, which gives the names of parents, one might find
several children of the same born in a parish over a period
of years, anyone of which might refer to the person being
sought. It has been known for over-eager ancestor hunters in
despair to shut their eyes and select one of the
possibilities at random but in fact there are various clues
which can sometimes solve the impasse. Many families followed
the Scottish naming patterns, calling the eldest son after
his paternal grandfather, and the eldest daughter after the
maternal grandmother. in some cases generation after
generation remained at the same farm or township or followed
the same occupation - or information can be gained from
looking at the names of witnesses to the baptism of children
as it is very common for the child's grandfather or uncle
to be a sponsor.
Deficient, full of errors, tales of the unexpected as they
are, the old parish registers remain the major source of
genealogy before 1855, and with perseverance it is often
surprising how much information can be culled from them. Most
families can be traced back to the 1780' s - but many,
with additional information gained from a search of the many
other sources available can be established back much
further.
(To be continued)
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