INDEXES
OLD PARISH REGISTER BIRTHS & BAPTISMS
The OPR births & baptisms index is compiled from the surviving registers of some 900 parishes of the established church (Church of Scotland), which recorded births & baptisms until 1854. The original registers are held by the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh, following their formal transfer from the Church under the 1854 Registration of Births, Deaths & Marriages (Scotland) Act.
The index contains entries of birth & baptisms from 1553 until 1854.
Note: Parish registers may record the birth or the baptism or both, but only one or the other will appear in the index. There is no indication given as to whether the entry is a birth or a baptism, but it is more usual for the index entry to show the baptism date.
Each index entry includes: full date of the event, surname, forename(s) and sex of the child, parents’ names (see below), parish in which the birth or christening was registered, and the GROS references (see below). A frame number may sometimes be included beside the parents’ names, e.g. FR300, which pinpoints the position of that entry on the microfilm of that register.
Although birth/baptism index entries generally include the parents’ names, the mother’s name may be missing in some entries (in some parish registers the mother’s name is unrecorded in certain years, for example Alyth Parish between 1742 and 1786).
Sometimes the sex of a child could not be clearly determined from the original entry, or the given name or abbreviated given name was ambiguous, for example, Marion could be male or female. In such cases, “U” for “unstated”, was used to ensure that the wrong sex was not attributed. "U" values are included in Male, Female and Both Sex searches.
GROS data
The numbers in the column "GROS Data" provide additional reference points for locating the source records at New Register House and can aid the National Records staff if you need assistance with a particular record.
For example, 685/01 0066 where:
- 685 is the parish code, equivalent to the parish name shown in the index record (in this case Edinburgh).
- 01 is the parish suffix, an additional index term for locating the relevant register within a parish. The parish suffix is not always present and may be denoted 00.
- 0066 identifies the volume in which the entry can be located.
OLD PARISH REGISTER BANNS & MARRIAGES
The OPR banns & marriages index is compiled from the surviving registers of some 900 parishes of the established church (Church of Scotland), which recorded banns & marriages until 1854. The original registers are held by the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh, following their formal transfer from the Church under the 1854 Registration of Births, Deaths & Marriages (Scotland) Act.
The index contains entries of banns & marriages from 1553 until 1854.
Note: Parish registers may record the proclamation of the banns or the marriage or both, but only one or the other will appear in the index. However, if a couple resided in different parishes, the banns may have been proclaimed in both parishes and two entries will exist in the index for that couple under different GROS reference numbers. The dates may vary if the banns were proclaimed on different days in each parish, or one may record the date of the banns and one the date of marriage.
Each index entry includes: full date of the event, the surname, forename(s) and sex of the person you are searching for, the name of the spouse, the parish where the proclamation of the banns or the marriage itself was registered, and the GROS references (see below). A frame number may sometimes be included, e.g. FR300, which pinpoints the position of that entry on the microfilm of that register.
GROS data
The numbers in the column "GROS Data" provide additional reference points for locating the source records at New Register House and can aid the National Records staff if you need assistance with a particular record.
For example, 644/01 0024 where:
- 644 is the parish code, equivalent to the Parish Name shown in the index record (in this case Glasgow).
- 01 is the parish suffix, an additional index term for locating the relevant register within a parish. The parish suffix is not always present and may be denoted 00.
- 0024 identifies the volume in which the entry can be located.
OLD PARISH REGISTER DEATHS & BURIALS
More information coming soon.
See Extant OPRs to find out whether death/burial registers exist for the parish in which you are interested.
