Explore 450 years of Scottish family milestones with millions of new parish registers

2-3 minute read

By Niall Cullen | July 30, 2021

We've published over 10 million new baptism, marriage, and burial records, creating the largest collection of Scottish family history records available online.

This Findmypast Friday, we've added a vast new collection of 'Old Parish Registers' to the site in collaboration with local archives and organizations across Scotland. Read on for all the details on this major new records release.

Scotland, Parish Births & Baptisms 1564-1929

This is the most comprehensive collection of Scottish birth and baptism records online, transcribed and compiled from a wide range of primary sources.

The incredible new collection features the vital details of Scots from all walks of life, including some of the country’s most famous sons and daughters.

You’ll find records for Robert Burns, Alexander Graham Bell, Scipio Kennedy and many more.

Scotland, Parish Marriages & Banns 1561-1893

Millions of new regular, irregular and cross-border marriage records are now online, some for the very first time.

Rare “irregular marriages” occurred during Kirk Sessions, were not officially recorded in parish registers and were conducted without a ceremony.

Names, dates, locations, the names of parents, spouses, children, and other biographical details such as occupations, residences, and more were painstakingly transcribed and then digitally converted thanks to the hard work of hundreds of Scottish family historians.

Scotland, Parish Deaths & Burials 1564-2017

Is your ancestor’s final resting place in Scotland? Find out in millions of new records, published in partnership with local societies, archives, and volunteers including:

The Scottish Genealogy Society
Fife Family History Society
The Highland Family History Society
Dumfries & Galloway Family History Society
Renfrewshire Family History Society
Lothians Family History Society
Lanarkshire Family History Society
Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society
West Lothian Family History Society

The collection also includes 20th-century records (most online Scottish parish collections stop at 1855) that provide vital details of more recent relatives, helping you to trace your family tree back from there.

Newspapers

We’ve just added 17 brand new newspapers and updated 28 others. New releases include:

Ballot covering 1831-1832
Brockley News, New Cross and Hatcham Review covering 1890 and 1892-1931
English Chronicle and Whitehall Evening Post covering 1801-1802, 1804, 1807, and 1809-1843
Glasgow Chronicle covering 1847-1848, 1850 and 1857
Hampshire Observer and Basingstoke News covering 1903-1916
London Telegraph covering 1824-1825
Newcastle Guardian and Silverdale, Chesterton and Audley Chronicle covering 1881, 1887-1888, 1890-1892, 1894-1895, 1898, 1900-1906, and 1908-1909
People’s Hue and Cry or Weekly Police Register covering 1834
People’s Paper covering 1852-1858
Planet covering 1837-1844
Political Letter covering 1831
Porcupine covering 1800-1801
Radical covering 1831 and 1836
Reformer covering 1831
South Wales Argus covering 1892-1893 and 1899
Town Talk covering 1858-1859
Universe covering 1846-1848

And we've supplemented the following papers with thousands of extra pages:

Ben Brierley’s Journal from 1882
Birkenhead News from 1878-1879
Blackpool Gazette & Herald from 1874 and 1876-1879
Bridlington and Quay Gazette from 1877
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette from 1879
British Press from 1823
Coleshill Chronicle from 1951
East Kent Times and Mail from 1950
Eastern Counties’ Times from 1898, 1909, 1916 and 1931
Fulham Chronicle from 1950-1960, 1962-1970 and 1976-1978
Hull Daily News from 1854, 1890-1895, 1910 and 1912
Kenilworth Advertiser from 1877-1879
Leicester Evening Mail from 1911-1912, 1915, 1922, 1924 and 1926
Liverpool Weekly Courier from 1867-1869 and 1872-1879
Northern Weekly Gazette from 1868 and 1875-1879
Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette from 1917
Patriot from 1858-1866
Runcorn Examiner from 1892
Satirist; or, the Censor of the Times from 1845
Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser from 1953-1957 and 1959-1977
Socialist (Edinburgh) from 1902-1919 and 1921-1924
South Wales Weekly Argus and Monmouthshire Advertiser from 1902, 1906-1909 and 1912-1914
Swansea and Glamorgan Herald from 1861, 1863-1866, 1886-1888 and 1890
Swansea Journal and South Wales Liberal from 1893-1894
Teignmouth Post and Gazette from 1905, 1908, and 1910-1911
Waterford Star from 1893-1898, 1907 and 1914
Westminster & Pimlico News from 1950-1951, 1953-1954, 1956-1972 and 1979-1980
Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald from 1975

Findmypast Fridays live

How has your Scottish family story shaped your present and future? We love hearing about your amazing discoveries. Tag @findmypast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and share your story with us for a chance to be featured.