Do you have early Scottish ancestors? discover details of their final resting place in the most comprehensive collection of church and parish death & burial records online, transcribed and compiled from a wide range of primary sources, including records of mortcloths and ringings of the burial bell, never before published online.
Do you have early Scottish ancestors? discover details of their final resting place in the most comprehensive collection of church and parish death & burial records online, transcribed and compiled from a wide range of primary sources, including records of mortcloths and ringings of the burial bell, never before published online.
The detail contained in these records can vary (particularly by parish and era), but you will usually find the following information:
The Scottish national parish collection was compiled from a variety of different sources, from a number of organisations including:
It contains transcriptions of the original surviving Church of Scotland OPR (Old Parish Registers) material from across the country, including later records that have never been seen before online. It is supplemented by further new records from other faiths, including the Scottish Episcopal Church, Free Church of Scotland, United Free Church, and more.
This collection also contains details of records not found in regular parish registers.
Mortcloths
A mortcloth was a form of cloth draped over a body or coffin at a funeral ceremony. These were hired for the event and money was paid to the Kirk Sessions for the rental fee, with the money used to pay for poor relief. For those who were too poor to be found in burial records, or for areas where core parish registers do not survive, this may be the only place to discover the names and burial dates of potential ancestors.
The burial bell
There were those too poor to afford even a funeral in some parts of Scotland, and for these people the church could arrange to ring the church bell on behalf of the deceased for a smaller fee. A number of these accounts have also been transcribed and added to this collection to give the best possible chance of finding the names of those missing from a Scottish family tree.
This collection has been comprehensively indexed. Try using elements of what you know to get to the records you need, by using different fields, or the keyword search. You don't need to fill every field, add more information if you get too many potential results to narrow things down.
These records have been transcribed from the original documents, some of which have deteriorated considerably since their creation and become harder to read. make use of Wildcards to ensure you have the best possible chance of finding your ancestors.
The Findmypast Scottish collection is large and growing. Consider supplementing your research in this record set by exploring some of the following additional resources, accessible from the all record sets part of the website:
New Scottish records are regularly added to the website. Revisit old names and searches periodically to be sure to catch additional information about your ancestors that may have been added since your last visit.