Re: John Morton (b. 25 Jul 1792)
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In reply to:
Re: John Morton (b. 25 Jul 1792)
Linda Meichsner 6/24/11
Morning Linda
Scotland's People is a Pay site - BUT remarkably cheap for records before 1906.
As it is run on behalf of the Government Official, THe REgistrar General of Scotland, it is only genuine records as would be required in a court of law, that are available, ie it does not contain anyone's guesswork.
Basically, you purchase 30 Credits for UK£7, around IS$11.
To VIEW the Search Database results costs 1 Credit for each page. Up to about 25 Results per page.
Those results contain more information helping to choose which specific Record you would like to VIEW the Scanned IMAGE of the Original Document, complete with spidery writing, tears, blots etc. That is as though you were in THe Dome in New Register House, holding the ancient document in your hands.
To VIEW those IMAGEs costs 5 Credits.
So assuming you have carried out an accurate Search, it typically costs 6 Credits, about UK£1.40, about US$ 2.00, saving you the cost of travelling to Edinburgh, hotel etc.
No other site gives such easy, cheap access to seeing exactly what the "Original Document", contains.
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The BMD Records re in two main groups-
Before 1855 - Old Parish Records (OPR)
From 1855 - Statutory Registrations (SR), SCanned IMAGEs up to 1906 approx.
Stautory Registration
The SRs normlly contain more detail, such as Date & Time of Birth, Parents' Marriage Location and Date, Name of the Informant (frequently the maternal grandmother of the newly-born child) etc.
Same general idea for SR Marriage and Dearh Records.
So very fullsome normally and very useful.
The SRs being government documents, were written by Clerks, using 150 year" ink on good quality paper, so normally very legible.
Old Parish Records
Before 1855, the presbyterian and catholic churches in Scotland were supposed to record and maintain the corresponding information, hence the OPR designation.
Unfortunately, the amount of information on the OPRs tends to be brief, A Baptism.Birth reads typically-
"
On the other hand, one Banns/Marriage record I have VIEWed, amounted to being a Pre-NUptial Agreement in today's terminology.
The OPRs have very few Deaths recorded - and the few are generally a result of the Renting of the Mortcloth.
The catholic churches for those of their faith, the presbyterians basically for all other denominations, faiths etc.
Some never did so, some records were destroyed by the passage of time, fire, flame, flood etc.
So where-as the SR coverage is probably around 99% for all Scottish BMD event from 1855, the OPRs probably cover by my guestimate, about 25% or less of the population that actually existed from about 1550 to 1854. That situation is not unique to Scotland.
Scotland's People has a fuller explanation.
In part, the 1841 and 1851 Censuses can help supplement the later OPR period, I have identifiedan implied Birth back to 1766 from an entry in the 1841 Census. Being non-denominational, the cover about 95% of the population of Scotland existing on those two Census Dates.
95%?? - In the 1881 Census, I have seen entries for individuals are "Don't know" or similar for each column etc. Also some would be outside Scotland. For example, one relative of mine appears in the 1881 English Census, whilst his wife and familly appear in the 1881 Scottish Census, some 400 miles and one Border apart.
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There are various ways of purchasing Credits on Scotland's People, again described on that site.
The simplest is by using a Credit Card or a Debit Card, being virtually instantaneous. On returning from a funeral, I pursued the ancestry of one of the mourners, taking about one hour and 50 Credits (about UK£10), to trace his ancestry back through 6 generations to 1722.
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If pursuing English and Welsh Ancestry, it would cost UK£12 and about two weeks delay for delivery, to get photo-copies of each individual original document with its possibility of not having any additional detail.
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The difficulty in finding a Birth Record for Archibald is likely to be that it was not recorded, never existed; or may have been destroyed (along with others) with the passage of time etc.
One possibility is that in that era, new/replacemet churches were being built in some quantity - the existing OPRs may have simply been thrown out - "Ach th'r auld bits o' paper wi' nae relevance noo, so jist burn them."
Alex