Re: BIRTH CERTS
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In reply to:
BIRTH CERTS
CHRISTINE MARSHALL 5/23/12
Morning Sonc
Yes, you have missed that Birth Reigistration on a Statutory/Civil Basis did NOT start until 1st January 1855 in Scotland (1910 in some USA States!).
www.scotlandspeople.cov.uk
Those SRs are accessed via the SR Section for BMDs on Scotland's People.
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Just below it is the access to the earlier OPRs (Old Parish Registers), from about 1553 to 1854.
However, for various reasons enumerated on SP, these are far from complete, ranging that many of the churches simply did not record any BMD events, through Destruction by fire, flood and even re-cycling (paper was expensive back in those days); and finally that many churches did not pass their sueviving records over to the Registrar General of Scotland, when that position was started in 1855.
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You have therefore to do a search in the earlier OPR Section rather than the later SR section.
In fact, we are very lucky in that SP has SCANned the Original Documents; and that subject to the survival/hand-over aspect, that they are available immediately on-line, to be VIEWed etc.
I am not aware of any other country that gives such easy access to such ancient documents.
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However, the majority of the OPR Birth Records are brief, being one or two lines only; and typically-
"
(Date) John Smith presented a son for Baptism this day
"
All too frequrntly, the Mother is NOT MENTIONED!!
I have occasionally seen an Occupation and Employer of the Father included (particularly in nmy early ancestors in one ancestral line; and yes, even the Mother was there).
Always check the other entries onthe same page.
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Similar applies to the Marriage OPRs, although in one case, it amounted to being an extended pre-nuptial agreement.
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Scotland's People is pernickety regarding Name Spelling; and you may have to try its offered range of variants, from Exact Spelling through to Soundex; and also deliberate variations picked up from the LDS FS Site as it is highly flexible on those aspects.
If the LDS FS Result has "record from locality" in its "Message:" section, then you should be able to find it on SP.
Alex
Alex Dow