Find your ancestors in Scotland Non-Old Parish Registers Vital Records 1647-1875

Explore this collection of Scottish non-old parish registers, an alternate source to the Church of Scotland’s old parish records. The records comprise registers of births, marriages, and deaths created by churches outside of the established church.

With each result you will be provided with a transcript of the details found in the original source material. The detail in each transcript can vary depending on the event type and the amount of information that was recorded at the time of the event. Here are some of the facts you may find in the records:

  • Name
  • Birth year
  • Birth date
  • Birth place
  • Event year
  • Event type – birth, marriage, or death
  • Register name
  • Parish and county
  • Full entry
  • Archive and reference

Baptism

  • Parents’ names

Marriage

  • Marriage year
  • Spouse’s name
  • Marriage place

Death

  • Death date
  • Burial date
  • Mortcloth (pall) hire date

Discover more about these records

Non-old parish registers are records that come from churches outside of the established state religion – the Church of Scotland. They are distinctively different from the Church of Scotland’s old parish records. The original records are held by the National Records of Scotland and have been diligently transcribed by Graham and Emma Maxwell. The records span from 1684 until 1861 and include seven Scottish counties. A list of all the places found in these records is available through this link.

Increasingly in the 18th and 19th centuries, groups of individuals left the Church of Scotland and formed other churches. For example, in 1737, 70 residents of West Linton left the established church and built their own church known as the West Linton Associate Church. In this collection, you can find over 500 records from the West Linton Associate Church registers.

Many of the death registers documented the date that the mortcloth (pall) was hired. In Scotland, it was tradition to have the coffin covered by a mortcloth, which was a black velvet cloth. Not everyone could afford to purchase such a cloth and instead hired a mortcloth for the funeral. The amount charged could vary depending on the size and condition (whether it was old or brand new) of the mortcloth.