You are in: Home › Research › Old Parish Registers 1553-1854 ›

Old Parish Registers 1553-1854

The ScotlandsPeople Centre provides access to indexes and digital images of surviving Old Parish Registers of

— Births and Christenings - 1553 to 1854

— Banns and Marriages - 1553 to 1854

In 2009 the Old Parish Registers for Deaths and Burials for 1560 to 1854 will be indexed and available to view. Meantime indexes for some of the parishes are available in the Library.

What are Old Parish Registers?

Old Parish Registers are the records which the Church of Scotland kept of births and baptisms, banns and marriages and deaths and burials for the 300 years before the start of civil registration in 1855.

Duplicate or scroll copies of birth, death and marriage registers are available in the Miscellaneous Records series and there are also transcripts available in the Library.

Example of a death and burial entry from the Registers, 1787

Old Parish Registers 1553-1854

What are Old Parish Registers?

Example of death entry from Registers, 1787