Steps For Tracing Scottish Ancestry Outside of The Church of Scotland

Introduction
For many researchers of Scottish ancestry prior to 1855, the Church of Scotland parochial registers do not provide answers for constructing their genealogical lineage. Their parochial registers hardly covered one-half of the Scottish population. Many of our ancestors chose church attendance in churches outside of the Church of Scotland, so their names will normally not show up in searches on Scotlandspeople.gov.uk! ScotlandsPeople has indexed only Church of Scotland registers at the present time (as well the Roman Catholic parish registers). Some marriages (especially 1754-1837) and/or occasional burial register entries sometimes show up in Church of Scotland churchyards. By 1851, well over half of all Scotsmen chose to affiliate with, marry in, and took their children to be baptised in a non-subscribing church outside of the Church of Scotland. After 1853, many were buried in public town cemeteries or in churchyards (where extant) of the non-subscribing local church.

Listed below are some alternative research steps and record sources used to find non-Church of Scotland ancestors in other church registers and sources. These important steps and records will help counter the problems associated with their names missing in and the problems of under-registration in the parochial registers of the Church of Scotland.

Tracing Non-Subscribing Ancestry Online
These are some alternative record sources and search strategies to use, when the name(s) of ancestors do not appear in Church of Scotland parish registers:


 * ScotlandsPeople - church records from the Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic Church, and other churches
 * Church Records Research Guide - church records available online or at the National Records of Scotland. Includes the Church of Scotland and nonconformist and non-subscribing church records (referenced with "CH" for denominational and nonconformist churches and "RH" for Catholic records). Search in the target parish.
 * Church Court Records Research Guide - church records available at regional archives in Scotland
 * Catholic Parish Registers Research Guide - Roman Catholic records available on ScotlandsPeople
 * Scotland Church Records and Kirk Session Records, 1658-1919 - often contain marriage banns, a few burials and baptisms, "colourful record[s]" of the kirk (church) discipline" by the minister and kirk elders over errant parishioners for drunkenness, swearing, Sabbath violations, quarreling and sexual misdemeanours, marrying in and baptising children in churches other than a Church of Scotland parish. Other records include communion rolls, seat rent books and poor relief accounts of nonconformist and non-subscribing individuals. Note that some secessionist churches (not just the Church of Scotland) also have extant kirk session records. Be certain to search in regional archives as they possess equally important details similar to Church of Scotland kirk sessions records.
 * Blotter registers - church records for roughly 75 parishes in Scotland. The FHL Catalog has all of these records - search for the parish name or search with "Blotter Registers" in the Keywords field
 * Neglected entries - civil registration records for approximately 130 parishes in Scotland. The records are located on the FamilySearch Catalog on microfilm #103538 and have been digitzed
 * Marriage registers of surrounding parishes
 * Marriage registers of the Church of Scotland in a large city
 * Church burial registers (where extant). See:
 * Burial and death registers of other protestant churches
 * Deceasedonline.com
 * The local Church of Scotland parish churchyard/registers (if extant)
 * Monumental inscriptions (MI’s) where they exist (i.e. the Mitchell Collections)
 * Civil registration records of death and marriage
 * Sasines (a type of land record): sometimes give a Marriage Contract
 * Register of Deeds: sometimes give a Marriage Contract after husband’s death
 * Gretna Green, Scotland, Marriage Registers, 1794-1895 - records of clandestine marriage registers at Gretna Green, Renfrewshire. For further guidance on conducting a thorough search in these, see the Irregular Border Marriage Registers Research Guide on the National Records of Scotland's website.
 * Follow these steps for known siblings as well

Tracing Non-Subscribing Ancestry in Scotland
Ever wonder why your Scottish ancestors' names do not appear in the Scotlandspeople.gov.uk "Church Registers" (pre-1855) online database? The 1851 Religious Census for Scotland points out the reason: It records that nearly 60 percent of Scotland's population belonged to other church denominations, and were not members of the Church of Scotland! You may then be asking: How can I trace ancestry in Scotland's other half of its (pre-1855) population?

Research Steps
Here are 7 steps researchers of Scottish ancestry might need to take to trace ancestry when names do not appear (about 50-50 chance) in Scotlandspeople.gov.uk “Church Registers” (Church of Scotland's pre-1855) database:


 * 1) Scotland Church Records and Kirk Session Records, 1658-1919 - contains some names from non-parochial and secessionist (Presbyterian) church registers that Scotlandspeople does not possess (only about 5-7%)
 * 2) Then check the FamilySearch Catalog under "Scotland, [COUNTY], [PARISH] - Church records" heading. Many parishes have nonconformist or non-subscribing Presbyterian church registers and many of these records have been digitized and made available on the Catalog
 * 3) ScotlandsPeoples has many (but not all) nonconformist and non-subscribing/secessionist Presbyterian church registers. The index is available to search for free but requires a fee to view the actual images. Scotland parish boundary maps can be found on the Old Roads of Scotland website. This website helps you determine in which parish each non-subscribing congregation/chapel resides. Vision of Britain may include maps of the ancient parishes of Scotland.
 * 4) Search for Local/Regional archives, such as Dundee City Archives or Strathclyde Regional Archives, etc. Check their online catalog(s) to see what holdings they possess for all nonconformist and non-subscribing Presbyterian church registers in their archives. (Hint: You can Google to find a list of all Scottish Regional or local archives with links to addresses; or, search their online catalogs and use their email addresses to contact them)
 * 5) Search the Kirk Session (church court) records at ScotlandsPeople or selected regional archives; they can be a goldmine of information on non-Church of Scotland ancestors. Some indexes are available online.
 * 6) Google to find online transcriptions of some church registers, i.e. Scottish Episcopal registers or Reformed Presbyterian registers, etc.
 * 7) For Church registers not in above archives: write to the local congregation (must Google to find the chapel and look for a "Contact Us" link or find a church email address); willingly make a generous donation when you request a “look-up” in their church records and/or kirk session records (where extant); or, when a local congregation clerk won’t answer your query, then contact the nearest local archive for names of hire-able record agents to perform the search for you at the local church/chapel.