Aberdeenshire, Scotland Genealogy Genealogy

Aberdeenshire is a maritime county in the north-east part of Scotland. It is one of the most extensive counties in the kingdom and is bounded on the north by the Moray Firth, on the east by the German Ocean, on the south by the counties of Perth, Angus, and Kincardine, and on the west by the counties of Banff and Inverness. It is eighty-six miles in extreme length and fourty-two miles in extreme breadth, comprising an area of 1985 square miles or 1,276,400 acres. The county contains eighty-five parishes and eight civil districts. It includes the three royal burgh of Aberdeen, Kintore, and Inverury, the market-towns of Peterhead, Fraserburegh, Huntly, Turriff and Meldrum, and numerous large fishing villages on the coast. In 1851 the population was 192,387.

The surface of the county, towards the sea, is tolerably level, but the greater portion forms part of the central highlands and consists of high mountains interspersed with a few valleys. About one-third of the land is under cultivation. There are quarries for granite, freestone, and limestone. The coast is bold and rocky with some level beach, and there are several bays.

(Source: Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, 2nd ed. 1851; FHL book 941 E5L.)

Here is a list of the historic parishes in the county of Aberdeen. Click on the parish name to see information about records. See below for a map of the Aberdeenshire parishes.

Click here for an online map of the Aberdeenshire parishes.

[Return to county list]