Alistair Cameron Research: Deaths before 1855

Deaths before 1855

Finding records of deaths in Scotland prior to 1855

Old parish registers give details of births and marriages, and these have largely been indexed. The indexes are accessible for study in many libraries. Deaths however, were not recorded in many parishes. There is no convenient national index for deaths in Scotland, pre-1855. Some parishes did maintain comprehensive deaths/burials indexes. A national index to burials as recorded in parish registers has been commenced. This will ulimately help with pre-1855 death searches.

Finding an early death needs skill and luck. First, know where the death occurred. Some of the subsequent search routes are:

Memorial inscriptions are indexed by District Societies and by the Scottish Genealogical Society. As booklets, these may be bought from the Scottish Genealogical Society. Most are available for examination at the New Register House, Edinburgh.
So, if your ancestor has a tombstone, and if it has been transcribed, then the death record and some family information, may be found.
Burial registers are held for many churchyards and cemeteries. Some are indexed by surname. Most are in date order so you might have a long search if uncertain about the date of death.
If writing to a church, we recommend that you make a donation. The church is sometimes no longer used, so the graveyard gets minimum maintenance.
Sites not in the care of churches are maintained by local government, who may advise how the ground has been allocated, that is, as "lairs". We can provide you with the address of a local record office for guidance.
The registers which are catalogued in the Parish and Vital Records List of the IGI, cover marriages and christenings. These films do very often include the corresponding burials.
To see if burials are recorded on film, check the Family History Library Catalogue, Locality Index.
Bloxham's "Key to the Parochial Registers of Scotland" lists what burials records may be consulted, and so does "The Parishes, Registers and Registrars of Scotland" by SAFHS.

When you examine a Burials register, it might be found incomplete.

If the Church provided a Mort Cloth (shroud) for a fee, then this will be recorded in the register. The poorer classes would generally not afford this service.

Rigour, Order and Simplicity in Family History

Alistair Cameron Research

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