Parish registers

[phyllis ferguson]

I have managed to trace my family tree fairly well using the paper trail and I am now into the parish registers which do not hold as much information. How can i be absolutely certain that the names i find are linked with the younger generation I have details for. Some parish registers only record the Fathers name.
Also somebody mentioned to me that if I cannot find what I am looking for in IGI and Scotlands people that the family may be attached to a different church. If this is son then what churches or websites (if any) should i be looking?
Yours getting more puzzled by the day:confused

[theone]

I think the simple answer is that you can't be sure.

I found that following gravestones sometimes helps, son's buried with parents etc.

As for 'other churches', I doubt if that would be a big problem in Caithness, they should all be in the parish registers.

[Sage]

Sorry but they wont all be in the Parish registers....the "parish registers" are Church of Scotland. If your ancestors were members of another church their records would be with the Church or in Edinburgh. There were a lot of churches in Caithness!

After 1842 a very large amount of the county went over to the Free Church. There are a few registers available...some in the Thurso OPRs (which are the Established church but a church official very nicely transcribed names up to 1855 in Thurso) and some from Wick which are transcribed and held at the North Highland Archives.

The only way you can be sure that the family you are following is correct is to gather as much evidence as possible. Parish records, such as poor law records and Kirk session records. Wills, sasines, land valuations etc

If sounds as though you're searching around Latheron? That area has notoriously bad registers,other areas give more information.

I'm afraid you're going to have to get your hands dirty doing some digging, and even then you are very rarely 100% certain you have the right family, especially if its a common surname.

Hope this helps :)

[phyllis ferguson]

I have very common surnames:
Murray, Gordon, MacKay, McLeod and Swanson
Also looking for links with Innes, Sinclair and Murdock.
I think I'll have to spend sometime persuading my family they want to go to Caithness for summer hols next year as this year it's Edinburgh, but not to Registrar House.
Thanks for the advice though I look forward to getting my hands dirty.