Understanding BDM records

Hi,
I'm a new member from Australia, and I'm very puzzled about aspects of BDM records.
I've located the marriage of my 3g-grandparents Alexander Forbes and Christian/Christina Sutherland on OPR (Marriages 037/00 0010 0317 Halkirk). Two IGI records, one for Latheron and one for Halkirk, state that they were submitted by members of the LDS church. Hugh Wallis's pages, which remove the patron entries, don't list the marriage at all. Yet OPR lists the marriage as if it's recorded officially.
A similar situation exists for my 2g-grandparents Alexander Forbes and Ann Gunn, but there's an extra complicating factor in that OPR lists the marriage under Latheron whereas Ann's Queensland death certificate (completed by Alexander) states that they were married at Halsary. My map shows Halsary as being in Watten parish.
Can anyone enlighten me on the status of these records?

Halsary is on the border of Latheron and Watten Parishes. I think that Halsary Meeting House (church) may just be in Latheron Parish. My g-grandparents lived in the shepherd's house at Halsary and it was in Watten Parish.

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Originally Posted by adtoo

Hi,
I'm a new member from Australia, and I'm very puzzled about aspects of BDM records.
I've located the marriage of my 3g-grandparents Alexander Forbes and Christian/Christina Sutherland on OPR (Marriages 037/00 0010 0317 Halkirk). Two IGI records, one for Latheron and one for Halkirk, state that they were submitted by members of the LDS church. Hugh Wallis's pages, which remove the patron entries, don't list the marriage at all. Yet OPR lists the marriage as if it's recorded officially.
A similar situation exists for my 2g-grandparents Alexander Forbes and Ann Gunn, but there's an extra complicating factor in that OPR lists the marriage under Latheron whereas Ann's Queensland death certificate (completed by Alexander) states that they were married at Halsary. My map shows Halsary as being in Watten parish.
Can anyone enlighten me on the status of these records?

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The Old Parish Registers are the original registers as written by the parish scribes. Re marriages, sometimes the marriage was registered in two parishes if the bride and groom resided in different parishes. I have just checked my OPR transcription for Halkirk and Alexander Sutherland was resident at Rangag in Latheron while Christian Sutherland was residnet at Tormsdale in Halkirk. FREEREG will give you free access to most of the Old Parish Registers - we have almost completed the transcriptions for Caithness. If you need any help please feel free to email me. You can send me a private message if you wish.

Rosemary Skea

Brisbane

Co-ordinator Caithness FREEREG

The boundaries often changed, or appear to have changed. Reay is a good example. I also think that some of the people who recorded Births etc were extremely Parochial in reagard to Parish boundaries