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Archiver > ABERDEEN > 1999-12 > 0944373779


From: "Gordon Troup" <>
Subject: Fw: RESEARCH ADVICE FOR NEWBIES - PART 2 OPR's
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 23:02:59 -0700


-----Original Message-----
From: Gordon Troup <>
To: Moray Nairn Banff <>
Date: Saturday, December 04, 1999 11:01 PM
Subject: RESEARCH ADVICE FOR NEWBIES - PART 2 OPR's


>Hello Everyone
>I would like to continue with the discussion of records. This message will
>cover the BMD's found on the microfilms of the OPR (Old Parish Register)
>records. The OPR's are records kept by the Presbyterian churches in
>Scotland over the years and were never meant to be official records. When
>the government assumed responsibility for registering all BMD's in 1855,
>they collected most of the OPR's and retained them. They have since been
>microfilmed and are available through the GRO or any LDS FHC. The quality
>and completeness of the records varies with each parish - certain periods
of
>time are omitted or lost and, at times, people chose not to baptize their
>children.
>The OPR's cover mainly the BMD's of those members of the established
>(Presbyterian) church in Scotland. Members of other religious groups
>including Roman Catholics, Episcopalian, and perhaps even the breakaway
>groups of Presbyterians (mainly Free Kirk) may not be included. Some of
>these groups kept their own records and they may be found with diligent
>searching.
>The church records were kept by the session clerk who was most often the
>schoolmaster of the parish. These records are all hand-written and can be
>very difficult to read as they may be waterstained and faded. The amount
of
>information contained in each entry can vary greatly, and is quite likely
to
>be considerably less than those of the NRH entries. Translating the
>handwriting can be a real chore, the best advice I can give is to look at
>other records besides the ones you want to check for spellings. One
example
>I can give is Sleepy Nook - when I first looked at it it could have been
>Sleepy brook or crook but when I checked other entries I managed to
>determine that the first letter was a capital N.
>Here are some samples of transcriptions of the various BMD entries:
>Births
>FORGUE OPR's
>June 4, 1791
>ALEXANDER TROUP in Sleepy Nook had a son baptized named JAMES, witnesses
>JOHN WEBSTER and JAMES LESLY both in Nether Aucharny.
>MARNOCH OPR's
>June 25, 1833
>JAMES TROUP at Knockorth had a son by wife ISABEL ALLARDES baptized and
>named ALEXANDER, witnesses ROBERT WEBSTER & WILLIAM CHRISTIE.
>November 17, 1824
>BARBARA daughter of WILLIAM CRUICKSHANK and BARBARA TROUP in Placemill both
>unmarried was born 17th and baptized 17th November witnesses THEO
>CRUICKSHANK and WILLIAM SIMPSON.
>August 18, 1717
>JOHN TROUP in Pettindreich had a son begotten unlawfully named FRANCIS
>GLAMIS OPR's
>1834 Dec 17th Paterson Agnes l.daughter to John and Elisabeth Gibson in
>Thornton.
>INVERKEILOR OPR's
>Thomas RUXTON, Tennant in Myreside and Elizabeth WILLIAMSON his spouse had
>children born and baptized as follows:
>John born July 24th 1744 baptized July 26th 1744
>Margaret Mar 26/46, Mar 28
>David Mar 6/48, Mar 8
>Robert May 24/50, May 28
>William Apr 24/53, Apr 28
>Anna May 4/55, May 6
>James Jan 8/57, Jan 9
>
>Marriages
>MARNOCH OPR's
>June 28, 1673
>JOHN TROUP and AGNES CLARK June 28, 1673
>May 11, 1755
>JAMES MURRAY and BARBARA TROUP both in this parish were matrimonially
>contracted and consigned pledges May 11, 1755.
>March 8, 1798
>JAMES GRAY in this parish and MARY GEORGE in parish of Banff were
>matrimonially contracted March 8 consigned pledges for implement and were
>married at Banff.
>Kinnell
>1815 William Hadden Blacksmith at East Brakie and Isabel Coots of Kochhill
>both of this parish were matrimonially contracted on the 16th and married
on
>the 30th Dec
>
>Deaths
>Marnoch - Mortcloths
>
>Mar 22 1713 Mortcloth JOHN CLARK in Knockorth
>Feb 22 1730 Lady CROMBIE, L3
>
>ARBROATH BURIALS.
>George Anderson, Mariner, died of apoplexy on 26 January 1834 aged 35 .
>Married, place of birth Dundee, residence at time of death Arbroath. Buried
>8 feet east from Robert Peter's stone on the SW side of the churchyard.
>
>I have also been fortunate enough to locate a source for some Episcopalian
>records and here is a sample of the transcriptions:
>From the Baptismal Register of the Episcopal Congregation in
>Turriff from the years 1776 - 1894
>
>Minty
>
>Alexander, son of Alexander, farmer Mains of Balmaud and Ann Troup
>his wife bap 6 Sept 1862 Witnesses John and James Minty, farmers
>
>Deaths St Luke's Cuminestown
>
>Minty
>
>George, farmer Mains of Balmaud formerly in Tilliemaud died 13 Nov
>1858 buried 17 Nov. Churchyard of St Lukes
>
>MISCELLANEOUS TERMS
>The births of children and their legitimacy is often denoted. The term
>'lawful' is meant to describe children of married parents while the term
>'natural' is meant to denote that the parents were not married. Marriages
>had to be proclaimed before taking place, if the parties were from
different
>parishes the 'banns' were to be proclaimed in both parishes. Generally
>unless your ancestor was a heritor, banns were to be proclaimed on 3
>Sundays. If you find 2 marriage entries in the IGI or OPR index for the
>same marriage it generally means the parties were from different parishes.
>
>This should give all new researchers a reasonable idea of what you are
>likely to find in the OPR's. It is important that you understand the
>differences in the information available on records as you will inevitably
>disappointed with any pre 1855 records obtained through GRO. You are much
>better off to seek those records from another source as the cost will be
>considerably less.
>If you have any further questions PLEASE place them on the board. I am
>extremely busy, and while I wish to assist others, individual queries are
>quite time consuming and delay any further submissions on my part.
>Good luck in your research.
>Gordon Troup
>in frigid Alberta
>CORRECTIONS FROM THE FIRST MESSAGE
>One major correction to my previous message is the rates charged by NRH - I
>am now advised that ordering certificates IN PERSON costs L8, ordering by
>POST or FAX is L13, and ordering over the INTERNET is L16. If you wish to
>visit the NRH the cost is L17, there you can search and transcribe as many
>records for yourself as you can locate and do in the time period allowed.
>There are many researchers who offer a transcription service, costs will
>vary with the number of certificates ordered but you can generally count on
>a cost of L2-L6 per item.
>GRO (or Scots Origins) is the on-line service for the NRH records. The NRH
>may hold all the records you wish to access but there are cheaper ways of
>getting some of the same information. For example, the LDS FHC's have
>access to the OPR and Census microfilms and costs of obtaining the
>information through them is much lower than through the GRO. They also
have
>the OPR index and IGI index on CD and those can be used at virtually no
>cost. I would use those sources before I went to the GRO on-line service,
>especially for records pre 1855 (OPR & IGI), 1855-75 (IGI), and 1881 (IGI).
>There is no guarantee you will find your ancestors in the indices, and
there
>is no guarantee that the names you select are your ancestors but these are
>the lowest cost research tools you can access.
>Another point I may not have made clear is that all results found in the
IGI
>and OPR indices should be checked out and proven with the actual records
(ie
>OPR microfilm photocopies or transcriptions and NRH copies or
>transcriptions).
>
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