Help with a Scots Ancestor

[Sue from Southend]

I've never looked at Scots records before and don't really know where to start.

Alexander Muirhead (a mariner) married to Isabella. All their children seem to have been born in London (one in Devon) between 1753 and 1770 but I have found birth records that state that they were from Edinburgh.

Any tips please on where to start looking for a marriage or other births? :)

[Uncle John]

ScotlandsPeople contains a large number of pre-1855 Scottish records but it's a bit hit and miss. SP Old Parochial Records (OPRs) only contain Church of Scotland baps. and banns/marriages. So if they were from a dissenting church (e.g. Free Church of Scotland) you'll be out of luck.

SP does have an index of coverage, and Edinburgh may be better covered than rural areas. The content of the records depends on the whim of the minister or Session Clerk. In some cases they were more interested in recording the fees received.

The one bit of SP which is free is the pre-1901 wills, which in some cases go back centuries. Often you can get a lot of information just from the index.

[kiterunner]

My tip for where to start searching would be FamilySearch or one of their new sites, because those are free whereas Scotland's People is a pay site. I would do as much searching as possible on the free sites and then only go onto Scotland's People when I'd got all the free info that was available. It is too easy to spend money on searches on SP and only realise afterwards that you could have done those searches free on the IGI! Of course SP is more complete than FamilySearch.

[Sue from Southend]

Thansk UJ and Kite

I've already checked Family Search and it only has the baptisms of their children. I've registered with SP but not paid anything yet but doing a simple search for a marriage between Alexander and Isabella found no results so my money stays firmly in my pocket until I've more to go on.

I have a Will (1815) for an Alexander Muirhead who may be a son of Alexander and another wife and he makes bequests to a brother in "North Britain" and a half brother, John Mitchell. So now investigating that route......