Parishes of Scotland

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Parishes of Scotland

Wikitree is going to use the Parishes established under the Local Government Act of 1889 and hence Scotland consists of 871 Parishes.

For Parish Records: The National Records of Scotland maintains a list of the of OPRs Old Parish Registers. These cover the period from 1553 to 1854. It must be noted that the standard of record-keeping varied considerably from parish to parish and from year to year and is therefore not complete. For some parishes the register starts in the early 19th century and for a few no records survive. It is unlikely that any parish achieved 100% coverage. This same source includes the cross-reference to the old Parish name if appropriate.

From 1845 to 1930, parishes formed part of the local government system of Scotland; having parochial boards from 1845 to 1894, and parish councils from 1894 until 1930. Since that date Parishes have had no direct administrative function but are used for record purposes. A list of the current Civil Parishes is available on wikipedia. Wikipedia uses the same names as those from the National Records of Scotland Office.

Family Search maintains indexes to Parish records, both the Old Parochial Registers and Scotland Church Records. Details, from available registers, are available from Scotland's people website, a Government genealogy resource where most information is available by subscription only.

Some Parish boundaries cross County boundaries and hence Parishes of this nature will be referenced in both Counties but it is the same Parish. When this is the case, it will be noted on the category page: See Also

Creating New Parish Categories

Please follow the convention of [[Category:Placename Parish, County]] when categorising. There may be place categories with similar names; for example Dornoch Parish, Sutherland and Dornoch, Sutherland. Remember to use those described, and their county, from the Register of 1889 and verify them with Scotland's Places website

For assistance with creating new parish categories, please contact Scotland Categories Team