The Island of Islay has three to six parishes depending on which time period you are looking at. We should remember that the parish registers we are speaking of belong to the Church of Scotland. There were other churches on Islay but their records are more difficult to find. Most of them being held by the church rather than government archives. There was of course the “Free” church or non-conformist churches along with Baptists, Catholics and most likely others.
Each parish in Scotland has been assigned a number which was determined by arranging the parishes in a county in alphabetical order in their respective county and then numbered consecutively through all of Scotland. We must sometimes know this number to find the proper records (for example often census films will tell us what parishes they cover by using the parish number).
The parishes on Islay are as follows. KIlarrow (or Bowmore) #536 / Kilchoman #540 / Kildalton #541 / Kilmeny #543 / Oa #546 / Portnahaven #547
It would be wise to remember that these parish records are not 100% complete. There are many reasons why. Some people were members of churches other than the Church of Scotland. There were times when registering a birth etc cost money ( Remember - these are Scots we are talking about ! ). You will find many birth entries where the child’s name is missing. Don’t think this means the child died and was not named. It may mean only that the clerk or minister couldn’t recall the name and didn’t record it. I have also found many families with a large number of children and there will be one in the middle who doesn’t seem to have a baptism recorded. Why? Were they upset with the minister or the church? Were they busy with the demands of living and just never got around to it? Did the minister forget to record it at the end of a very busy day or week? We may never know for sure but sometimes there are other records to tell us of their existence. Civil records or census records if we are in the right time period. Tombstone inscriptions can help. Rent Rolls etc etc.
KILDALTON PARISH
This parish is located on what I would call the south east corner or quadrant of the island. According to the Wikipedia page ISLAY
“The Kildalton parish is medieval in origin – early documentary records suggesting from c 1425, but the church building is older than this, possibly dating from the late 12th or early 13th century”.
I believe the name of this parish is a combination of two old Gaelic words. “Kil” is often found as part of Scottish name places and I think it means alter or a place of worship or even chapel. The second part of the name of the parish is from an ancient church dedicated to Saint John the Divine, Daltain coming from a Gaelic word Dalt, meaning the little foster-child or foster-brother – a poetical name for the beloved disciple John.
An unique landmark which stands near the roofless remains of the ancient church is the Kildalton Cross (or High Cross of Kildalton) and is one of the finest early Christian crosses in Scotland. It is believed to dated from the second half of the 8th century. It is often considered to be the finest surviving Celtic Cross in Scotland and Western Europe. A simpler cross of late medieval date stands nearby For a full description, history and pictures check out this site http://www.islayinfo.com/islay_kildalton_cross.html
Image from Wikipedia Page Images for Kildalton Cross where many other pictures of the Cross are displayed.
The very earliest Kildalton Parish records are in very poor condition with parts of pages missing and sometimes the microfilm copy it is very difficult to read. One should try to become familiar with the old style of forming letters and words. There are many aids, books, pamphlets and websites which can be a help to you. Check out your local FamilySearch Center (used to be called Family History Center) to see what they have on hand.
I do not know how complete the records are in the early Baptismal records,but generally the first section covers the years 1723 to 1762. There is then a gap in the records but the registers commence again in 1789. The year 1812 has some out of order entries. The records seem to be in good condition from this time until the close of that register book in 1819.
Even so, some of the first years of this second “section” tend to be pretty lean and sparse. In 1820 the church was instructed to open new books and thus we have Volume 2 which runs from 1820 through 1854. In the years 1836 through 1842 the baptismal entries appear to have been doubled – that is there are two formats and thus two entries for each baptismal entry in that time period.
Marriage registers mirror the Baptismal records. They commence in 1723 and again the early years are in poor shape and difficult to read. They continue until 1766 at which time there is a gap in these records also. They commence again in the year 1789. Volume Two begins in 1820. The year 1826 and at least half of 1827 seem to be missing. There are only 4 entries for the year 1830 (3 in January and 1 in December). There is only one entry for all of the year of 1832. Again the entries from 1836-1842 seem to have double entries. The entries continue until 1854.
The gap in the Baptismal and Marriage records of Kildalton Parish causes a unique problem. It seems to be just long enough to make it difficult to connect those on one side of the gap with those on the other side of the gap. For example. If you have a baptism of a child in the late 1700’s or early 1800’s it is difficult to find a record of the parents marriage or even the parents own baptisms. Who are the parents of the parents? If you have a marriage – when were they born? Who are the parents of this couple? It is almost impossible to tell. There are some records which help at times but not enough to make research through this time period easy at all.
Deaths and burials, as I understand it, were not a sacramental ceremony in the Church of Scotland and there are few death or burial records. There are none that I am aware of in the Parish of KIldalton registers. (You might try Memorial Inscriptions as a death register substitute)
The big change in 1855 was the commencement of Civil Registration. All Births, Marriages and Deaths were to be registered with the government. I suppose the church did not stop recording baptisms and marriages at that time – they just aren’t filmed and easily available to us.
The Church of Scotland Parish Registers have been microfilmed twice – use the second filming. It is better quality and has frame numbers to help us find our places. Parish of KIldalton is on FHL film #1041079.Items 4 (Volume 1) and 5 (Volume 2 )
The Family History Library (FHL) also has sets of microfilms that can be helpful. There was an index created of all the Church of Scotland records call the OPR (Old Parochial Registers). These are a typed index of baptism and marriage records. They are arranged by county and within each county there are four sets of records Baptism by given name and surname / Marriages by given name and surname. There is also for many (but not all) a computer generated set for each parish with just the names found in that particular parish register (not the whole county). For Kidalton the numbers are:
Births and christenings 6900643 (2 fiche)
Marriages 5901109 (1 fiche).
Remember this is an index and as such is subject to transcription and interpretation errors. Always go to the original and check it out.
No comments:
Post a Comment