Place:Auchindoir and Kearn, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Watchers
NameAuchindoir and Kearn
Alt namesAuchindoir and Kearnsource: from redirect
Auchindoirsource: former parish
Kearnsource: former parish
Lumsdensource: settlement with church
TypeParish
Coordinates57.285°N 2.873°W
Located inAberdeenshire, Scotland     ( - 1975)
Also located inGrampian Region, Scotland     (1975 - 1996)
Aberdeenshire (council area), Scotland     (1996 - )

Scottish Record Office Number: 172
(used by ScotlandsPeople, see Research tips, below)

Churches: St Mary, Auchindoir, Scottish Episcopal
Auchindoir Parish Church, Auchindoir and Kearn, Church of Scotland
Kearn Church, Kearn, Church of Scotland (closed in 1810)

Cemeteries: list available from the Aberdeen & NE Scotland FHS (link under Research tips)

Old Parish Register Availabilty (within FamilySearch):
Baptisms: 1694-1854
Marriages: 1705-1839
Deaths: 1735-1747

NOTE: Civil registration of vital statistics was introduced to Scotland in 1855. Prior to that date births, marriages and deaths had been recorded in local churches in the Old Parish Registers (OPRs). The OPRs were collected by the Registrar for Scotland in Edinburgh as civil registration started. Although local churches continued to record bmd after 1855, these registers were not collected and stored by the Registrar for Scotland. Some may have found their way into local archives. FamilySearch and ScotlandsPeople both keep records prior to 1855, but only ScotlandsPeople retains microfilms of the original parish books.

Missing intervals in OPRs dates may be due to non-collection of volumes (possibly through loss or damage), or the events being recorded in another book held in the parish.

The two parishes of Auchindoir and Kearn were united in 1811, before that Kearn was joined to Forbes (which is now part of Tullynessle and Forbes). The length of the habitable part of the combined parish is about seven miles, the breadth nearly the same, and the parishes together contain about 15,600 acres under cultivation, and 2100 under plantation (or planted woodland) and natural wood, besides pasture and wasteland. The surface is varied and irregular, consisting of numerous hills and pleasing valleys, ridges, and mountains, some of which are covered with wood, and have a considerable elevation.

The river Bogie, which is formed by the junction of the burns of Craig and Corchinan, follows a serpentine course of about eleven miles through a fine valley, and joins the River Doveron at Huntly. The River Don runs for about two miles on the southeast; and the small stream of Mossat divides the parish from Kildrummy on the south.

The only village is Lumsden, which is of the 19th century and founded by Leith Lumsden who lived at a local estate named Clova. The village had a population of 300 by 1850; these were chiefly traders and handicraftsmen. There are two gentlemen's seats, Craig and Druminnor, both of them of considerable antiquity, the former bearing the date 1515, and the latter, which was once the chief seat of the Forbes family, that of the year 1577. The main population of the parish is agricultural, being employed in the rural districts in cultivating the land, and in rearing cattle. Markets for the sale of cattle occur four times year.

(The above description was based on Samuel Lewis's A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland of 1851, provided online by GENUKI, and also from F.H. Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4), provided online by Gazetteer of Scotland.)

The parish is about 36 miles northwest of Aberdeen and about 4 miles north-north west of Alford. It is bounded on the north by the united parish of Rhynie and Essie, on the east by the Clatt, and Tullynessle and Forbes, on the south by the parish of Kildrummy, and on the west by the Aberdeenshire section of the parish of Cabrach.


Population Growth

Areaacressq mihectares
1811-1900about 19,00029.697,689
1901-200115,309 acres23.92 sq mi6,195 hectares
PopulationDensity per sq miDensity per hectare
1801parish not formedparish not formedparish not formed
185173924.90.10
19011,36957.20.22
19511,21650.80.20
200154422.70.09

Populations 1801-1951 from A Vision of Britain through Time (http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk).
2001 population from Scotland’s Census (https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk). Populations 1801-1951 from A Vision of Britain through Time (http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk).
2001 population from Scotland’s Census (https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk).

Research Tips

There was formerly a note on this page that the parish was linked to the Presbytery of Alford, Synod of Aberdeen, Scotland. It would appear that since 1975 the organization of the presbyteries and synods within the Church of Scotland has been revised. Readers are reminded that the Church of Scotland is Presbyterian in nature while in England the Church of England is Episcopalian. (See Wikipedia. )

  • official civil (from 1855) and parish registers (from when first produced) for births, marriages and deaths for all of Scotland
  • original census images for all years available (1841-1911).
  • references to wills and property taxes, and
  • an extensive collection of local maps.

This site is extremely easy to use. There are charges for parish register entries and censuses. The charges are reasonable and payable by online transfer.

  • The Statistical Accounts of Scotland Online provides access to digitised and fully searchable versions of both the Old Statistical Account (1791-99) and the New Statistical Account (1834-45). These uniquely rich and detailed parish reports, usually written by local Church of Scotland ministers, detail social conditions in Scotland and are an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Scottish history.
  • Scotlands Places
  • Gazetteer of Scotland includes descriptions of individual parishes from F. H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4)
  • The FamilySearch Wiki
  • GENUKI which provides, amongst other data, complete quotations from A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1851) by Samuel Lewis, John Bartholomew's A Gazetteer of the British Isles (1877), and A New History of Aberdeenshire edited by Alexander Smith (1875)
  • A list of Burial Grounds in Scotland is now available on the website of the Scottish Association of Family History Societies.
  • Aberdeenshire and Moray Records. Town Council minutes, accounts, letters, plans and harbour records provided by Aberdeenshire Council plus other local records.
  • Aberdeen and North-East Scotland Family History Society is one of the largest and most reputable family history societies in Scotland and has a long list of publications referring to individual parishes.