Place:Cromarty, Ross and Cromarty, Scotland

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source: Family History Library Catalog

The Town

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Cromarty (Cromba in Gaelic) is a town, civil parish and former royal burgh in Ross and Cromarty, in the Highland council area of Scotland. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 719. Cromarty is a seaport on the southern shore of the mouth of Cromarty Firth, five miles seaward from Invergordon on the opposite coast of the Firth.

Until 1899 it was the county town of the former county of [[Place:Cromartyshire, Scotland|Cromartyshire. From 1889 to 1975 Cromartyshire was merged with Ross-shire under the Ross and Cromarty county council. Ross and Cromarty has later usage as the name of a district of the Highland region (1975 to 1996), and is today an area committee of the modern Highland unitary authority.

The name Cromarty variously derives from the Gaelic crom (crooked), and from bati (bay), or from àrd (height), meaning either the "crooked bay", or the "bend between the heights" (referring to the high rocks, or Sutors, which guard the entrance to the Firth), and gave the title to the Earldom of Cromartie. Its name in 1264 was Crumbathyn.

The town grew around its port, formerly used by ferries, to export locally-grown hemp fibre, and by trawlers trawling for herring. The port was a British naval base during the First World War and HMS Natal blew up close by on 30 December 1915 with heavy loss of life.

Cromarty is architecturally important for its Georgian merchant houses that stand within a townscape of Georgian and Victorian fisherman's cottages in the local vernacular style. It is an outstanding example of a 18th/19th century burgh, "the jewel in the crown of Scottish Vernacular Architecture". The thatched house with crow-stepped gables in Church Street, in which the geologist Hugh Miller was born (in 1801), still stands, and a statue has been erected to his memory. To the east of the burgh is Cromarty House, occupying the site of the old castle of the earls of Ross. It was the birthplace of Sir Thomas Urquhart, the translator of Rabelais.

The Parish

Cromarty is a parish at the tip of the Black Isle facing the North Sea. It is located in the Highland Council Area, some 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Alness and 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Nairn.

From 1889 to 1975 the parish was located in the old county of Ross and Cromarty, which was replaced in that year by the Highland Region and in 1996 by the unitary authority named the Highland Council Area.

The parish has an area of 32.4 sq. km (12.5 sq. miles). In addition to the town of Cromarty, it includes the settlements of Glenurquhart and Navity (both redirected here).

Notes for the Highland Council Area and the Western Isles Council Area

The local archives are held by The Highland Archive Service which is based in Inverness with branches in Stornoway, Fort William and Caithness. It is "responsible for locating, preserving and making accessible archives relating to all aspects of the history of the geographical area of the Highlands."

Family history societies and historical associations covering the Highland Council Area and the Western Isles Council Area are:

• The Highland Family History Society based in Inverness.
• Lochaber and North Argyll Family History Group based in Fort William.

These associations publish their aims on their websites as well as a list of publications. In many cases the publications are also available through the Scottish Genealogy Society (see below).

• The FreeCen Project--Scotland has a searchable (not browsable) transcription for each of the counties in the area. Nairnshire and Caithness have the 1841, 1851, 1861 and 1871 complete. Inverness-shire and Ross and Cromarty have 1841 complete with some work on 1851 and Sutherland has not completed 1841.

Transcriptions of Gravestone Inscriptions

• The Scottish Genealogy Society provides a series of monumental inscriptions either in print in booklet form or on CD for each of the counties in the area (Caithness, Inverness-shire, Nairnshire, Ross and Cromarty, and Sutherland). Some of the booklets cover only one graveyard, others cover a group. Prices vary. In many cases the coverage is of pre-1855 stones only--this is because gravestone inscriptions are often used by family historians as death registration equivalents in the era of the Old Parish Registers (when deaths were not universally recorded).
• The Fearn Peninsula Graveyards Project has a paid website which allows browsing in ten graveyards in Easter Ross. They charge £2.50 for 24 hours of usage with unlimited searches.
• An index of monumental inscriptions from Caithness compiled by D J Ryrie might prove to be a useful start for searching gravestones in that county. GENUKI states "All (?) of the monumental inscriptions (MIs) in Caithness have been collected and are in print currently from Books From Scotland amongst other places." The Scottish Genealogy Society also has a list of their holdings.
• Sutherland cemeteries are covered in Pre-1855 tombstone inscriptions in Sutherland burial grounds by A S Cowper & I Ross, published at Edinburgh in 1989 by the Scottish Genealogy Society.
• There are no specific notes for gravestone transcriptions for either Inverness-shire or Nairnshire in GENUKI. However, the Scottish Genealogy Society lists booklets for both counties.

Sources for Emigration Records

• Hebrides People have a database containing lists of people who emigrated to North America from a number of parishes in the Western Isles.