Place:Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and the and seat of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government. (Both parliament and government are currently semi-independent of the government of the United Kingdom based in London, England. See the references in Wikipedia and elsewhere for details.) The city is located in the southeast of Scotland on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. It had a population of nearly 500,000 in 2011.

For genealogical purposes, Edinburgh was a parish--an area for which entries of births, marriages and death were made--according to Civil Regulations since 1855, and for the Church of Scotland prior to that date. It was located in the former county of Midlothian which disappeared in 1975 following the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1974. The parish had an area of 137.1 sq. km (52.9 sq. miles) and included, in addition to the original parish of Edinburgh, a number of communities which were parishes in their own right until being absorbed into the conurbation. The City of Edinburgh is now a unitary Council Area indicated in blue on the map above. Counties and parishes are no longer entities of Scottish government structure.

The main parish developed around the Church of St Giles, situated on the High Street in the Old Town of Edinburgh. The parish church has records for births and marriages dating from 1595. The Church of St. Giles was the principal church of many places of worship that served the original parish.

The parishes of St. Cuthbert's (also known as the West Kirk) and Canongate (the area east of the Old Town including Holyrood) were added to Edinburgh at sometime during the 19th century. (The exact dates have not been found.)

More notes about St Cuthbert’s

The parish church has records for births dating from 1573, for marriages from 1744 and for deaths from 1740.
"St Cuthberts or West Church Parish - It is not perfectly easy to draw a precise line between the suburbs and the country, and therefore it is necessary to mention that the inhabitants of Lauriston, Tollcross, Castlebarns, Fountainbridge, West Church Charity Workhouse, Water of Leith, Stockbridge, Silvermills, Canonmills, Broughton and Leith Walk are included in the numbers stated for the suburbs." (From the Statistical Account of Scotland 1791-1799, Vol II)
Scottish Places provides a description of the church itself.

More notes about Canongate

The parish church has records for births dating from 1564, for marriages from 1564 and for deaths from 1565. Canongate was absorbed into Edinburgh in 1856, along with another community further east named Portsburgh. "The burgh of Canongate, being a village to Edinburgh is governed by a baron baillie, and two resident magistrates annually chosen by the Town Council of that city. Their jurisdiction extends beyond the bounds of the parish, to the east side of the Pleasance, and to the town on North Leith.” (From the Statistical Account of Scotland 1791-1799, Vol II).
Scottish Places provides a description of the church itself.

Other parishes that became part of Edinburgh

Further parishes, which were usually also independent burghs, were added to Edinburgh over the century and a half 1850-2000. Some of these parishes were located in the county of West Lothian. Each of these has its own page on WeRelate.

• Colinton
• Corstorphine
• Cramond
• Currie
• Duddingston (including Portobello)
• Leith
• Liberton
• Ratho

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Edinburgh., especially the sections “Geography” which discusses the various neighbourhoods of Edinburgh, “Demography” (particularly the “Historical” subsection, “Religion” (on Church of Scotland and non Church of Scotland Christian denominations), and “Governance” and “Economy”.

Research Tips

Sources for Old Parish Registers Records, Vital Records and Censuses

• FamilySearch (Indexes only)

• Scotland's People This is a pay website providing vital statistics and census data for all of Scotland with original images. There is a description at Scotland under Genealogical Resources.

Further Sources of Reference

Please note and respect the copyright warnings on these websites.

• GENUKI article on Edinburgh. The contributor lists several books of reference under "Bibliography".

• Scottish Places article on the parish of Edinburgh. The tabs of the right provide more information, and comparitive maps.

• Scottish Places article on the City of Edinburgh

• FamilySearch Wiki article on Edinburgh providing direct reference to FamilySearch holdings on many topics with respect to the city.

• Edinburgh Past and Present, a privately developed website providing a great deal of history.

• The National Library of Scotland have a website devoted to maps from the 1600s right up to the present. Comparisons of modern-day and old maps of the same place can be made. From the home page click on "Find by place" and then follow the instructions on the next page. Once you are viewing the place you want, use the slider <----> at the top of the map to compare the layout of roads and the place names of smaller areas, perhaps even farms, with the landscape today. The website takes some getting used to. The One-inch 2nd edition, Scotland, 1898-1904 OS is a series of maps with the parishes delineated. Each of these maps cover an area of 18 x 24 miles and will zoom to comfortable reading size with a couple of mouse clicks on the map itself. Unfortunately, they are not geo-referenced, and it is necessary to go to the OS One Inch 1885-1900 series to locate places by latitude and longitude.

• The Statistical Accounts for Scotland In the 1790s and again in the 1830s, the ministers of the all the parishes of the Church of Scotland were asked to provide a description of their parish to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The original account request included 160 questions to be answered. These accounts are available in print in 20 volumes and are also online where it is freely available to browse. The browsing portal is below the viewing area of most computer screens. Scroll down to "For non-subscribers" and click on "Browse scanned pages". This brings you to another page on which one can enter the name of the parish in which you are interested.

• Excerpts from The Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885 are provided by Scottish Places. Selections from Groome and other gazetteers from the 19th century are also found on GENUKI.