Place:Holytown, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Watchers
NameHolytown
TypeVillage
Coordinates55.8219°N 3.9727°W
Located inLanarkshire, Scotland     ( - 1975)
See alsoStrathclyde, Scotlandadministrative region 1975-1996
North Lanarkshire, Scotlandunitary Council Area since 1996
Bothwell, Lanarkshire, Scotlandparish in which Holytown was located.
source: Family History Library Catalog
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names


Holytown is a large village in Bothwell Parish located 2 miles (3 km) northeast of Hamilton. It became a coal mining village in the 1700s and a railway junction station named Holytown was opened at nearby New Stevenston in 1869.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Holytown., especially the sections "History", "Description" and "Politics" which outlines 3 men prominent in politics in the United Kingdom and the United States who were born in Holytown.

Research Tips

Sources for Old Parish Registers Records, Vital Records and Censuses

For vital statistics refer to the Parish of Bothwell

  • 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 the parish of Bothwell
  • Scottish Places article on Holytown--more information may be found by following the tabs on the right. The parish maps in this series are very useful.
  • The maps website of the National Library of Scotland allows comparisons of modern-day and old maps of the same place. 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 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.