Place:Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

The following notes are based on an article in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemnay Wikipedia)

Kemnay (Gaelic: Ceann a' Mhuigh) is a village 16 miles (26 km) northwest of Aberdeen. With a population of 3,830 residents aged 16 or over (2012), the village is the third largest settlement in the Garioch region after Inverurie and Westhill.

History

The village and its parish of the same name is believed to originate from the Celtic words that mean "little crook in the river". TheRiver Don winds through the area in such a circuitous fashion that is provides the parish boundary both to the north and the west.

In 1851 Samuel Lewis, in his A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, (available on GENUKI) described the parish as

irregular in figure, and [measuring] between four and five miles in length, and about three in breadth; comprising 6000 acres, of which about half is pasture and in tillage, and half in plantations and uncultivated. Its surface in general is uneven, and diversified with a picturesque range of small hills called kerns, running nearly parallel with the river. The scenery is beautiful, combining well-cultivated arable grounds, rich and verdant pastures, and numerous thriving plantations .... The crops consist chiefly of oats, [barley], potatoes, and turnips, peas and wheat being very scantily sown: the rotation system is followed. Much of the mossy land has been brought into cultivation, and now produces good corn; but considerable tracts still remain, supplying the inhabitants with their ordinary fuel [peat].

Lewis continues

The rocks are of the granite formation, quartz and mica prevailing in their composition: the stone admits of a fine polish, and is raised from two or three quarries, as well as found in detached masses on the hills.

Thirty years later F. H. Groome reported (Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland available online on the Gazetteer for Scotland) on the product of the granite quarries opened in 1858 which were being transported by the railway which had been constructed through the parish to Aberdeen and forwarded from there to many locations around the world. Wikipedia lists the Forth Railway Bridge in Edinburgh, Marischal College in Aberdeen and the Thames Embankment in London as places where the stone has been used.

Granite workers from Kemnay helped to quarry and shape the Australian granite used in the Sydney Harbour Bridge. They also travelled to quarries in California, the Mississippi Levees and Odessa. (ref: Wikipedia)

Population Growth

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 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. )

• Scotlands People, the website of the Scottish Register Office provides

• 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.