Place:Kippen, Stirlingshire, Scotland

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

The village

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Kippen is a village in west Stirlingshire, Scotland. It lies between the Gargunnock Hills and the Fintry Hills and overlooks the Carse of Forth to the north. The village is 9 miles west of Stirling and 20 miles north of Glasgow. It is 4.5 miles south-east of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, Scotland's first National Park.

The village lies on the line of an eighteenth-century military road between Stirling and Balloch. A bypass around the village was built in 1971 meaning Kippen no longer lies on the A811. According to the 2001 census, the population of Kippen was 1,140.

The parish

Kippen is a parish which lies in the Stirling Council Area in Scotland, some 9 miles (14 km) south of Callander and 11 miles (18 km) southwest of Dunblane, both formerly in Perthshire, but now in the Stirling Council Area.

Prior to 1975 Kippen was located in the old county of Stirlingshire, which was replaced by the Central region and in 1996 by the unitary authority of Stirling. Before 1891 parts of Kippen were in Perthshire, but none of the five online reference checked has specified settlements within this area.

The parish has an area of 45.8 sq. km (17.7 sq. miles). In addition to the village of Kippen, the parish includes the settlements of Buchlyvie, Garden, Arnprior and Cauldhame--all to the west of Kippen along the old military road to Balloch.

Research Tips

Notes for Stirlingshire

The local family history society covering Stirlingshire is:

• Central Scotland FHS

Publishes its 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).

Archives

• Stirling Council Local Archives, 5 Borrowmeadow Road, Springkerse, Stirling (telephone: 01786 450745). This probably includes the part of Perthshire that moved to Central Region in 1975.
• Falkirk Council Area also has a local archives: Falkirk Archives, Callendar House, Callendar Park, Falkirk FK1 1YR (telephone: 01324 503779). The Falkirk area is the most densely populated part of what used to be Stirlingshire.

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 under the auspices of the Scottish Record Office. There is a description at Scotland under Genealogical Resources.

• Scottish Registration Districts and Parish Register names and numbers are available as a free Excel or PDF download from Scottish People.

• See the publications lists of the Central Scotland FHS.

• The FreeCen Project has a searchable (not browsable) transcription of the major part of Stirlingshire for 1841 and 1851.

• The Scottish BDM Exchange holds a limited number of records.

Transcriptions of Gravestone Inscriptions

• The Scottish Genealogy Society provides a series of monumental inscriptions either in print in booklet form or on CD. The one for Stirling is "Monumental inscriptions (pre-1855) in West Stirlingshire", John F Mitchell & Sheila Mitchell, published Edinburgh, 1973 (Scottish Genealogy Society)
• GENUKI has further details

Further Sources of Reference

Please note and respect the copyright warnings on these websites.

• GENUKI article on Stirlingshire. This was last updated in July 2014.
• Electric Scotland's brief reviews of the 24 parishes which made up Stirlingshire from 1890 until 1975.
• The Gazetteer for Scotland article on the the county of Stirlingshire. The tabs on the right provide more information, and a map of the parish within its surrounding area, with small settlements highlighted and linked to more information.
• The FamilySearch Wiki article on Stirlingshire provides direct reference to FamilySearch holdings on many topics with respect to the county.

• 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.