Place:Portmoak, Kinross-shire, Scotland

NamePortmoak
TypeParish
Coordinates56.2006°N 3.3105°W
Located inKinross-shire, Scotland     ( - 1975)
Also located inPerth and Kinross, Scotland     (1975 - )
source: Family History Library Catalog
source: Family History Library Catalog
source: Family History Library Catalog

Portmoak is a parish in the traditional county of Kinross-shire. It is bounded by the parishes of Cleish, Kinross and Orwell in Kinross-shire, and Strathmiglo, Falkland, Leslie, Kinglassie, Auchterderran, and Ballingry in Fife.

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Portmoak is a parish on the east side of Kinross-shire, Scotland lying between Loch Leven and the former county of Fife. The area is a rich landscape of braes, crags, fine meadows, fertile fields and plantations.

The parish consists of a group of settlements running south to north: Scotlandwell, Kilmagadwood, Kinnesswood (the main village), Easter Balgedie, Wester Balgedie and Glenlomond. Portmoak Community Council has provided a map based on Google maps. (All the settlements save Scotlandwell have been redirected here.)

Old Parish Registers

  • Births - 1701 to 1705, 1713 to 1854
  • Marriages - 1703 to 1706, 1713 to 1724, 1726 to 1775, 1779 to 1784, 1789 to 1854
  • Deaths - 1740 to 1758

Research Tips

Notes for Kinross-shire

The Family History Societies covering Kinross-shire are:

Sources for Old Parish Registers Records, Vital Records and Censuses

  • 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.
  • Tay Valley Family History Society has published booklets of 1851 census indexes for the whole parishes of Cleish, Fossoway & Tulliebole, Kinross, Orwell and Portmoak, and parts of Arngask and Forgandenny. The remainder of the latter two may be listed under Perthshire.
  • The FreeCen Project has a searchable (not browsable) transcription of the whole of Kinross-shire online for the 1841 and 1851 censuses.

Transcriptions of Gravestone Inscriptions

  • The Scottish Genealogy Society provides a series of monumental inscriptions either in print in booklet form or on CD. Most of these were prepared by John Fowler Mitchell and Sheila Mitchell and published 1967. These have been reprinted.

Further Sources of Reference

Please note and respect the copyright warnings on these websites.

  • GENUKI article on Kinross-shire. This page was last updated in 2009.
  • The Gazetteer for Scotland article on the the county of Kinross-shire. 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 Kinross-shire 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.