Source talk:Scotland. Old Parish Registers, Banns & Marriages

Expansion of OPR Marriages text [29 January 2017]

Hope you don't mind a few styling suggestions for your very good piece. I have also added ScotlandsPeople as a repository, and that the Old Parish Registers refer to Presbyterian (Established Church of Scotland) marriages only. --Goldenoldie 06:22, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. I just copied and pasted from ScotlandsPeople website. Not really sure how I should of referenced that.--GreyByName 22:07, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

The way ScotlandsPeople introduce their data may make the uninitiated assume that every marriage in Scotland should be found there. This is far from the case. Thus, I have added a short paragraph to the section OPR Banns & Marriages.

There is another source on ScotlandsPeople referring to Catholic marriages. Perhaps this should be mentioned here as a cross-reference.

Not all Scots were members of the established church or Roman Catholics, particularly after the disruption of 1843. Wikipedia reprints a diagram of the breakaways from the established church from the Reformation in 1560 to the present day. Scotlands People do not publish church-associated banns or marriages for the period after 1855 when civil registration came into force.

I speak from personal experience. My family is more than half Scots and of the Church of Scotland, but the only marriage from before 1855 that appears in ScotlandsPeople is of a couple who married in Edinburgh despite living 30-40 miles away in Roxburghshire. --Goldenoldie 16:43, 29 January 2017 (UTC)