Place:Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Aberdeen (Scots: Aiberdeen, Scottish Gaelic: Obar Dheathain) is a city in northeast Scotland. It is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 37th most populous built-up area, with an official population estimate of 196,670 for the city of Aberdeen and 228,800 for the local council area. (Population source: Office of National Statistics, 2015) During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeen's buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, which can sparkle like silver because of its high mica content. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, Aberdeen has been known as the off-shore oil capital of Europe. The area around Aberdeen was settled more than 8,000 years ago, when prehistoric villages lay around the mouths of the rivers Dee and Don. The city has a long, sandy coastline and a marine climate, the latter resulting in chilly summers and mild winters.

Aberdeen received royal burgh status from David I of Scotland (1124–1153). The traditional industries of fishing, paper-making, shipbuilding, and textiles have been overtaken by the oil industry and Aberdeen's seaport. Aberdeen Heliport is one of the busiest commercial heliports in the world and the seaport is the largest in the northeast of Scotland.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Aberdeen. .
This article traces the city through the whole of its history and also explains its current economic and geographic features.

History of Governance

Until 1975 Aberdeen was classified as a Scottish burgh--an urban settlement enjoying trading privileges from medieval times until 1832. To a varying extent burghs regulated their own affairs independent of the county in which they were situated. Aberdeen was also a "royal burgh" and as such was allowed to participate in foreign trade. In 1975 burghs were abolished in Scotland. However, feudal hereditary titles formally attached to the lands have been preserved, and are still recognized by the British crown today.

In 1975 Aberdeen became part of the Grampian Region covering a larger part of the northeast of Scotland than Aberdeenshire. The region was divided into five districts. The city of Aberdeen and the surrounding Aberdeenshire were combined into one district or council area named "City of Aberdeen".

In 1996 local government in Scotland was reorganized a second time and the City of Aberdeen and rural Aberdeenshire became separate unitary council areas, equivalent to unitary authorities in England. Since 1996 some more urbanized parishes surrounding the city have come under the city government.

Ecclesiastical Parishes

Aberdeen North Church, Aberdeen South Church, Aberdeen East Church, Aberdeen West Church, Aberdeen St. Clement, Aberdeen St. Nicholas, Aberdeen Greyfriars. All are redirected here.

Descriptions of the parishes can be found in GENUKI and are quotations from A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland by Samuel Lewis (published in 1851).

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) and does not include the outlying parishes absorbed into the City of Aberdeen.

Research Tips

• 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.