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| Name | Perthshire |
| Alt names | Perth | source: FHLC | | Siorrachd Pheairt | source: Wikipedia |
| Type | Traditional county |
| Coordinates | 56.52°N 3.95°W |
| Located in | Scotland ( - 1975) |
| See also | Tayside, Scotland | administrative region including most of Perthshire, existed 1975-1996 | | Central Scotland, Scotland | administrative region including western part of Perthshire, existed 1975-1996 | | Perth and Kinross, Scotland | unitary council area replacing part of Tayside since 1996 | | Stirling, Scotland | unitary council area replacing part of Central Scotland since 1996 |
- source: Family History Library Catalog
- the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia
Perthshire, officially the County of Perth, is a registration county in central Scotland. It extends from the vale of Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south. It was a local government county from 1890 to 1930.
Perthshire county is a land registration county and extends to 5300 km².
Perthshire was known as the "big county" and had a wide variety of landscapes, from the rich agricultural straths in the east, to the high mountains of the southern Highlands.
County Council Changes 1890-1996
Perthshire was a top-level local government area between 1890 and 1975, governed by a county council. This Local Government council was superseded in 1930, when a joint Local Government council was formed with the neighbouring small county of Kinross-shire, linking the two under the name Perthshire and Kinross.
In 1975 this Local Government council was in turn superseded by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and split between the two Local Government regions: Central and Tayside Regions:
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The two-tier system introduced in 1975 was superseded by a system of unitary authorities in 1996.
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Boundaries
Prior to the 1890s Perthshire's boundaries were irregular: the parishes of Culross and Tulliallan formed an exclave some miles away from the rest of the county, on the boundaries of Clackmannanshire and Fife; while the northern part of the parish of Logie formed an enclave of Stirlingshire within the county.
Following the recommendations of the council boundary commission appointed under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, Culross and Tulliallan were transferred to Fife, and the entire parish of Logie was included in Stirlingshire.
Burghs
By the 1890s the county contained the following burghs, which were largely outside the county council's jurisdiction:
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The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 divided burghs into two classes from 1930: large burghs, which were to gain extra powers from the county council, and small burghs which lost many of their responsibilities.
Of the twelve burghs in Perthshire, only Perth was made a large burgh. There were ten small burghs: Blairgowrie and Rattray being united into a single burgh. In 1947 Pitlochry was created a small burgh.
Civil parishes
In 1894 parish councils were established for the civil parishes, replacing the previous parochial boards. The parish councils were in turn replaced by district councils in 1930. Wikipedia provides a list of the civil parishes, as well as a list of places recognized as "towns". These lists have not been reproduced here, but are being used to analyze the list of places given to the right.
- 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).
- collections of wills and testaments and
- property tax listings
- an extensive collection of local maps
- kirk session records for individual parishes (added in 2021 and not yet complete).
This site is extremely easy to use. There are charges for parish register entries, collections of wills, and census listings (the 1881 census is free to view, also on Ancestry and FindMyPast). The charges are reasonable and payable by online transfer. Viewing the kirk session records is free, but a charge will be made for a copy.
- The National Library of Scotland have an online map collection of historic and modern day maps which can zoom in on a specific farmhouse or street in a town. Their collection also includes London and some counties of southeast England.
- Gazetteer for Scotland contains an article for each parish from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland by F. H. Groome, (published 1882-4) and short details about each parish today including names of small settlements within a parish.
- The FamilySearch Wiki explains a great many legal terms only found in Scotland and provides a gazetteer for genealogists for each parish across the county. It reviews the availablility of parish registers.
- GENUKI Scotland which provides for each Scottish parish (indexed by county), 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 possibly other gazetteers from individual counties and regions. It is worth reviewing one of its county pages to see what is available online or in print from local archive providers. Each county page has a "Where in ---shire is .... ? section--very helpful in pinpointing the small places below parish level.
- A list of Burial Grounds in Scotland is now available on the website of the Scottish Association of Family History Societies.
- 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.
Research Tips
Notes for Perthshire
Family history societies and historical associations covering Perthshire are:
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All of these associations publish their 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).
Sources for Old Parish Registers Records, Vital Records and Censuses
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- 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.
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- See the publications lists of the above Family History Societies.
- The FreeCen Project for Perthshire has a searchable (not browsable) transcription of the major part of Perthshire for 1841 and 1851. The Scotland FreeCen page states that some work has also been done on 1861.
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. A new edition has been printed, with corrections, as a 4 volume set.
- GENUKI has further details
Further Sources of Reference
Please note and respect the copyright warnings on these websites.
- GENUKI article on Perthshire. This was last updated in February 2014.
- The Gazetteer for Scotland article on the the county of Perthshire. 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 Perthshire 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.
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