Old Parish Records and the physical location of the "church"
I used ScotlandsPeople to find Old Parish Records for my Scottish ancestors who came from Scotland. I would like to visit the actual physical church/parish where my ancestors were married but I'm having a hard time figuring out the location. For example, according to the ScotlandsPeople, my great, great grand mother was married in 1825, in parish #648, in Lanark (freepages.rootsweb.com). But where is the GPS location of parish #648? Is it the St. Nicholas church in Lanark?
Seeking information on how to cross-reference the parish numbers with physical locations?
Thank you!
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An excellent question, Kris, with some interesting angles to it.
Turning the parish numbers into names (which you appear to have done already) is best done via Coverage of the Old Parish Registers on https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/old-parish-registers/list-of-old-parish-registers. NB - this is for the Old Parish Registers of the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland. There's a link there to an 1872 Detailed list of the Old Parochial Registers of Scotland which is far more than just a list but also includes a commentary about what CofS volumes were inherited by the Registrar General.
Then I would suggest following that name into the GENUKI Gazetteer on https://www.genuki.org.uk/gazetteer
Lanark's entry is on https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/LKS/Lanark - the Church History section there is slightly unclear in my view. St. Kentigern's appears to have been the first, then St. Nicholas whose "site is forgotten" (this appears to be disputed elsewhere). Then the present parish church was built in 1777 and St. Leonard's was built in 1867 as a chapel of ease. There are 3 churches linked - discarding the Episcopal and Roman Catholic, you just get the Presbyterian "Lanark, Church of Scotland". If you then go to the linked page, the map shows St. Nicholas' parish church on Bloomgate. You can confirm this exists (despite the confusion over the St. Nicholas name) by using Google Streetview.
But.... There is also (I can see looking at the map) Greyfriars Parish Church, further down Bloomgate, described on its website as "a congregation of the Church of Scotland". Looking at https://www.lanarkgreyfriars.com/we-are-greyfriars/our-history/greyfriars-history my impression is that this started out as a Secession Church that ended up amalgamating back into the Church of Scotland.
If you're not confused by now, "you clearly don't understand what's going on."
This is fairly typical of the confusion that arises from the umpteen denominations that split from the CoF, split themselves, and then amalgamated back - and not necessarily in the way you'd expect. The buildings could also swap their denomination! (Try Googling the name of the church as well to find history articles).
So here's the interesting angle - baptisms and marriages in that era did not take place in the physical church. It was described to me once as the church not wishing to be associated with wedding ceremonies where there might be music and even "drink taken". Baptisms were often done within a couple of days of birth and it seemed to be easier for the minister to go to the child than vice versa.
So basically, if you use GENUKI etc and Google around, and look for history articles, you can see where your ancestors worshipped - but they probably weren't baptised or married there, rather those ceremonies took place at home...
Phew...
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Adrian, Thank you so much!
Especially for "baptisms and marriages in that era did not take place in the physical church. It was described to me once as the church not wishing to be associated with wedding ceremonies where there might be music and even "drink taken". " I wanted to visit the church knowing that my ancestors had been there too. But, maybe I'll just go on a Scottish Whisky tour!
Cheers! Kris
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