Fintry, Stirlingshire, Scotland Genealogy

Parish #480

This is a guide to the history and major genealogical records of Scotland as they pertain to the parish of Fintry. To learn more about how to use these records to search for your ancestors, go to the Scotland: Research Strategies.

History
FINTRY, a parish, in the county of Stirling, 17 miles (N.) from Glasgow containing the villages of Gonochan and Newtown, and the Clachan. This parish is said to have derived its name from Gaelic terms signifying "Fair land," and applied in consequence of the picturesque appearance of parts of the district. The chief village, designated Newtown, was built to accommodate the population that sprang up in consequence of the erection of a cotton-factory. The church is a neat structure with a tower at the west end, built in 1823, and contains 500 sittings.

The New Statistical Account of Scotland (pub. 1834-45) offers uniquely rich and detailed parish reports for the whole of Scotland, covering a vast range of topics including history, agriculture, education, trades, religion and social customs. The reports, written by the parish ministers, are available online at http://edina.ac.uk/stat-acc-scot/. Click on ‘Browse scanned pages’ then search the parish reports for your parish of interest. Also available at the

Census Records
A census is a count and description of the population, taken by the government, arranged by locality and by household. Read more about census records.

is a list of the FS Library microfilm numbers for the census records of Fintry, as well as the library numbers for any available.

The 1901 census of Scotland is indexed on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. To use it, you must register and pay a small access fee. All available censuses, 1841-1901, are indexed on this website. It may be easier for you to pay to use the website rather than access the separate indexes through the library.

Church Records
The Established Church of Scotland was Presbyterian. Read more about church records. Here are the pre-1855 records that exist for this parish.

Established Church Old Parochial Registers
Click to go to the FamilySearch Catalog entry for the Established Church records for Fintry, covering the years 1659-1854.

Condition of Original Registers
Indexed: For an index to these records, see Scotland’s People website, a pay-for-view website. The Scottish Church Records Index is also still available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Some records may also be indexed in other FamilySearch collections for Scotland. Births: There is only one entry May 1689–December 1691, and August 1744–April 1747. There is an index for period 1748–1854. Marriages: The record is blank, excluding a fragment of a leaf with parts of entries 1733–1734, July 1689–May 1734, and April 1787–April 1792. There are four imperfect leaves at 1689, with entries of proclamations 1669–1685. In the records 1770–1807 inclusive, the fact of marriage is seldom added to the entry of proclamation. Early leaves of both births and marriages have suffered much from dampness and want of care. Source: Key to the Parochial Registers of Scotland, by V. Ben Bloxham, pub. 1970. British Book 941 K23b.

Established Church Kirk Session Records
The Kirk session was the court of the parish. The session was made up of the minister and the land owners and business men of the parish, chosen to serve on the session. The Kirk session dealt with moral issues, minor criminal cases, matters of the poor and education, matters of discipline, and the general concerns of the parish. Kirk session records may also mention births, marriages, and deaths.

Here is a list of the surviving Kirk session records for this parish:

Minutes 1632 (one leaf), 1640–1659, 1667–1689, 1727, 1738–1769, 1829–1892 Note: Available at the Stirling Council Archives, Stirling, Scotland, record CH2/438.

Nonconformist Church Records
A nonconformist church is any church that is not the Established church. Read more about nonconformity in Scotland in the article on the Scotland Church Records Union List.

There are no known pre-1855 churches or records for Fintry.

Civil Registration Records
Government or civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths (also called statutory records) began on January 1, 1855 in Scotland. Each parish has a registrar's office and large cities have several. The records are created by the registrars and copies are sent to the General Register Office in Edinburgh. Annual indexes are then created for the records for the whole country. See the article on Scotland Civil Registration for more information and to access the records.

Probate Records
Fintry was under the probate jurisdiction of the Commissary Court of Ayr until 1823, and since then has been under the Sheriff's Court of Stirling. Probate records for 1513- 1901 are indexed online at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. You must register on the website but use of the index to probate records, called 'Wills &amp; Testaments,' is free. You may then purchase a copy of the document or, if the document is before 1823, it will be on microfilm at the Family History Library. To find the microfilm numbers, search in the library catalog for the 'Place-names' of Stirling and the subject of 'Probate records.' Then click on the link to the records of the Commissariat of Ayr. The library also has some post-1823 probate records for Stirling. Look in the library catalog for the 'Place-names' of Ayr and the subjects of 'Probate Records' and 'Probate Records - Indexes.' Read more about Scotland Probate Records.