Caithness, Scotland Genealogy



Caithness-shire is the furthest north county of mainland Scotland. It is bounded on the north by the Pentland Firth, on the east and south-east by the North Sea, and on the west and south-west by the county of Sutherland. It is about forty-three miles in length and thirty miles in breadth and comprises an area of 618 square miles or 395,520 acres.

On account of its remote situation, Caithness is connected with few historical events of importance except occasional hostilities with the Danes and Norwegians.

Caithness includes ten parishes and the two civil districts of Wick and Thurso. It contains the royal burgh of Wick, which is the county town and the seat of the sheriff court,

The population in 1851 was 36,343.

(Source: Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, 2nd ed., 1851.  FHL book 941 E5L.)

Scotlands People: An Important Source
ScotlandsPeople is one of the largest online sources of original genealogical information. If you are researching UK genealogy, your Scottish ancestry or building your Scottish family tree, they have more than 100 million records to look through.

The comprehensive choice of Scottish records includes: For more detail on exact record availability, see Availability. For examples of the records available, see Record Types and Examples.

Parishes
Some of the Caithness-shire parish records are indexed in Caithness, Scotland, Extracted Parish Records.
 * This database is a collection of historical parish registers from the county of Caithness in the country of Scotland. The 9,100 records in this collection can range in date from the early 1500s to the mid- to late-1800s. The records include baptisms/christenings, burials, marriages, tombstone inscriptions, obituaries, tax lists, wills, and other miscellaneous types of records. Also included are some records from non-conformist churches. You will find interesting phonetic spelling. Some of the records may be in Latin or even a Welsh or Scottish dialect. Due to the nature of the records and because the records were originally compiled by a third party, it is difficult to absolutely verify the completeness and validity of the data.

Here is a list of the historic parishes for the county of Caithness. Click on the parish name to see information about records.

Census

 * ScotlandsPeople, index, images, free index, pay per view ($)
 * Scotland Census, 1841, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index, ($). Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1851, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index, ($). Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1861, no images. Also at, index, ($). Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1871, no images. Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1881, no images. Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1891, no images. Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1901, index and images, ($). Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1911, index and images, ($).

The library also has a collection of census surname indexes for different places within Caithness-shire. Click here to see a table listing these other census surname indexes that are available at the library.

Probate
Probate writs, deeds, commissary court records, and other matters related to probate are available on microfilm. 

Cemeteries
A list of cemeteries in Caithness is available from Caithness.org.

Published cemetery resources Caithness monumental inscriptions (pre-1855) / edited by A.S. Cowper & I. Ross. [Edinburgh] : Scottish Genealogy Society, 1992. Multiple volumes.

Helpful Websites

 * Caithness Family History Society
 * Caithness Archive Center
 * Caithness.org. This website links to the history of Caithness, cemeteries and other information on the county.
 * Highland Family History Society
 * RootsChat Caithness Resources.

Maps and Gazetteers
Click on the map at the right to see a larger version, and click again on the larger map. Next, click on the ‘Expand’ button when it appears in the lower right-hand corner of the map.



Click here to see an outline map of the parishes of Caithness.

The National Library of Scotland has an extensive collection of maps of Caithness. These maps are high resolution and may be zoomed to a particular town or village. A complete list of maps may be found on the  National Library of Scotland website.

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.

Poorhouse Records

 * There are two poorhouses:
 * Latheron Combination
 * Thurso Combination

Publications

 * Journal of the Highland Family History Society- The website of the society has an index to articles with information on obtaining copies.Topic Index
 * The Scottish Genealogist, publication of the Scottish Genealogical Society. The website offers a downloaded index to articles with information on how to obtain copies.