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Scotland Aberdeen (city)

Guide to Aberdeen (city) history, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



HISTORY
The Aberdeen area has seen human settlement for at least 8,000 years,with Pictish and Gaelic origins.

For hundreds of years, Aberdeen has been known as the granite city of the north. This fact has also provided one the best supplies of quality drinking water in the UK.

The earliest charter for a city was granted by William the Lion in 1179. In 1319, the Great Charter of Robert the Bruce (one of the greatest champions for s free Scotland) transformed Aberdeen into a property-owning and financially independent community. Granted with it was the nearby Forest of Stocket, whose income formed the basis for the city's Common Good Fund which still benefits Aberdonians.

During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of 1644–1647 the city was plundered by both sides. In 1644, it was taken and ransacked by Royalist troops after the Battle of Aberdeen and two years later it was stormed by a Royalist force under the command of Marquis of Huntly.

In the nineteenth century, the increasing economic importance of Aberdeen and the development of the shipbuilding and fishing industries led to the construction of the present harbor including Victoria Dock and the South Breakwater, and the extension of the North Pier.

In the twentieth century, the discovery of the North Sea oilfields has made Aberdeen a major player in the petroleum industry.

LOCATION
The city is cited between 2 river-mouths, the Don and the Dee. As such, it is based upon river sediments, rather than major rock deposits. However to the west and southwest are large deposits of granite, for which the city was nicknamed.

The city started initially as two burghs or chartered towns, Old Aberdeen at the mouth of the river Don; and New Aberdeen, a fishing and trading settlement, where the Denburn waterway entered the river Dee estuary. These were eventually merged into one city.

On the coast, Aberdeen has a long sand beach between the two rivers, the Dee and the Don, which turns into high sand dunes north of the Don stretching as far as Fraserburgh. To the south, the coast rises into a line of high cliffs.

RELIGION
Christianity is the main religion practiced in the city. Aberdeen's largest denominations are the Church of Scotland (through the Presbytery of Aberdeen) and the Roman Catholic Church, both with numerous churches across the city, with the Scottish Episcopal Church having the third-largest number. Numerous other Protestant denominations have a presence in Aberdeen. The city also has two meetinghouses of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church0.

There is also a mosque in Old Aberdeen which serves the Islamic community in the city, and an Orthodox Jewish Synagogue established in 1945.

INDUSTRY
Aberdeen used to be the home to fishing, textile mills, shipbuilding and paper making in Scotland. These have largely been replaced.

For several centuries, Rubislaw Quarry, opened in 1740 provided some six million tons of granite prior to its closure. Both the Scottish Houses of Parliament and the Forth Rail Bridge were constructed using its granite.

Fishing was once the predominant industry, but was surpassed by deep-sea fisheries, which derived a great impetus from improved technologies throughout the 20th century. Catches have fallen because of overfishing and the use of the harbor by oil support vessels.

In the late twentieth century, and presently,high technology developments in the electronics design and development industry, research in agriculture and fishing and the oil industry, have been largely responsible for Aberdeen's economic boom in the last three decades, are now major parts of Aberdeen's economy.

As oil reserves in the North Sea decrease there is an effort to re-brand Aberdeen as "Energy Capital of Europe" rather than "Oil Capital of Europe", and there is interest in the development of new energy sources; and technology transfer from oil into renewable energy and other industries is under way.

CIVIL REGISTRATION
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The following link provides access for Aberdeen:


 * Aberdeen BMD records

CENSUS RECORDS
Census records for Aberdeen can be found using the following link:


 * Aberdeen Census Records

PROBATE RECORDS
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. See the following link for Aberdeen:


 * Aberdeen Probate Records

CEMETERIES AND GRAVES
There are 3 cemeteries in the area of Aberdeen. The link follows:


 * Aberdeen Cemeteries

Other useful sites follow:


 * Finda grave Aberdeen


 * Aberdeen grave records


 * Scottish Family History Asociation Records for Aberdeen

GENEALOGY SOCIETIES AND GENEALOGY

 * Scotland's People


 * Aberdeen and North East Scotland Family History Society


 * Genuki.org, Scotland


 * Ancestry.com for Scotland