Caithness, Scotland Genealogy

Guide to Caithness-shire ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Background
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 Online 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. More information on the site, its contents, and instructions for using it can be found in the ScotlandsPeople Wiki article. Indexes may be searched for free, and there is a small pay per view fee to see the actual digitized record.

Census
Many census records have been indexed by surname. Some indexes cover one parish (and will be listed in the Wiki on the parish page) and some indexes are for the county as a whole. The Family History Library has county-wide census placename indexes for Caithness for. Click here for other census indexes available at the library.


 * 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, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1861, no images. Also at MyHeritage, index, ($). 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, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1911, index and images, ($).

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. Click on this link to see an outline map of Caithness parishes.

Church Records

 * 1658 - 1919 - at FamilySearch — index

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.

Maps

 * National Library of Scotland map collection

Maps and Gazetteers
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

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

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.

Societies
The Highland Archive Centre Bught Road Inverness IV3 5SS Scotland Tel: +44 (0)1463 256444 Email: archives@highlifehighland.com

Caithness Family History Society Dwarick Park Dunnet By THURSO Caithness KW14 8XD Scotland

Scottish Genealogy Society 15 Victoria Terrace Edinburgh EH1 2JL Scotland Phone-0131 220 3677 Email enquiries@scotsgenealogy.com

Websites

 * RootsChat Caithness Resources