Ross and Cromarty, Scotland Genealogy

ScotlandRoss and Cromarty

Guide to  ancestry, family history and genealogy parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



History
Ross and Cromarty are two historical counties in the north of Scotland, under the jurisdiction of one sheriff, and have been considered one county since 1889. They are bounded on the north by Sutherlandshire, on the east by the German Ocean, on the south and south-east by Inverness-shire, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. They extend about 67 miles in length and 58 miles in breadth, comprising an area of 3799 square miles or 2,431,360 acres, of which 223,560 are Cromarty. Cromarty is a peninsula, called the Black Isle, which lies between the Cromarty and Moray Firths.

The combined counties consist of 31 parishes. They are under three sub-sheriffs who hold their courts at Cromarty and Tain, Dingwall and Fortrose, and Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. The royal burghs are Dingwall, Tain, and Fortrose, the market-towns are Cromarty and Stornoway, which are burghs of barony, and there are numerous smaller places.

Ross and Cromarty include the districts of Ardross, Easter Ross, Ardmeanach or the Black Isles, Kintail, Strathcarron, and the greater part of the island of Lewis. The general surface is wild and mountainous, diversified with numerous glens and some pleasant and fertile valleys, enlivened with several rivers and lakes. The streams abound with salmon. The western coast is indented by many lochs and bays. Ardmeanach, or the Black Isle, is so called due to its bleak moorland character. The Isle of Lewis is less mountainous but is equally dreary and barren.

A very small proportion of the land is in cultivation. The soil on the eastern coast and on the low lands is rich and fertile. Excellent crops of wheat are raised. There are good tracts of meadow-land, and the mountainous parts afford pasturage for sheep and cattle. Copper is wrought. Ironstone, limestone, and coal are present but are not wrought. There are chalybeate springs of great repute. The principal manufactures are thoses of biscuit and cotton bagging. The herring-fishery is extensively pursued, and a considerable number of fish are taken in the lochs. Black cattle, sheep, and great quantities of wool are shipped from the several ports.

The population is 1851 was 78,685.

(Source: Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, 2nd ed., 1851.  Family History Library book .)

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.

Parishes
Some of the Ross and Cromarty-shire parish records are indexed in Ross and Cromartys, Scotland, Extracted Parish Records.
 * This database is a collection of historical parish registers from the county of Caithness in the country of Scotland. The 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 historic parishes for the county of Ross &amp; Cromarty with their parish numbers. Click on a 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 Ross &amp; Cromarty. Click here to see a table listing these other census surname indexes that are available at the library.

Maps
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 Ross &amp; Cromarty.

Helpful Websites
[Return to county list.]
 * Ross &amp; Cromarty Resources and help pages on RootsChat Ross &amp; Cromarty Resources and help pages. (Free).