GuidedResearch:Why Can't I Find the Record - Scotland Births

This page will give you additional guidance and resources to find birth information for your ancestor. Use this page after first completing the birth section of the Scotland Guided Research page.

Mandatory birth registration started in 1855. Before this, birth and baptisms can be found in church records (mainly the Church of Scotland or Roman Catholic Church). Although the oldest baptism records date to 1553, many churches only have records starting in the 18th or early 19th century.

Additional Databases and Online Resources

 * 1553-1855: Church Registers - Births and Baptisms at ScotlandsPeople (free to search, $ to view image)
 * 1855-1917: Statutory Register of Births at ScotlandsPeople (free to search, $ to view image)
 * 1658-1919: Scotland Church Records and Kirk Session Records, 1658-1919  at FamilySearch
 * 1564-1950: Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950  at Ancestry ($)
 * 1564-1950: Scotland Births & Baptisms 1564-1950  at FindMyPast ($)
 * 1571-1997: Scotland, Extracted Parish Records, 1571-1997  at Ancestry ($)

ScotlandsPeople ($) is the premiere website for Scotland birth records. The site requires the user to register in order to search the index for free. It costs a small fee to view any image. ScotlandsPeople is the only site with the images to Scotland church and vital records; all other sites only have indexes to these records. The FamilySearch Catalog has some these records available online as digital images.

Additional Records with Birth Information
Substitute records can contain information about more than one event, and are used when records for an event are not available. Because the substitute records may not be created at the time of the event, it may contain incorrect information. Search for as many substitute records as possible to corroborate information found in substitute records to help improve accuracy.

Tips for finding births
Success with finding birth records in online databases depends on a few key points:
 * Your ancestor's name may be misspelled. Try the following search tactics:
 * Try searching for the parents if known. Sometimes a child's first name is not on the birth record.
 * Try different spelling variations of the first and last name of your ancestor.
 * Try a given name search (leave out the last names).
 * Try broadening the name search, such as using wildcards or searching for similar sounding names (instead of exact matches only).
 * Example: check "Name Variants" on FindMyPast, "Sounds like" or "Similar" on Ancestry, and "Fuzzy matching" or "Name Variants" on ScotlandsPeople


 * Expand the date range of the search.
 * Try searching with the county name only instead of by parish.
 * If your ancestor's name is common, try adding more information to narrow the search.

Known Record Gaps
Records Start Mandatory birth registration started in 1855. Before this, birth and baptisms can be found in church records (mainly the Church of Scotland or Roman Catholic Church). Although the oldest baptism registers date to 1553, many churches only have records starting in the 18th or early 19th century. While parishes were required to record baptisms and marriages beginning in 1552, many parishes did not comply with the requirement until much later.

Records Published

Records Destroyed Some church records may have been lost or destroyed, although more specific information is not known. Civil registration records are generally complete.