Dull, Perthshire, Scotland Genealogy

Parish #346

This is a guide to the history and major genealogical records of Scotland as they pertain to the parish of Dull. To learn more about how to use these records to search for your ancestors, go to the Scotland: Research Strategies.

History
DULL, a parish, in the county of Perth, 4 miles (W. by N.) from Aberfeldy; containing parts of the late quoad sacra parishes of Foss and Tenandry, and part of the village of Aberfeldy. This place, of which the name is descriptive of a plain, appears to have been celebrated for a monastery founded here at a very early period, and which formed one of the only three Abthaneries existing in the kingdom. The church, situated in the village of Dull, is an ancient structure, repaired and reseated in 1840, and contains 600 sittings. A church to which a quoad sacra district was for a short time assigned, has been erected at Foss by parliamentary grant. There are also chapels in connexion with the Established Church at Amulrie and Grandtully, under the patronage of the General Assembly.

The New Statistical Account of Scotland (pub. 1834-45) offers uniquely rich and detailed parish reports for the whole of Scotland, covering a vast range of topics including history, agriculture, education, trades, religion and social customs. The reports, written by the parish ministers, are available online at http://edina.ac.uk/stat-acc-scot/. Click on ‘Browse scanned pages’ then search the parish reports for your parish of interest. Also available at the

Census Records
A census is a count and description of the population, taken by the government, arranged by locality and by household. Read more about census records.

Here is a list of the Family History Library microfilm numbers for the, as well as the library numbers for any surname indexes available:

The 1901 census of Scotland is indexed on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. To use it, you must register and pay a small access fee. All available censuses, 1841-1901, are indexed on this website. It may be easier for you to pay to use the website rather than access the separate indexes through the library.

Church Records
The Established Church of Scotland was Presbyterian. Read more about church records. Here are the pre-1855 records that exist for this parish.

Condition of Original Registers—
Indexed: For an index to these records, see Scotland’s People website, a pay-for-view website. The Scottish Church Records Index is also still available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Some records may also be indexed in other FamilySearch collections for Scotland. Births: Births are intermixed with marriages to April 1717. After the record for December 1782, there occur 15 pages of entries, many of them irregular, dated 1748–1770. The first page of this portion is lost and the page numbered 6 is headed "Glenqueach Children." Many blank spaces have been left in the record after 1760, into which some entries have been subsequently inserted. There is a duplicate or copy of the register for 1783–1805 and the entries, which are often irregular in the original, are arranged in the order of time. Marriages: A separate record of marriages begins March 1718. There is a duplicate of December 1748–March 1755 after the record for February 19, 1763. The record for November 1799–June 1801 is a copy rather than the original. Source: Key to the Parochial Registers of Scotland, by V. Ben Bloxham, pub. 1970. British Book 941 K23b.

Established Church─Kirk Session Records
The Kirk session was the court of the parish. The session was made up of the minister and the land owners and business men of the parish, chosen to serve on the session. The Kirk session dealt with moral issues, minor criminal cases, matters of the poor and education, matters of discipline, and the general concerns of the parish. Kirk session records may also mention births, marriages, and deaths.

Here is a list of the surviving Kirk session records for this parish: 

Minutes and Accounts 1703–1717 Minutes 1717–1759, 1762–1772, 1776–1779, 1783–1965 Collections and Disbursements 1850–1915 List of Male Heads of Families 1834–1859 Young Communicants 1834–1859 Other post–1855 records Note: Available at the National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, record CH2/1462.

Roll of Male Heads of Families
An 1834 list of male heads of families in this parish can be found here.

Nonconformist Church Records
A nonconformist church is any church that is not the Established church. Read more about nonconformity in Scotland in the article on the Scotland Church Records Union Lists.

There were no known nonconformist groups in this parish. The Statistical Account for Dull, dated 1842, states that there were 21 Episcopalians, 48 Independents, 13 Baptists, and 1 Roman Catholic, who would have worshiped in neighboring parishes. The Episcopalians had a chapel at Tummel Bridge.

Civil Registration Records
Government or civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths (also called statutory records) began on January 1, 1855 in Scotland. Each parish has a registrar's office and large cities have several. The records are created by the registrars and copies are sent to the General Register Office in Edinburgh. Annual indexes are then created for the records for the whole country. See the article on Scotland Civil Registration for more information and to access the records.

Probate Records
Dull was under the probate jurisdiction of the Commissary Court of Dunkeld until 1823, and since then has been under the Sheriff's Court of Dunblane. Probate records for 1513- 1901 are indexed online at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. You must register on the website but use of the index to probate records, called 'Wills &amp; Testaments,' is free. You may then purchase a copy of the document or, if the document is before 1823, it will be on microfilm at the Family History Library. To find the microfilm numbers, search in the library catalog for the 'Place-names' of Perthshire and the subject of 'Probate records.' Then click on the link to the records of the Commissariat of Dunblane. The library also has some post-1823 probate records for Perthshire. Look in the library catalog for the 'Place-names' of Perthshire and the subjects of 'Probate Records' and 'Probate Records - Indexes.' Read more about Scotland Probate Records.