West Lothian (Linlithgowshire), Scotland Genealogy

Guide to West Lothian (Linlithgowshire) ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records. 

Background
West Lothian (or Linlithgowshire until 1921) is a county in the south of Scotland, bounded on the north by the Firth of Forth, on the east and south-east by the county of Edinburgh, on the south-west by Lanarkshire, and on the west by the county of Stirling. It is about 21 miles in length and 12 miles in extreme breadth, comprising an area of 112 square miles or 71,680 acres. It is the western division of the ancient province of Lothian and since 1974 has been part of the region of Lothian.

After the departure of the Romans, great numbers of the emigrants from the Irish coast, who had established themselves in Cantyre, removed to these parts. After the union of the kingdoms of the Picts and Scots under Kenneth II (about the year 971), they became identified with the Scots.

There are twelve parishes. Linlithgow is the county-town and a royal burgh where all the courts are held. There are also the royal burgh of Queensferry, the burgh-of-barony of Bathgate, and the burgh-of-regality of Borrowstounness, with some smaller towns and populous villages.

The population in 1851 was 26,872.

(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.

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 West Lothian (Linlithgowshire) 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, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * at FamilySearch — index.
 * Scotland Census, 1901, index and images, ($). Also at FindMyPast, index, ($). Also at Ancestry.com, index, ($).
 * Scotland Census, 1911, index and images, ($).

Church Records

 * 1658 - 1919 - at FamilySearch — index
 * 1736 - 1990 - at FamilySearch — index

Parishes
Some of the West Lothian-shire parish records are indexed in West Lothian, Scotland, Extracted Parish Records. This database is a collection of historical parish registers from the county of West Lothian 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 West Lothian (or Linlithgowshire) with their parish numbers. Click on a parish name to see information about records. Click on this link for an outline map of the parishes of West Lothian.

Maps

 * National Library of Scotland map collection

Poorhouse Records

 * Linlithgow

Societies
[genuki.org.uk/Societies/Scotland Secretary] West Lothian Family History Society 21 Willowpark Fauldhouse West Lothian Scotland EH47 9HN

The Lothians Family History Society Jen Mortensen Phone: 001 909 8090453 E-mail: parishchest@gmail.com

Websites

 * West Lothian (Linlithgowshire) Resources and help pages on RootsChat West Lothian (Linlithgowshire) Resources and help pages.