Moray (formerly Elginshire), Scotland Genealogy



Moray or Elginshire is located in the north-east of Scotland, bounded on the north by the Moray Firth, on the east and south-east by Banffshire, on the south by a detached portion of the county of Inverness, and on the west by Nairnshire. It is about 40 miles in length and 23 miles in extreme breadth, comprising an area of 840 square miles or 537,600 acres.

Moray contains 20 parishes and parts of several others, and for civil purposes is joined with the county of Nairn under the jursdiction of one sheriff. It contains the royal burghs of Elgin (the county town) and Forres, and includes the towns of Garmouth and Lossiemouth and a few villages. It was anciently part of a province that included the county of Nairn and a large part of the county of Banff, and was for many ages distinguished as the 'granary of Scotland.'

The surface of the county rises gradually from the shores of the Firth to the Grampian range, and is beautifully diversified with parallel ranges of hills intersecting the county from east to west, between which are fertile valleys. The chief rivers are the Spey, the Lossie, and the Findhorn. The river Spey, used for floating timber from the forest of Strathspey, abounds with salmon which are fished profitably. There are several lakes.

About one-fifth of the land is in cultivation and of the remainder, less than one-half is in pasture, woodlands, and plantations. Cattle, sheep, and horses are raised. The minerals are not significant. There are quarries of excellent freestone, and slate is also wrought. The chief manufactures are woollen and cotton. There are bleaching-grounds, spinning of flax, tanneries, and distilleries. The population of the county in 1851 was 35,012.

(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.

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 in the county of Moray (or Elgin). Click on the 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 Moray or Eliginshire. 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 for an outline map of the parishes of Moray.

TAXATION
17th and 18th Century Taxation Records. A list of Hearth Tax, Cart Tax, Horse Tax, Carriage Tax, Window Tax and Inhabited House taxes levied on inhabitants. Some names given and the amount of tax listed. Covers 1691-1779. Article in The Lands and People of Moray.Family History Library Ref. 941.23 H2b pt. 9. year 2002, pages 71-73.

Helpful Websites

 * Elginshire Moray Resources and help pages on RootsChat Moray Elginshire Resources and help pages. (Free).

[Return to the Scotland county list.]