Roxburghshire, Scotland Genealogy

Guide to Roxburghshire County ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Background
Roxburghshire is an inland county in the south of Scotland, bounded on the north by Berwickshire, on the east by Berwickshire and the English county of Northumberland, on the south by Dumfriesshire and the English counties of Cumberland and Northumberland, and on the west by Dumfriesshire, Selkirk, and Edinburghshire or Mid-Lothian. It is 38 miles in length and 28 miles in breadth, comprising an area of 696 square miles or 445, 440 acres.

The county was invaded by the Romans, and following their departure, was often the scene of border warfare between the English and the Scots, which fostered a warlike spirit in the inhabitants.

The county comprises 32 parishes, and for civil purposes is divided into the four districts of Jedburgh, Kelso, Melrose, and Hawick, in which each a magistrate hold court quarterly. Jedburgh is a royal burgh and the county town. The others are market towns. The county also contains part of the town of Galashiels.

The population of the county in 1851 was 46,025.

ScotlandsPeople: 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 record availability, see Guides. For the content guide to what records are on the site, see Guides A-Z. 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 pay per view fee to see the 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 Roxburghshire 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 Roxburghshire parish records are indexed in Roxburgh, Scotland, Extracted Parish Records. This database is a collection of historical parish registers from the county of Roxburgh 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 the historic parishes for the county of Roxburgh. Click on the parish name to see information about records. Click on this link for an outline map of the parishes of Roxburghshire.

Court Records
The county of Roxburgh is in the Sheriff's court of Jedburgh (SC62). The Registers of Deeds for Sheriffs' courts contain much valuable information for family history research such as marriage contracts and deeds of 'disposal and settlement' (or assignment) of property, which both give names and relationships. The records are deposited at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh and are not indexed.

Probate Records
Probate records are those which deal with the settlement of the estate of a deceased person. In Scotland, until 1868, a person could only pass movable property such as household furniture, farm equipment, livestock, money and clothes through a document known as a 'testament.' Immovable property such as land was passed to the eldest son or heir through a document known as a 'Service of Heir,' which is not a record of probate. Read more about Scotland Probate Records.

Until 1823, the parishes of Roxburghshire were under the probate jurisdiction of the Commissariot Court of Peebles (CC18). Since 1823, the county has been under the jurisdiction of the Sheriff's Court of Jedburgh (SC62).

Probate records for 1513-1925 (including inventories of goods) 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' of Roxburgh (county) and the subject of 'Probate records.' Then click on the link to the 'Testaments registers.'

Maps

 * National Library of Scotland map collection

Poorhouse Records
There were three workhouses:


 * Hawick Combination
 * Jedburgh Combination
 * Kelso Combination

A description with drawings and photos of the workhouses today along with databases of those living there from the 1881 Census are provided on the links above located on the site entitled The Workhouse: The story of an institution... which is owned and operated by Peter Higginbotham.

Societies
Borders Family History Society 52 Overhaugh St Galashiels TD1 1DP Scotland

Genealogy Society 15 Victoria Terrace Edinburgh EH1 2JL Scotland Phone-0131 220 3677 Email enquiries@scotsgenealogy.com

Websites

 * Roxburghshire Resources and help pages on RootsChat Roxburghshire Resources and help pages. (Free)
 * Freecen (incomplete, but growing; free)