More than a million new images from kirk session and other court records of the Church of Scotland, between 1559 and 1900, were added yesterday to ScotlandsPeople.
These new records from thousands of volumes are free to browse online. You’ll first need to set up a free ScotlandsPeople account to view the images.
The records offer insights into the everyday lives of ordinary Scots, recording important moments such as births, marriages and deaths. The church also adjudicated on paternity of children and provided basic education, as well as disciplining parishioners for what could be called anti-social behaviour – drunkenness, cursing and breaking the Sabbath. Some researchers have even learned about an extra-marital affair.
The newly added records also include accounts of how people dealt with exceptional historical events such as wars, witchcraft trials, epidemics, crop failures and extreme weather.
You can find out more about what’s in this collection and how to view and use the records for research at the ScotlandsPeople website.
ScotlandsPeople will provide guidance, hints and tips on using these records on its Facebook page over the next two weeks.
Chris Paton also provides some insight on this record collection in his blog post, Brace yourselves – ScotlandsPeople adds kirk session records!
Alison Spring has an informative video in her blog post, Scottish Kirk Session Records Now Online.
