Kirk Sessions etc - ScotlandsPeople
 

Just seen this:

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/v...F4DhEU9NzcqVzo

On Facebook they say: NEW RECORDS ALERT!
We’re very pleased to announce today that we’ve added over a million new images from our kirk session and other church records to ScotlandsPeople.
The new records are free to browse and view from the comfort of your own home for the first time - thousands of volumes from the kirk session and other court records of the Church of Scotland, containing details of key events in communities across the country between 1559 and 1900.
These records offer remarkable 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.
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.
We’ll provide you with guidance, hints and tips on using these records here on Facebook over the next two weeks, and you can find out more about what’s in them and how use them for research now, at the ScotlandsPeople website.

The records can't be searched by name, so you will need to have an idea of place and date and then browse through.

ooh thank you.

The funny thing is, I don't have any naughty Scottish ancestors as far as I know, but I shall enjoy reading about other people's, haha!

OC

I thought I might find a record about the illegitimate birth of my great-grandmother in 1866 but unfortunately the Kirk Sessions records end at 1858. I'm so annoyed!

Same goes for me, Elizabeth. Well, not quite - I was just hoping to find something about my great-grandfather's first "wife" but I needed something around 1863.

I already had a transcript of the 1830 Tulliallan Kirk Sessions in which my grandmother's gt g.mother was questioned by the church elders about her fornication and resultant pregnancy, courtesy of aother familoy researcher...but it was good to get the images so I could see for myself.

The putative father at first denied paternity, but on further revelations of dates and places, admitted it could have been him. I suspect the Elders were most outraged that the 'Guilt' occurred on the Sabbath Day in her father's house.


Poor child...he ended up being transported to the Swan River Colony in 1851 and suicided there in 1905 after fathering a prolific family.

One of OH's ancestors had to go before the Kirk elders 3 times to be admonished but the reputed father refused to go lol.