Monumental task

Published on Saturday 2 December 2006 01:16

Q Is it possible to find out where in Scotland an ancestor was buried? T Coombes (Canada)

A If your ancestor died before the introduction of the statutory registers in 1855, the place to start will be the Church of Scotland kirk session records held by the National Archives of Scotland (NAS). It used to be common for the kirk session of the parish church to hire out a mortcloth to cover a dead body during the funeral service. The kirk session accounts, by recording a payment for a mortcloth, give the approximate date of death of the deceased. A few of the kirk session records held by the NAS (ref: CH2) also include records of burials, which will be specified in the lists of records of that kirk session.The kirk session records are available to search on computers at the NAS.

Cemetery records are mostly held by the appropriate district council, and you should first contact the chief executive or superintendent of cemeteries of the appropriate district council. Local archives might also be able to help and you can find a list of contact details for Scottish local archives at: www.scan.org.uk Also, Edinburgh City Archives holds records of the Edinburgh Cemetery Company, which ran seven cemeteries in the city.

If visiting the cemetery to study gravestone inscriptions is not possible, there are several volumes which might help. A survey of monumental inscriptions in Scotland was begun by the Scottish Genealogical Society some years ago. These are arranged in volumes by county or part-county and include a listing of churchyards with an index of surnames for each church-yard. Check your local library to see if they can get you the volumes. Also, contact local history or genealogy groups who may have surveyed their own area.

If you have a question for the Genealogy Clinic e-mail the team at [e-mail] We will endeavour to deal with all enquiries as quickly as possible, but we regret that we cannot enter into personal correspondence.

ScotlandsPeople is a partnership between the General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon.