Digital images of celebrities' birth and death notices released online

Details of the births of author Jessie Grant Kesson and comedian Jack Milroy, as well as the death of sculptor Alexander Carrick, are among thousands of statutory records which have now been released into the national archives.

Details of comedian Jack Milroys birth are now available

Digital images of 110,000 birth entries from 1916, more than 47,000 marriage entries from 1941 and 64,000 death entries from 1966 are now available for members of the public to search on ScotlandsPeople – the family history website operated by the National Records of Scotland.

The 1941 marriage records include one couple – Alexander Clarkson and Margaret O’Donnell – whose union was cut tragically short by the Clydebank blitz in 1941. They were married for just one month when Mrs Clarkson was killed after the hotel they were staying in was hit by a bomb.

Culture secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “These records give us a richer understanding of Scotland’s story and our people. The marriage certificates from the early ‘40s in particular provide further insight into the consequences of the Second World War.”