A guide to researching your ancestors in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, using resources at State Library Victoria.
Begin by using a gazetteer or parish list to locate the parish that your ancestors came from.
Old Parish Registers (OPR) 1553 - 1854
Before the introduction of civil registration in 1855 the Church of Scotland parish ministers and session clerks kept registers of births and baptisms, proclamations of banns and marriages, and deaths and burials. Approximately 3500 of these Old Parish Register (OPR) volumes have survived.
Compiled from the surviving registers of some 900 parishes of the established church (Church of Scotland), The coverage of the Old Parish Registers varies from parish to parish as registration was not compulsory and there was no standard format for recording information. Records include births and baptisms and banns and marriages but the coverage of burial records is sparse.
Catholic Parish Registers
The Catholic births & baptisms index is compiled from the surviving registers of some 115 parishes of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland and the General Registry of the Roman Catholic Bishopric of the Forces. The index contains entries of birth & baptisms from 1703 until 1908.
