scottish records online - how reliable?

[nightowl]

i've started looking up my ancestors on the scotlandspeople.gov.uk website. does anyone know how reliable the online information is when you go back before 1855 and start looking into the old parish registers? should most information be there or is it a bit patchy? also i don't suppose there's any free alternatives to that site in terms of scottish research?

 

[jaxs29]

Dear nightowl, just new to this genealogy site, but have been researching scottish records for years. Now pre 1855 parts of scotland can be abit patchy, some records in other areas are good. I have found the northern parts of scotland i.e. Caithness, Orkney (that is where my research is for one side of the family) is patchy as many folk just couldn't afford to have things recorded or they didn't have a fulltime person at the kirk so things were written down when they came along and as time goes by things can be forgotten as to the correctness of dates and such. I have no death records of either sets of gggrandparents recorded at all-and I know they died as I couldn't find either set running around Caithness when I was there in Sept! (hahaha) No marraige records either.
There are some free sites like familysearch.org, freecen, familysearch.org this can help with earlier dates, freecen 1841 onward (Census records) Sometimes you can contact the archives of the town that you are interested in and they will look up records for free for you, if you don't have a huge list for them to go through. Caithness.org has a message board for genealogists and you can post a query and ones will help you out with whens/where's and who's. So not sure of the area you are working on but give it a shot.
If you are looking in the north give me a shout and I might be able to help.
Jackie
Canada

 

[nightowl]

thanx for all that. i'm actually looking up the lennox side of my family. i've gone back as far as john lennox's birth in the dumfries area in 1833. his parents were charles and isabella lennox (nee oliver) but i can seem to find a record for their marriage anywhere. the nearest i can find is a charles lennox marrying an isobel oliver in dumfries in 1812 but i'm not sure if that's right or not as she's listed as isabella elsewhere

 

[jaxs29]

Most likely that is the correct one even though she is listed as Isabella everywhere else. In my family an elizabeth could be listed as Betty, liza, elspet, lizzie, eliz. Isabella can be listed as bella, bell, isobel, isabella, isobella. So you can never tell what you forefathers names were during all the years they were around. My great granny was born Hellin, was called Nellie and her headstone reads Ellen!!!! Go figure.
Jackie
I don't know much about the Dumfries area but try and see if there is a genealogical site for that area that helps ones out. Also see if you can get copies of the church records, some genealogical societies have these published and you can get them sent to you for a fee. i found it was worth it for my family getting the information through the Aberdeen Family history.