Post
by AndrewP » Sun Apr 11, 2010 2:57 am
Hi Carol,
The OPRs are used for the pre-1855 days. From 1855, it was statutory registration via the registrar for GROS. Pre-1855, the parochial registers which became the OPRs were held by the (Established) Church of Scotland for each parish. In most cases, these were records of baptisms, proclamations of banns and burials rather than births, marriages and deaths. It was not a legal obligation to have this record made, it was more down to the diligence of the session clerk (the usual officer of the church responsible for the upkeep of these registers amongst his other responsibilities). Although all of the baptisms, proclamations of banns and burials in the parish were supposed to be reported to the session clerk, in practice it was usually only those events held in the (Established) Church of Scotland that were inscribed there. There are events from other churches in the parish recorded in some OPRs, these are a small minority.
My understanding is that the banns should have been proclaimed in the home parishes of the bride and the groom, and in the parish where the marriage was intended to take place. So some banns were called in up to three churches, and hence recorded in up to three OPRs. It was intended that people of the churches that the couple were connected to all had the chance to say that the couple were not legally fit to be married.The record of a proclamation of banns on its own is not proof that the wedding actually took place, unless that is specifically mentioned in the OPR. Most of the OPRs will state that the proclamations were called up to three times in that church (usually on successive Sabbaths) and no objections were made by anyone in the congregation.
If the banns were called in a church other than the (Established) Church of Scotland, then there may be a record in the registers of that church, and these may now be in the National Archives of Scotland, in the Scottish Cathiolic Archives, or still in the care of the church. The Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1854 called that all of the Parochial Registers up to 1819 be deposited into the care of GROS in 1855, and the Parochial Registers of 1820 to 1854 be deposited into the same care in 1885. These were the official registers of each parish.
The registers belonging to the other churches, although official to each of these churches, were not the official registers of the parish, so the same Act did not call them in for safe keeping. Most non-established churches have deposited their records with what is now the National Archives of Scotland (formerly the Scottish Record Office). I don't think there is an Act to call these recods in for safe keeping, so these are less likely to be a full set of records. I think it is more down to the individual churches, possibly with guidance from their church leadership.
All the best,
AndrewP
