OPR and LDS

[crayspond]

Hi to all at TS,

After coming to a dead end with my Beveridge family history search online, and having been to Inverkeithing in Fife to snoop around the libraries there with no luck, i decided to contact my local Family History Centre. I just thought it would be an idea to keep the Site up to date with what goes on.
I phoned up the centre first to confirm that the timings were correct on the Family search listings for my branch and she said that they were not right and she would have to get in touch with them to correct it. She gave me their own website with all the timing details on it which i have now added to my favourites.
Bearing in mind that i am living in England she did say that they hold quite a few scottish OPR records, which got my hopes up. She advised me to check on their website which records they hold and she instructed me how to do it although it was quite easy to follow. Unfortunately they do not hold the ones i am looking for - this saved me an unnecessary trip as it is not that close to where i live.
The next step was to find out from the family search pages which film no i need, then send the info to my local FH centre with my name and phone no and a cheque for 7.50. They will send for it and ring me when it is there and i can then make an appointment to go and look at it.
So far that is where i am up to - i sent the cheque yesterday. I will keep you updated to what happens next. I thought other people might like to know how it turns out as i have been dithering about doing it for ages !

Regards
Ailsa

[LesleyB]

Hi Ailsa

The LDS family history centres are a great resource and a really convenient way to get a hold of materials on microfilm that you would just not be able to access otherwise. I've used my local one quite lot over many years now and have been able to order and view films from areas of England and Ireland that there was no other way to see without a lot of expensive and time consuming travel outwith my normal holidays. I take my hat off to them for the service they provide =D>
Hope all goes will with your search.

Best wishes
Lesley

[crayspond]

Well i got my call to say the film had now arrived at the Family history centre so i went down there today. The man there was very helpful, the film was on a shelf with my name on it. He helped me load it on to the machine and explained what to do regarding focus and light etc. The room was very nice and i had a comfy office chair to sit on. There were other people on computers and microfiche machines. All very quiet.
I had requested the Old parochial registers for Inverkeithing in Fife 1676 - 1855 as my last definite record of my ancestors go back to a marriage cert of 1715 in Inverkeithing.
I was a bit disappointed in that about half of the film was for Edinburgh (431) the parish before Inverkeithing (432) but i just wound the film on by using a handle at the side.
I worked my way through and up until 1688 did not come across one Beveridge, Belfrage, Bellfradge. By this time it was nearly time to go (they close at 3pm). I then found a few and jotted them down in my notebook. Nothing seems to fit but i can now look in familysearch with the names i found. I got up to 1696 and i have booked next Monday at the same time to look at the remainder of the film. This will be the period before the marriage of John Belfrage to Janet Bell in 1715 so hopefully a birth of John to someone with a familiar name will crop up !
It now makes me think that the Belfrages might have came from elsewhere to settle in Inverkeithing but how to find that out??
Sorry to drone on but i wanted to let you know what the LDS centre was like. Very nice and helpful people. My eyes are now sore looking at old records.
I will let you know what happens next week.

Ailsa

[AndrewP]

I had requested the Old parochial registers for Inverkeithing in Fife 1676 - 1855 as my last definite record of my ancestors go back to a marriage cert of 1715 in Inverkeithing.
I was a bit disappointed in that about half of the film was for Edinburgh (431) the parish before Inverkeithing (432) ...

Hi Ailsa,

It is commonplace in the LDS films to have pieces of more than one parish on a film. I can only assume that it was not economical to use a film for one parish with a small amount of pages of records on its own. Conversely a parish with a lot of pages would be split across two or more films.

From your description above I assume you were viewing film 1040384, from the second filming of the OPRs. That film includes Forgan (431) and part of Inverkerithing (432). The remainder of Inverkeithing (432) is on film 1040112 with Kemback (433). I can only assume that the reference to Edinburgh was on one of the title frames which referred to the OPR books were stored.

• 1040384 (items 1 to 2): Forgan: Baptisms, 1695-1854; Marriages, 1703-1855; Baptisms, marriages, mortcloth dues (burial records), 1833-1835.
  
  1040384 (items 3 to 4): Inverkeithing: Baptisms, 1676-1711, 1725-1774, 1772-1805; Marriages, 1676-1710; Burials, 1702-1710
  
  1040112 (items 1 to 3): Inverkeithing: Baptisms, 1805-1854; Marriages 1748-1819, 1734- 1749. 1736-1743, 1770-1855; Burials, 1783-1784, 1740-1760, 1803-1843; Session book (includes Marriage proclamations and Mortcloth dues [burial records]), 1698-1721.
  
  1040112 (items 4 to 5): Kemback: Baptisms, 1648-1677, 1700-1704, 1732-1854; Marriages, 1648-1677, 1700-1703, 1783-1854; Burials, 170-1703, 1736-1738, 1750-1854.

The above details of the films can be found on the familysearch website in the Family History Library Catalog section.

All the best,

AndrewP
AndrewP

[crayspond]

Hi Andrew,
Yes you are correct i was looking at Film no 1040384 and seeing the Edinburgh title and not being familiar with Forgan i assumed it was in Edinburgh.
Luckily Forgan is not an area that my Beveridges are found so i have no need to look there at present. If anyone wants me to look for a particular person i will gladly have a look. I wonder why 431 and 432 are so far apart in distance yet numerically next to each other - confusing.
Some of the pages are very hard to read and some are unreadable as they are very faint. Most are full of accounts of monies paid for various things mortcloths etc with baptisms and marriages in between. Still it was fascinating to see it all even down to the person scribbling out names where he had made a mistake (no erasers in days of old) - who knows maybe i will be lucky next week.
Thanks for the list of Film notes. I did get them from the familysearch website. I will decide which one to look at next after i finish with 1040384.

Thanks for the reply,
Regards
Ailsa

[AndrewP]

I wonder why 431 and 432 are so far apart in distance yet numerically next to each other - confusing.

Hi Ailsa,

The parishes are numbered alphabetically within each county, and the counties in a zig-zag line north to south. Fife is a large county with many parishes, so sequentially numbered parishes can be a fair distance apart.

All the best,

AndrewP