Marriages at Leadhills, pre 1855

[the pretender]

Why can I not get any marriages up for Leadhills pre 1855.DID use Crawford and Leadhills
Want to check for Stewart female marriages. cannot (not allowed) use spouse only but regardless of that have tried Stewart, Hunter, Moffat which were all around at that time and Smith out of desperation but to no avail.
Used above names in both fields.
Want dates 1810 to 1855.
Could it be they never bothered with formalities ?

[LesleyB]

Hi Pretender
I just tried & I see what you mean - surely there must be something up if even Smith shows no returns!! That can't be right. I'm off to check what OPR info exists - may be there is none for that Parish over that period.... if there is though, I would suggest sending a contact form to SP.

Best wishes
Lesley

[LesleyB]

Hi
Found the problem - there are no OPR marriage records available for that period it seems:

• 635. CRAWFORD (including LEADHILLS)
  635/1 Crawford
  B 1741-1819 M - D -
  Leadhills
  B 1698-1819 M - D -
  635/2 Crawford and Leadhills
  B 1820-54 M - D -

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/h ... r-cov.html

Best wishes
Lesley

[nelmit]

Why can I not get any marriages up for Leadhills pre 1855.DID use Crawford and Leadhills
Want to check for Stewart female marriages. cannot (not allowed) use spouse only but regardless of that have tried Stewart, Hunter, Moffat which were all around at that time and Smith out of desperation but to no avail.
Used above names in both fields.
Want dates 1810 to 1855.
Could it be they never bothered with formalities ?

Hello,

Lesley is right and I'm sure someone else with more knowledge than me will be able to tell you why.

A quick search on Hugh Wallis batch numbers site confirms the lack of marriage info.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com ... ries.htm#W

I'm not sure but I don't think this means there were no marriages .
I think they will be on the original film if you can visit your local FHS and have look.

Regards,
Annette M

[pinkshoes]

Hi Pretender and welcome to Talking Scot. Sorry I can't add anything re missing Leadhills. BUT By pure coincidence I've been looking at the same stuff - sadly found no relevant marriage info on OPRs - also trawled the index for all possible counties in Scotland in case they'd done a runner.

I expect you'll hear more about it soon

Regards
Pinkshoes

[DavidWW]

I'm afraid that I can't give any definitive opinion on the lack of OPR info for Leadhills, except to comment that it's quite possible that the OPR went missing, or was destroyed through fire or water or rodents, etc., etc., or never submitted to General Register Office in Edinburgh as required by the Act of Parliament of 1854 introducing statutory civil registration of BMDs in Scotland from 01Jan1855.

But that assumes that there had been an OPR !

For all I know, Leadhills may have been a hotbed of secession churches. so that there maybe wasn't even a functioning Established Church of Scotland congregation there........... there was certainly a Free Kirk congregation, but given the 1800s census populations of 800 to 1,200 I'd be surprised if there wasn't an Established CoS congregation.

A look at the Old and New Statisitical Accounts at http://edina.ac.uk/statacc/ may provide some useful information.

David

[WilmaM]

I found a snippet or 2 in a book about Wanlockhead.[All about Wanlockhead - A brief History of Scotlands Highest Village]

"The chapel-of-ease established in the village in the early eighteenth century was intended to save miners the weary eight-mile walk to the parish church at Sanquhar.
The present church ... built in 1848. Wanlockhead became a 'quoan sacra' parish in 1861."

Wanlockhead, as you know, is just up the hill from Leadhills.