Читать книгу Collins Tracing Your Scottish Family History - Ryan Tubridy, Anthony Adolph - Страница 33

Church reform was pioneered by St Margaret, wife of Malcolm III Canmore (d. 1093). Up to then, priests lived under the same roofs as their lords or in monastic houses, some of which dated back to the time of St Columba (521-97), the Gaelic missionary credited with introducing Christianity to the Picts. By 1200, however, 11 dioceses had been created across the southern feudalized areas, each run by a bishop and divided into parishes containing new churches. The system was eventually extended across the whole country, with parishes dividing as the population grew. The rather chaotic situation, with no less than 64 parishes straddling county boundaries, was rationalized in 1891, meaning that some ancestors who never moved house appeared in one parish record before 1891, and in another one afterwards.

When General Registration was introduced in 1855 each parish also became a Registration District, numbered from the furthest north (no. 1, Bressay) and working down to the furthest south (no. 901, Wigtown). Large city parishes were divided into several registration districts, and identified by the parish number followed by 1,2,3, etc. in superscript.