Notes on Search Fields:

The OPR are the Old Parish Records, these were replaced by the SI or Statutory Index in 1855.

Death * - deaths entries only appear in the Satutory Index (SI) and therefore only show for searches after 1854.

Unknown ** - This refers to enries where the gender or event is listed as unknown within the index, and occurs mainly where the original manuscripts have been hard to read in the Old Parish Records (OPR). If the criteria which you wish to search on are unknown then leaving all boxes checked for gender and event will return relevant results.

Name 2 - This refers to the father's name in Births/Christening entries in the Old Parish records (OPR) or Spouse's name for Marriage entries in Both the OPR and SI.

Name 3 - This refers to the mother's name in Births/Christening entries in the OPR or maiden name in death records for female entries in the SI.

General Search Notes:

1. Wildcards (searches for unknown characters) can be used in the text search boxes - '*' to represent multiple characters and '?' to represent a single character.

2. It is always worthwhile finishing any forename search box entry with the '*' wildcard as often the records contain more than one forename e.g. 'JOHN*'.

3. If you are timed out when waiting for a search return; it most probably means that the search that you have entered is too broad and the number of records to be returned is unfeasible. You should then restrict your search and try again.

4. The Soundex function returns names which are phonetically similar to that which you are looking for. The numbers 2 to 32 represent how similar the range of names to be returned should be, with 32 being the broadest range. Soundex is not always accurate for Scottish names and pronunciations. For example the surname 'White' can  be spelt 'Quihte' in Scotland in historical cases.