Last week it was Ireland. Now it’s Scotland’s turn to see a massive increase in index records on Findmypast.
Scotland, Court & Criminal Database
Over a million indexes to Scottish court database transcriptions are added to the existing collection of records of Scottish prisons, Crown Office Precognitions and High Court Trial Papers.
Crown Office Precognitions are factual statements that have been given by witnesses to both the prosecution and defence before the case goes to trial. If you find someone of interest in the High Court they would have some involvement in some of the most serious crimes such as murder, rape, treason, heresy, counterfeiting and crimes of a sexual nature, although not necessairily as the accused.
The indexes are linked to Scottish Indexes where you can order the full original record containing images of the original documents for a search fee of £20.00.
Scotland, Mental Health Institutions Registers & Admissions
This is an index of admission and register records for Scottish mental health institutions including asylums and poorhouses. This week’s addition is 207,317 index records, from 1858 to 1921.
The index gives first and last name(s), age, birthplace, year, occupation, year and date of admission, death year, death date, patient identification number and institution name.
Like the Court and Criminal database, these indexes are linked to Scottish Indexes.
Scotland, Poor Law & Poor Lists
If your Scottish ancestor received Poor Law relief between 1845 and 1930, their name, age or year of birth, and perhaps relatives (parents or spouse) may appear within these 7,906 index records. Most are for Renfrewshire.
I don’t often use the word excited. Much of my time compiling the blog is spent toning down what I judge as over-the-top hype.
As people frequently travelled to Canada via the US, especially during the winter, this newly added MyHeritage database with 15,213,248 entries and linked images is of interest. Records typically include the passenger’s name, year of birth, year of arrival, and the ship’s name.