Images of more than a million pages from the kirk session and other court records of the Church of Scotland, containing details of key events in communities across the country, have been added to ScotlandsPeople, NRS’s online research service.
These records offer insights into the everyday lives of ordinary Scots, recording important moments such as births, marriages and deaths. The church also adjudicated on the paternity of children and provided basic education, as well as disciplining parishioners for what could be called anti-social behaviour – drunkenness, cursing and breaking the Sabbath.
The newly-added records also include accounts of how people dealt with exceptional historical events such as wars, witchcraft trials, epidemics, crop failures and extreme weather.
Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture, said: ‘The kirk session records are a wonderful free resource for amateur and professional historical researchers. Spanning almost 350 years and including both notable historical events and incidents from the everyday lives of ordinary people, they offer a great insight into Scotland’s past.