One of the commonest queries I get is "I can't find the birth of one of my ancestors in the OPRs at ScotlandsPeople - help!"
There are many reaons why records can often not be found, not least of which being that the baptism may not have actually been registered! But a common cause of missing records lies in the fact that there are and were several Presbyterian denominations, not just the established Church of Scotland. It is only the established records that the General Register Office for Scotland holds, and hence only these records have been digitised and made available by ScotlandsPeople.
To help explain the structure of the Church, I have created a new resource aid on the Scotland's Greatest Story website, explaining the history of the Kirk from 1560, with some of the more notable splits and unions. The article can be viewed at
http://scotlandsgreateststory.bravehost.com/scottishkirk.html. The article is followed with some further links, including to a chart that shows in more details the Kirk's dramatic political history!
Hope it helps!
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
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