• Search tip: for exact phrase use "quotation marks" or for all words use +
  • More search tips here

                  Where can I find kirk session records for a parish?

                  kirk session records are the responsibility of the Keeper of the Records of Scotland. The records of most kirk sessions are held at the National Records of Scotland (NRS). However, some are then sent back (the NRS use the term ‘retransmitted’) to local archives under what is known as ‘charge and superintendence’: that is, they are kept by local archives under certain conditions. To find out whether the kirk session records for a parish survive, and where they are held, look at the NRS online catalogue or contact the relevant local archives. Many kirk session minutes dated before 1900 have been digitised and can be seen on the NRS Virtual Volumes area of the ScotlandsPeople website.

                  Are kirk session minutes indexed?

                  Where the minutes of a parish have been published these may be indexed, but in the vast majority of cases kirk session minutes are not indexed.