Death Records – Monumental Inscriptions

Monumental inscriptions – the inscriptions on gravestones and monuments found in burial grounds – contain information about families and individuals which often supplement or pre-date written registers of burials and deaths. They can be particularly useful in listing names of individuals where burial registers do not survive and where the individuals do not appear in baptism or marriage registers because they did not belong to the Church of Scotland. Many Scottish burial grounds have been surveyed and indexed by local history, family history and antiquarian societies, and the results published. Local archives services and libraries can usually provide access to local published monumental inscriptions. It is worth noting that not all families could afford a monument and there are many burials which took place in unmarked common ground in cemeteries and burial grounds. The Scottish Association of Family History Societies maintains a guide to burial grounds with details of what has been published. <https://www.safhs.org.uk/burialgrounds.php> [accessed 26 April 2024]