Some of you may have seen our new website
www.scottishindexes.com. For a few years we have been indexing records for the south of Scotland. These were available on
www.maxwellancestry.com. One of the most recent additions is the Sheriff Court Paternity index. This is an index to cases where the mother of an illegitimate child took the father to court, firstly to prove he was the father and secondly to be able to extract cash from him.
These records are useful to us as they can be the only surviving evidence of who the father of an illegitimate child was. Even if we have this information from a birth certificate the records can be interesting as they give more detail and add to your family story.
With the help of a volunteer we have now begun indexing the Edinburgh Sheriff Court Cases: 1830 and 1831 cases are now online.
Our index is free to search with no registration required. We also give the reference number so that you can look up the full record up at the National Records of Scotland.
Here is a typical entry in our index:
Pursuer Helen Amos, South Bridge Street, Edinburgh
Defender Alexander Marjoribanks, Carlton Street nr Edinburgh
Year of Child's Birth 1826
Year of Decree or Extract 1831
Sheriff Court Edinburgh
County Midlothian
NRS Reference SC39/8/8 p300
I hope this new resource proves to be useful.
Emma