Kenneth McLean and Catherine MacKenzie

[Lauren Campbell]

My 4x great-grandfather Roderick McLean was born around 1801 in Lochbroom, Rosshire. I have only acquired a death certificate for him as I cannot find his birth cert. on ScotlandsPeople. He died in 1857 in Balnabruich, Dunbeath, Caithness. It says his parents are Kenneth Mclean, a house carpenter, and Catherine Mackenzie, however even though it states that his parents are married, I cannot find a marriage certificate. Can anyone help with this?

[Forfarian]

It's quite possible, even probable, that no record of his baptism, or of his parents' marriage, has survived. There is certainly no point looking for a birth or marriage certificate, because birth, marriage and death certificates did not exist before the start of statutory civil registration in 1855.

If you have exhausted all the sources on Scotland's People, the chances of finding any records are small. There could be something in the registers of some of the free or dissenting churches held in the National Records of Scotland and not included in the index at SP, but there are not all that many surviving from the early 19th century or earlier.

[Forfarian]

PS Have you seen the 1841 and 1851 census listings for the family? There are transcriptions at https://www.freecen.org.uk/cgi/search.pl and you can see the originals on SP at modest cost.

Interestingly, Roderick was a shoemaker in 1841, and a fisher and agricultural labourer in 1851. I wonder why he gave up shoemaking?