Coverage of Dumfriesshire OPR records

[JohnBell]

In the process of trying to find my ancestors in Canonbie, I came across this page http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/lds/50126000.jsp?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=106644&langId-1 which says that for Dumfriesshire there are 130,296 OPR birth/christening recordas and 83 marriage records in the British Vital Records index, which is based on the OPR and similar content to the IGI but excluding member submitted entries (which, without sources are not really useful)

The Dumfriesshire population in 1801 was 54,000.

The OPRs for Dumfries cover a period of approximately 120 years from mid-1700's to 1855 (dates vary by parish)

Based on an average lifespan in 1800 of 35 years, there should be approximately 185,000 births in this period so the OPRs seem to cover about 75% of the births for this period.

The big question is how complete is the index vis-a-vis the microfilmed records?

On marriages, the situation is much worse. Based on the English OPR totals,  one would expect the marriage total to be 25% of the births to we could expect there to have been 42,000 marriages in this period. So the coverage is just 0.07% !

BTW. This site gives some wonderful population and other data:
http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit_page.jsp?u_id=10078507

Food for thought...

John

[Little Nell]

Like the IGI, the BVRI does not claim to be complete - there are many parishes and/or dates missing for every county in the British Isles.  Some counties have better coverage than others - I have found it useful for Sussex and Wiltshire, but that just happens to be where my searches take me.  However, Middlesex is poorly covered.

There can be no substitute for searching original registers, but that can be difficult from a great distance.  I think any index available should be viewed as a finding aid, one of many  - like "where can I look next?" They help guide searches.

Nell

[Boongie Pam]

For those who are interested in the actual coverage of extant records this is the most useful site.

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/hlpsrch/opr.html

There is a pdf half way down which is worth printing.  You then know if your 7xggrandma Mary was born 1692 in Canonbie then you know you are out of luck!  Whatever the index.  It can save you money on Scotlandspeople if it is outside of the coverage.

My experience is that even if a date falls in the covered range there are barren patches were they may only be one or 2 entries.

Pam
 

[JohnBell]

good source...

The average Scotlandwide assesment of 30% under-recording that they quote tallies with my estimate of 25% under-recording for Dumfries.

BTW for those searching on IGI, beware of indexes for some parishes e.g. Canonbie which appear to be female only. This isn't the case with Scotlandspeople.