Foster/Carruthers

[J1507]

Can anybody help? I am tracing James Foster m to Martha Carruthers, James b. 1789 and Martha b. 1797, they had one son that I know of, called James, I have searched Scotlands people to find the date of the marriage (Dumfries) James Junior was B. 1829 in Kirkmahoe. I need to find the death certificates of either James Snr and or his wife Martha, to find their parents, can you obtain records from Edinburgh that are not on line at Scotlands people? if so How and how much info do they need? Thank you for your time and good luck searchers. Regards Jim Foster

[Boongie Pam]

Hi Jim,

Do you think that James snr or Martha died after 1855?  Do you have them on the 1851 or 1861 census?

If you think they died pre-1855 then you will have no luck with death certificates.  Statutory registration came into force in 1855, prior to this date there are no certificates only parish records.  It is very rare to find burial information in the parish records - though not impossible, SP have not indexed them yet.

Scotlandspeople is complete for the years it covers (post 1855) so it would be incredibly rare to find extra certificates.

As for the old parish records (pre-1855) for Kirkmahoe have you looked at the LDS film?  If the quality of preservation is bad then there maybe entries not on SP.  You can order films for a small sum from your local LDS centre.

Before 1800 I find the best "records" to use are gravestones - have you searched for a gravestone?  Most of Dumfriesshire's kirkyards have been transcribed and the archive centre in Dumfries can assist.  If you can get to Edinburgh then the Central Lending Library also hold the books for free (unfortunately they don't have a search service though you could ask?).

All the best,
Pam