Which Church

[marysma]

 
  Hello all,

                 would anyone know which church to apply to for a
                  baptismal record.

                  My fathers uncle  Charles Petrie was born in 1880

                   Port Tannachy,Rathven,Banff.

                   I have the birth record thanks to a member of this site,
                   but i need the baptism record.

                   I am presuming he was baptised in the church of that area.

                   Anyone have any idea's of where to go next.


                   Thanks in advance.

                     MM

[Forfarian]

You have actually picked one of the most difficult places to get a straight answer to that question.

The nearest church to Porttannachy would be the Enzie North church which is in the village of Portgordon. I do not know where the post-1855 registers of Enzie are.

However the Enzie is an enclave of Roman Catholicism, so Charles could have been baptised in the RC church.  The nearest RC church would be one of the following: St Peter's in Buckie, St Ninian's at Tynet and St Gregory's at Preshome. I understand that the baptismal registers for all three are held at St Peter's.

The there is the possibility that your Petries were adherents of one of the Free churches. Again, I don't know where their registers are, if indeed they have survived.

Just to complicate matters, they might have been Episcopalian, in which case the baptism could have been in Gordon Chapel in Fochabers or in the Episcopal church in Buckie.

Finally, part of Enzie belongs to the parish of Rathven, and part to the parish of Bellie, so it is possible that the baptism was in either Bellie Parish Church, or in Rathven Parish Church which is on the other side of Buckie.

These days Buckie has a bewildering variety of Christian denominations. You will just need to hope that most of them arrived after 1880!

[marysma]

   Hi again Forfarian,

                                  thanks again for yor reply's.

 I am going round in circles on this one!!

 Grandads parents were married in the Free Church of Scotland,Rathven.

 Would their children have been baptised there also?

 I have been in touch with so many people with this question,but
 nobody seems to know for sure.

 Somebody has suggested they may be in Kieth??

 Still---I'll keep on gnawing away at it, in hope that I may find them
 somewhere.

 I would just like to say that this is one of the best family history sites
  I have joined.

 The people on here are so helpfull.

 Cheers

 MM

 

 

[Forfarian]

Grandad's parents were married in the Free Church of Scotland,Rathven.
Would their children have been baptised there also?

Quite likely.

Somebody has suggested they may be in Kieth??

Much less likely unless they had a family connection to Keith.

[clivered]

Assuming that your ancestors were members of the Free Church, the Free Church later became part of the Church of Scotland and most C of S records are held in Register House in Edinburgh.  That's the first place to look.  Records are not held by the local church unless they are still current, that is, unless the Baptism register from 1880 is still being used, which is unlikely.  The only other possibility is that some Moray church records are held by the local Moray Council archivist, but you should investigate Register House, Edinburgh first.  Enzie Free Church opened in 1844 so that's the most likely place of Baptism.  The building is now a roofless ruin, but it still exists!
All the best.

[runningbear]

WELCOME to rootschat clive, hope to see many more posts from your good self. i have access to the 1841/51/61/ census my friend if you need a lookup.

Joe

[marysma]

 Thank you all for your reply's.

 You are most helpful.

 MM

[Forfarian]

the Free Church later became part of the Church of Scotland

There are many Free Church congregations which still remain separate from the Church of Scotland

and most C of S records are held in Register House in Edinburgh. 

Only the ones until 1854, and they are in New Register House, not Register House. This query relates to a baptism in 1880, and those records are not held in either RH or NRH.

The GROS web site http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/hlpsrch/opr-cov.html lists all the parochial registers held in New Register House, and the online catalogue of the National Archives of Scotland at http://www.dswebhosting.info/NAS/dserve.exe?dsqApp=Site20&dsqCmd=Index.tcl will tell you which church records are in Register House.

Records are not held by the local church unless they are still current, that is, unless the Baptism register from 1880 is still being used, which is unlikely.

I suspect that most surviving records from 1880 are still, in fact, in the possession of the individual churches or of church archives.

The only other possibility is that some Moray church records are held by the local Moray Council archivist

I am fairly sure that they are not, but if you want to follow up that avenue see http://www.moray.gov.uk/LocalHeritage/Assets/html_pages/morayheritage.html