When there is no record...

[Gibson1900]

What do you do when you know of a person's birth, yet there is just no corresponding record? I know statutory records were only introduced in 1855, but before then my family had always registered births, christened their children. But for some reason, there is suddenly no record when it comes to my gg grandfather in 1846. His name was Robert Gibson and I KNOW from our own records, confirmed against censuses and age at marriage, that he was born in Dumfries on 26 April 1846. Yet, for some strange reason, his parents (whose own births are recorded)  either did not record their son’s birth or there is somehow no record on Scotlands People, IGI, etc. The same applies to all his siblings. Is the fault with the records or with the parents???

[andycand]

Hi

Scotlandspeople & Familysearch (IGI) prior to 1855 (for Scotland) are predominately the Established Church of Scotland, and don't include Non-conformist or catholic. Around this time there was a split away from the C of S with many people joining the Free Church and its possible your family did this. Certinly many of mine seemed to have done so. You could see if you can locate Free Church records for the area.

Andy

[Gibson1900]

Thank you very much for this - I had a sort of inkling that might be the reason... My family were members of the Catholic Apostolic Church, though I am not quite sure when it was established in Dumfries (the church on Queen Street only opened in 1865; before then, I think they met in Irish Street). Where would such records be - Edinburgh?