Ayr Sheriff Court Paternity Records

[ScottishAncestry]

Our volunteer has just started indexing 'paternity' cases from the register of extracted decrees of Ayr Sheriff Court. 1837 and 1838 are online already and we will add more very soon!

These are cases where the mother of an illegitimate child takes the father to court to prove paternity and make him pay for the child's maintenance.

The work of making the index has been done a a volunteer and it is free to search online at www.scottishindexes.com

If you have not used these records before you may find our learning zone helpful: http://www.scottishindexes.com/learningcourt.aspx

I hope this index helps you!

Emma

[ScottishAncestry]

We have been adding more cases to this index. The 'Extracted Decrees' from 1837 to 1878 are now fully indexed. An interesting note about this court is that the child is often named. As you can see in this example we have added the name of the child to our index where it has been given: http://www.scottishindexes.com/courttranscript.aspx?courtid=6015104

Emma

[loobylooayr]

Oooo , thanks Emma  That's my Bank Holiday evening sorted 

Looby

[ScottishAncestry]

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know Margaret has now finished indexing Ayr Sheriff Court extracted decrees up to 1917. I hope these records prove to be useful to your research.

Many people are finding surprising results by searching fathers only. Usually children stayed with the mother, if you are descended from the father you may not know about an illegitimate child. Go to www.scottishindexes.com/courtsearch.aspx and just fill in the 'defender' boxes and you will find out which of your male ancestors had secret children.

Emma

[josey]

Really useful site - thanks to the  transcribers.