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You will see from the previous pages, that with a little determination and effort tracing your Scottish family tree back to 1855 should be relatively easy. However, getting beyond this point can often prove troublesome.

Your best option before this date lies in the records of the old parishes of Scotland. Many of these old parish registers (OPR's) are available through the general register office as they were deposited there under the Registration Act of 1854.

The OPR's were the records of the established church (Church of Scotland) which recorded births, baptisms, deaths and marriages before 1854. The parish minister or, more commonly, the session clerk would keep these registers in one of the 900+ parishes across Scotland. However, again the actual standard of the record keeping varies considerably. Some have a full register relating as far back as 1553 (Errol in Perthshire) but some date only from the early parts of the 19th century.

Another common problem with this is that in THEORY registration was compulsory. For a common parishioner though it was costly and unpopular and other church denominations may have kept separate records (e.g. Roman Catholic Church or the Free Church of Scotland). There are of course other potential alternatives and these will be covered later
A good summing up of pre 1855 would be to take a realistic approach and if you are paying for the service-just how important is it for you to know?.