GENUKI Home page
Scotland Scotland   GENUKI Contents Contents   Towns and Parishes Index Stirlingshire
Parishes
  Table of Contents for this page Information related
to all of Stirlingshire

STIRLINGSHIRE

"STIRLINGSHIRE, west-midland county of Scotland; consists of a main portion and two detached sections to the NE. included in Perthshire and Clackmannanshire; is bounded N. by Perthshire, NE. by Clackmannanshire and a detached portion of Perthshire, E. by the Firth of Forth and Linlithgowshire, S. by Linlithgowshire, Lanarkshire, and detached part of Dumbartonshire, and W. by Dumbartonshire; greatest length, NW. and SE., 46 miles; greatest breadth, NE. and SW., 22 miles; area, 286,338 ac., pop. 112,443. The E. part of the co. is flat, finely wooded, and well cultivated; and the valley of the Forth along the N. boundary includes some of the finest land in Scotland. The middle and S. are occupied with hills and valleys -the principal ridges being the Campsie Fells and Kilsyth Hills, and the Fintry Hills and Gargunnock Hills. On the W. a long projection extends northwards, including a mountainous district in which Ben Lomond rises to an alt. of 3192 ft., and parts of Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine. Besides the Forth, the chief streams are the Avon, Carron, Bannock, Allan, Endrick, and Blane. Coal and ironstone are extensively worked; limestone and sandstone are abundant. There are important manufactures of woollens, cotton, and iron; and there are several large chemical works and distilleries. The co. comprises 21 pars. with parts of 5 others, the parl. and police burgh of Stirling (part of the Stirling District of Burghs -1 member), the parl. and police burgh of Falkirk (part of the Falkirk District of Burghs -1 member), and the police burghs of Alva, Bridge of Allan, Denny and Dunipace, Grangemouth, Kilsyth, and Milngavie. It returns 1 member to Parliament. [Bartholemew's Gazetteer of the British Isles, 1887]

Parishes

Airth
Alva
Baldernock
Balfron
Bannockburn
Bothkennar
Buchanan
Campsie
Denny
Drymen
Dunipace
Falkirk
Fintry
Gargunnock
Killearn
Kilsyth
Kippen
Larbert
Lecropt (part)
Logie (part)
Monyabroch (see Kilsyth)
Muiravonside
Polmont
St Lawrence (see Slamannan)
St Ninians
Slamannan
Stirling
Strathblane

INFORMATION RELATED TO ALL OF STIRLINGSHIRE

Archives
Cemeteries
Census
Church Records
Civil Registration
Court Records
Genealogy
Names, Personal
Societies
Statistics

Archives

Stirling Council hold Local Archives including records for various burghs in the county.

From the Stirling Observer of 25th May 2005:

"Stirling's depute provost has officially opened the council's new archive service. The building at 5 Borrowmeadow Road, Springkerse is now home to nearly 3000 sq ft of historical documents. The custom-made building provides secure and environmentally controlled conditions for the proper preservation of the archive collections..... ....The collections which are in the care of the service date from the Middle Ages to the prsent day and include family and estate papers, church records, records of societies and associations, local newspapers, maps and photographs, as well as the usual holdings of records of successive local authorities. The service's search room is open to the public on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 9.30am-12.30 and 1.30-4.30pm. There are plans to open on Thursdays in the future. An hourly bus service (E41) runs from Stirling Bus Station to Borrowmeadow Road. For more information or for directions to the new premises contact the archive service on 01786 450745."

Cemeteries

"Monumental inscriptions (pre-1855) in West Stirlingshire"
John F Mitchell & Sheila Mitchell
Published Edinburgh, 1973 (Scottish Genealogy Society)

"Monumental inscriptions (pre-1855) in East Stirlingshire"
John F Mitchell & Sheila Mitchell
Published Edinburgh (Scottish Genealogy Society)

Census

There has been a census every ten years since 1801 (excluding 1941) but only those returns after 1841 (with a few earlier exceptions) carry details of named residents. Census returns for 1841-1891 can be consulted at the General Register Office in Edinburgh and copies on microfilm may be consulted in LDS Family History Centres around the world. LDS centres also carry microfiche indexes to the 1881 census returns. Computerised indexes for 1881, 1891 and 1901 are available at the General Register Office in Edinburgh and their web-site Scotlands People.

Church Records

For information on records for a particular parish, please see that parish's page (where available). Copies of many parish registers may be consulted around the world in LDS Family History Centres.

Civil Registration

Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths began in Scotland on 1st January 1855. For details of these and other records held at the General Register Office in Edinburgh, see the GRO tutorial.

Court Records

Records of testaments, inventories etc. are held at the Scottish Record Office.

Genealogy

Researchers may be interested in the Stirlingshire GenWeb pages.

Sadly, the old Stirlingshire surname list pages have been removed, but Graham Jaunay has now included Stirling names as part of his "Online Scottish Names Directory"

(Monumental Inscriptions - see Cemeteries)

Societies

The Central Scotland FHS covers this county. They continue to add to their publications list, and have much to offer to everyone with ancestors from the area. The site is highly recommended!

Statistics

For a social and economic record of the parishes of Stirlingshire, together with masses of statistical material, see Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland which was compiled in the 1790s. The account was reprinted in facsimile form in 1978 by EP Publishing Limited of Wakefield, England and volume 9 deals with Stirlingshire.

Follow-up works to this were the New Statistical Account (also known as the Second Statistical Account) which was prepared in the 1830s and 1840s; and more recently the Third Statistical Account which has been prepared since the Second World War.

Return to top of page.

e-mail contactJohn Chalmers

Last updated 17-Aug-2008 Visitors: Visitors

Page originally created by Vivienne S Dunstan