Scottish church records: 262 congregations added

New records | Source information: 24 June 2026.

Scotland’s People has added more than 1,100 records from 262 congregations to its Virtual Volumes collection. Announced on 24 June 2026, the release expands access to records of Presbyterian communities, including Free, United Free and United Presbyterian congregations.

More than birth and marriage entries

The records mainly cover kirk sessions, presbyteries and synods for 1739-1900. The archive lists minutes, accounts, cash books, communion rolls, deacons’ court minutes and seat rents among the material. These are records of church administration and community life, rather than one uniform register of births, marriages and deaths.

Why the congregation matters

For a family historian, a church name is a clue to the community that created the record. An address alone may not establish which congregation a person belonged to. When comparing an entry with a family tree, look for several matching details and distinguish the named individual from relatives or neighbours with the same surname.

Following a Scottish and Polish family line

In a family with Scottish and Polish branches, the useful next step is to connect the people named in the British evidence to an identified place and generation overseas. Our commissioned Polish family research follows those connections through surviving civil, parish and other archival records, with findings explained in English. We do not obtain British official documents.

Read the record as a whole

A short catalogue description helps identify a volume, but the surrounding pages may explain an entry’s purpose. Keep the congregation, date and wording with your notes. A reference to assistance, a payment or church membership should be interpreted in its own setting, rather than turned into a broader claim about a person’s life.

Official source

Scotland’s People. Source checked on 18 October 2026.