East Lothian

Contents

Nearby places

Oldhamstocks

"OLDHAMSTOCKS, a parish partly in the north of Berwickshire, but chiefly in the extreme east of Haddingtonshire. It contains within Haddingtonshire the post-office village of Oldhamstocks, and the village of Bilsdean. It consists of a detached section and a main body."
from the Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, edited by John Marius Wilson, 1868.

Church Records

The parish church (Church of Scotland) has registers dating from 1664. Old Parish Registers (before 1855) are held in the General Register Office for Scotland in Edinburgh, and copies on microfilm may be consulted in local libraries and in LDS Family History Centres around the world. Later parish registers (after 1855) are often held in the Scottish Record Office as are any records of non-conformist churches in the area (often unfilmed and unindexed, and only available there).

Surviving non-conformist church records for the area include the parish registers of Stockbridge Associate Session which was later known as the Cockburnspath and Stockbridge United Free Church and also the Cockburnspath and Oldhamstocks Free Church. The registers cover the years 1795-1937 and include parish registers, session minutes etc. Their SRO reference is CH3/57/1-2,4-5 and CH3/58/9-12,14 and they can be ordered on microfilm (two 35mm reels) through LDS family history centres around the world.

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.

Gazetteers

Extracts for this parish from the 1868 National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland are available.

Maps

The Scottish Record Office holds the following as part of its collection of maps and plans:

• 1819: The commonty of Oldhamstocks. Scale 1:7900. Size 56x42cm. Grid (map) reference NT7268. SRO reference RHP.536/1,536/3-5
• 1834: The commonty of Oldhamstocks, including names of adjacent lands and owners. Scale 1:3600. Size 79x61cm. Grid (map) reference NT7268. SRO reference RHP.536/2
• 1882: Plan of estate of Branxton (in parishes of Innerwick, Oldhamstocks and Cockburnspath). Scale 1:7100. Size 137x106cm. Grid (map) reference NT7569. SRO reference RHP.3311

Population

Here are some figures showing the parish's population through time:

Statistics

For a social and economic record of the parishes of East Lothian together with considerable statistical material, see Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, which was compiled in the 1790s. 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.

Thanks to a joint venture between the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh the First and Second Statistical Accounts can now be accessed on-line at The Statistical Accounts of Scotland, 1791-1799 and 1845.