Parish of St Mary in Edinburgh

[Flemming]

Looking for some guidance on parishes in Edinburgh. We have an ancestor who states on various documents they were born in St Mary's, Edinburgh in the 1870s. I've looked for a civil birth and parish bp on Scotland's People but there's no St Mary's. Would this be part of a different registration district or church parish? Many thanks, Flemming.

[loobylooayr]

Hi Flemming,

There are two St Mary's Cathedrals in Edinburgh  - One a Roman Catholic cathedral, the other is Scottish Episcopalian.
Plus there is Broughton St Mary's Parish Church (Church of Scot) and in Leith, St Mary's Star of the Sea (Roman Catholic).
All of these were functioning in 1870s with the possible exception of the Episcopal Cathedral which it appears was built during that decade.
Could your ancestor be referring to events at one of these churches?

Looby

Added - If you look in Scotlands People website and opt for "Church Registers" then select Roman Catholic church then Birth/Baptism  or Marriages etc, there is also the option Parish/Congregation  and you can choose St Mary's Cathedral or St Mary's Leith from the list.

[Flemming]

Hello loobyloo, thanks for the reply. At a guess, I'd go for Broughton as the family seem to be (but who ever knows for sure?) Church of Scotland.

There's a suggestion they were born in Allan Street which doesn't seem that close to Broughton St Mary although I see the church is near Eyre Place where they lived later on. I wonder if they said they were born in St Marys when actually they just lived there.

I've found a possibly civil registration in St Georges - would this cover Broughton St Mary and/or Allan Street perhaps?

[loobylooayr]

Found this Edinburgh parish boundary map, Flemming, which might help .
It refers to the Parish of St Mary's (which I've never come across before  - learn something new every day)

http://www.hoodfamily.info/misc/miscedinmap.html

Looby 

[Millmoor]

St Georges RD did cover Allan Street.

William

[Flemming]

Great map, thanks for that. Also to William for confirming Allan St was in St Georges. I think we have a match  Thanks again.

[Alb R]

Glad you like my map. In the 1980s I came across a map with the Edinburgh parish boundaries and took a photocopy thinking this might be useful at some time in the future.
It did take some doing about 15 years ago trying to work off the old black and white copy to get the boundaries right, also using other sources to ensure old and new town boundaries were right.

Looking at it now, maybe I should note on the page that the unnamed white area between St Andrews and south Leith is like that because it was too complex. There were various strips intermixed that were too small to be labelled on the original map with the parish they belonged to.

Alb

[Flemming]

Glad you made the effort. It's been incredibly useful.