Church of Scotland records Ancestry.

[Croy Girl]

Hi .

I got a hint on ancestry about my GGGreatgrandparents Philip Graham and Elizabeth Mcmahon both Irish born 1815 .Married 1837 in Lanarkshire Scotland.

From what I know they were RC.

So i was surprised to see there record been on Church of Scotland on ancestry.
So I checked out My side in Airdrie who I
know were Church of Scotland and they are on this register  .

Marguerite.

[gc1]

Not sure if this is them
Both names seem correct and location but as its in 1840 not 1837

Name   Philip Graham
Sex   Male
Spouse's Name   Elisabeth McMahon
Spouse's Sex   Female
Event Type   Marriage
Event Date   Oct 1840
Event Place   New Monkland, Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XT1W-LYW?lang=en

[Croy Girl]

Hi

Yes that's them.
So does that mean they married in Church of Scotland and not RC Church.
Marguerite

[gc1]

I am not sure but below is the website of the church in the record and does seem to Church of Scotland

New Monkland and Greengairs Parish Churches.

http://www.newmonklandandgreengairs.org.uk/

[gc1]

There is this but again this is not the church listed in the records. Sorry

Parish history: Catholic Church in the Monklands

https://stjamescoatbridge.co.uk/2024/04/17/parish-history-catholic-church-in-the-monklands/

[Croy Girl]

Hi.
Thanks for reply.
I need to look into this.
I've researched for 20 years and just thought  my Graham's were Catholic .My GGreatgrandfather John Graham their son married Betsy Smith from Airdrie who was church of Scotland but my dad's gran was brought up Catholic  My dad's gran also Married someone who was church of Scotland. But again my Gran was RC.

Marguerite

[Forfarian]

So does that mean they married in Church of Scotland and not RC Church?

Not necessarily.

The wedding probably didn't take place in a church building at all. It was customary for the wedding to be held in the bride's parents' home or, if she had no parents or was married a long way from home, in her employer's home or in the parish manse.

Officially the Church of Scotland was supposed to keep a record of all baptisms and marriages irrespective of the participants' actual denomination or the variety of clergyman who performed the ceremony.

In practice, this didn't happen. In some parishes the clerk didn't even manage to keep a proper record of the baptisms and marriage in the C of S, never mind other churches. Especially in populous urban parishes or very large rural parishes, the clerk usually wouldn't know about baptisms or marriages of RCs, or Episcopalians, Congregationals, Baptists, or parishioners of other dissenting denominations or non-Christian religions unless they came and told him.

185 years after the event, and in New Monkland, it's not going to be possible to find out from the records exactly where the wedding was held or which clergyman officiated.

As for disparity in records, if Ancestry (or MyHeritage, or FamilySearch, or FindMyPast, some other commercial web site) says one thing and the original document at Scotland's People says something different, go for the original. Your 'hint' could be a mistranscription of the original, or a guess or assumption by someone who hasn't found the original, or a figment of someone's imagination.

See also https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=714261.0

[Croy Girl]

Thank you Forfarian.
I was actually thinking myself that it's been just taken for granted on Ancestry hint that they were married in Church of Scotland.
I know for sure they were both RC.
 
Marguerite.

[Forfarian]

Well, as Ancestry got the year wrong, its hint is hardly worth the paper it isn't written on, is it?

Just because a marriage is recorded in the C of S register doesn't always necessarily mean that it was performed by a C of S clergyman.

Normally I'd say take a look at the original document at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk, but unfortunately the New Monkland marriage records in the first half of the 19th century are singularly uninformative, so it's probably not worth it.