Gavin, I should have acknowledged this information earlier. I follow what you say about the complexities of records. Appreciating the purpose and value of purchasing a document I tend to use as much information from it as I can when writing up my own records, to get the most from it. I found a page on Scotland's People http://www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk/research../VRs-notes-of-parishes.html about Parishes, and in it, we are referred elsewhere to Scotland's Places http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/ There is a wealth of information from the links on the main page. For instance, "City of Aberdeen" http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/search/partner/aberdeen?class=city&id=50 to explain the boundary changes which I hope Listers will find useful and informative. "A city in the north east of Scotland. The burgh of Aberdeen was founded during the reign of David I (1124-53). Boundary extensions swallowed up parts of Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire, including the separate burghs of Old Aberdeen and Woodside, in 1891. Aberdeen became a county of a city in 1900. In 1975 the city became part of the City of Aberdeen District and Grampian Regional. These in turn were replaced by Aberdeen City Council in 1996, under the terms of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1994. The parishes of Peterculter, Dyce, Newhills and the Bridge of Don area of Old Machar parish were incorporated into the City of Aberdeen District in 1974 and thence into Aberdeen City in 1996." Janet ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gavin Bell" <[email protected]> On 27/12/2013 12:45, Janet wrote: > Subject to what has already been said in this thread I would prefer to write up my > records using correct place names, appropriate to what they were at the time the > person lived there; upon reference to just a map, perhaps. The trouble with that is: (1) Many of the older sources are parish records, and the parishes were not originally assigned to any counties. The Kirk grouped sets of parishes into Presbyteries, and grouped Presbyteries into Synods. The Counties were divisions associated with the King's administration of justice, and unsurprisingly, there was little overlap of boundaries between the two systems. The individual citizen would certainly have known what parish he lived in, and might well have known that he lived in Buchan or Strathbogie - but it is far from clear that he would have known what county any of these places were deemed to lie in. the message --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com