> Thanks, Anne. Would the parochial > board records be for each area? Held in > the archives or libray of an area? Say Brechin - or > Aberdeen? There was a separate parochial board for each parish. The ones that have survived are mostly in archives. The ones for the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Kincardine and Moray are in the City of Aberdeen Archives as far as I know. Angus Archives has some of the Angus ones, but I can't remember offhand which ones. I don't know whether the rest have survived and if so where they are. > Some of them may have been personal arrangements, I > suppose? But perhaps > some kind of connection like a cousin or something? Yes, some would have been private arrangements. Anne

As a follow-up to what Anne wrote: >There was a separate parochial board for each parish. > > Which means you need to look for the records from the parish of the family's ordinary residence. There were complicated rules about "settlement" (ie where you were officially deemed to belong) so if they had recently moved, it can be worth checking the records of the parish that they had moved *from*. >The ones that have survived are mostly in archives. The ones for the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Kincardine and Moray are in the City of Aberdeen Archives as far as I know. > > Correct. And there are name indexes to all of them, compiled by ANESFHS, and available both at ANESFHS and at Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives. >Angus Archives has some of the Angus ones, but I can't remember offhand which ones. I don't know whether the rest have survived and if so where they are. > > It is always a lottery quite which of the Parochial Board documents have survived, but it is certainly worth checking whether they have, since they often go into considerable detail of the family's circumstances. In particular, parishes were required to keep a "Children's Separate Register" which will give chapter and verse of any boarding or fostering arrangements, in cases where the orphan/illegitimate child was the subject of a formal claim under the Poor Law. Gavin Bell