For records before 1660, you basically have to use national records, such as sasines, testaments(wills, land and property records, and the Register of Deeds (which often included people borrowing and lending money in the period before banks existed). There are annual indexes to the Register of Deeds - OOPS - they start 1661!!! Well, the Register of Sasines index for Berwick and Lauderdale runs in one alphabetical sequence from 1617-1780, in 2 volumes.(pub. HMSO, 1928) Then there is an online index to the testaments - free to search on the scotlandspeople site, though you have to pay to view/order copies of the actual wills/inventory/etc. The land and property records are found in the Register of the Great Seal(11 vols running from 1306 to 1668). Other published sources are the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland (up to 1691), and Register of the Privy Seal(16th century). There are also the odd specialist source such as "The MSS of the Duke of Athole and of the Earl of Home" (pub. Historical MSS Commission, 1891), and the "Chartulary of the Cistercian Priory of Coldstream" (pub. Grampian Club, 1879), both of which have a few Chirnside references contained within. There are other possibilities (e.g. Registers of Hornings; Exchequer Rolls of Scotland/Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland), but the above are the most likely to produce results. Gordon Johnson <www.kinhelp.co.uk>

Gordon: Thanks very much for the information. My big brickwall seems to be the marriage of Alexander Russell (Russel) to Beatrix (Beatrice) Tait, June 18, 1663, in Chirnside. Myself and several cousins are all hung up on this. I recently purchased the Surnames of Scotland, by Black, and this , mentions Robert Russell (family surname) of Berwickshire rendering homage in 1269 (Bain II, p. 207), which is 400 years earlier, but with the difficulty in getting records or information to fill the gap it's next to impossible. I tried Scotlandspeople a few years back, and had a bad experience in that acturate information was provided by me and resulted in negative response. After using up all credits, I notified their website and was basically told my information was right, but that it would cost quite a bit for them to allow them to coopy the suppoorting documentation and then they would not say it was accurate. At that time you had 48 hours to research, but, now I think that's been extended, am tempted to give it another try. As all my family has Scottish roots, Mac/McDonalds, Russells, McEwans, Crocketts, Marshalls, etc., there are a lot of brickwalls. My other side is LeVatte's of Main-a-dieu, Nova Scotia. Well, thanks for letting me bend your ear with some of the frustrations, and again another thank you for the info. Rusty Russell ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gordon Johnson" <gordon@kinhelp.co.uk> To: <border@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 11:10 AM Subject: [BORDER] Chirnside pre-1660 > For records before 1660, you basically have to use national records, > such as sasines, testaments(wills, land and property records, and the > Register of Deeds (which often included people borrowing and lending > money in the period before banks existed). > There are annual indexes to the Register of Deeds - OOPS - they start > 1661!!! > Well, the Register of Sasines index for Berwick and Lauderdale runs in > one alphabetical sequence from 1617-1780, in 2 volumes.(pub. HMSO, 1928) > Then there is an online index to the testaments - free to search on the > scotlandspeople site, though you have to pay to view/order copies of the > actual wills/inventory/etc. > The land and property records are found in the Register of the Great > Seal(11 vols running from 1306 to 1668). > Other published sources are the Register of the Privy Council of > Scotland (up to 1691), and Register of the Privy Seal(16th century). > There are also the odd specialist source such as "The MSS of the Duke of > Athole and of the Earl of Home" (pub. Historical MSS Commission, 1891), > and the "Chartulary of the Cistercian Priory of Coldstream" (pub. > Grampian Club, 1879), both of which have a few Chirnside references > contained within. > There are other possibilities (e.g. Registers of Hornings; Exchequer > Rolls of Scotland/Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland), but the above > are the most likely to produce results. > Gordon Johnson > <www.kinhelp.co.uk> > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BORDER-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message