Snip > I am not sure either why their births are not available apart from the > reasons given by other listers. > Do you have John H W Payne birth?? Good morning Julie, I have worked , for eleven years ,as a "Volunteer Helper" at Scottish Genealogy Library and Family History Centre, Edinburgh and this is the question that causes more problems , than any other, for the Family Historian who visits us. As you know the one word that does not appear in the FH's vocabulary is "ASSUME" but so many people I meet slot in a name/date , possibly through frustration, without substantiating the information . That is a recipe for disastor !! This is where boards like this come into their own - sharing information can be so productive !! The fact is that it is not in Scotland's People's interests to "advertise" there are a large number of births and marriages which were never registered. ( wink) I.E. When the tax on registrations was introduced in 1783 the number of B,D & M registrayions fell dramativally . In one Highland parish it fell to around 20%.. The Act was repealed in 1794 but it was up to ten years in some parishes before things got back to "normal" If you check Births in Parish of Braemar for 1803 you will find pages of entries by the local JP asking the Session to enter details of births which took place between 1784 and 1793 and had never been formally registered Please accept there is nothing sinister about B M & D's not being registerd in OPR's - doesn't help the FH but there are other roads to try !! Regards John John D. Stevenson Edinburgh Scotland