I am sorry to have been so long in posting this reply but I have only just been able to check the details below. The answer to the questions about parishes and counties is rather more complex than is indicated by Les Horn in his reply. Could I first draw attention to the fact that the SRO, or as it is now called the National Archives of Scotland, never has had anything to do with registration or the Old Parochial Registers? The organisation which deals with these is the General Register Office, which is the department of the Registrar General for Scotland and is in New Register House, Edinburgh. The parish list with its numbers is simply a catalogue made by the Registrar General in the 19th century of the parishes of the Church of Scotland running from north to south. This catalogue was the basis of the system of statutory registration which was introduced in 1855. The parishes previous to that date had kept, or were supposed to have kept, records of births and marriages within their boundaries and the unit was therefore seen as the sensible one for the new system. The original numbers are used nowadays to identify the Old Parochial Registers. Basically these parishes were the original pre-Reformation parishes of the Church, although various changes were made as a result of the Reformation and the political upheavals of the 17th century. They varied enormously in population and area covered and for these areas they had functions which would now be considered the functions of local government, for example concerning the poor and provision of education. Parishes which had such functions became known as the civil parishes or parishes quoad civilia. These parishes were often divided into parts quite separate from each other. It was quite common to find a part of one parish in the middle of a neighbouring one. By the end of the 18th century, too, population in Scotland had shifted dramatically and particularly in areas like Lanarkshire several large towns had sometimes grown up within one parish boundary. In Argyll, the problem was one of parishes which covered very large areas. Several of these had been split up in the 17th century and then joined together again. In some cases separate small parishes had been amalgamated but there was often enormous confusion, as in the southern part of Kintyre where the original parish of Kilkivan is sometimes grouped with the parish of Southend and sometimes with the parish of Campbeltown. In the north of the county the situation was even more fluid - hence the problem over Arisaig. Arisaig was in fact in the parish of Ardnamurchan. This was a huge parish in area which covered Ardnamurchan proper, Sunart and Moidart and Arisaig and was half in Argyll and half in Inverness-shire. In practice it was often regarded as two parishes, one styled Ardnamurchan with its main church at Kilchoan and the other called Islandfinnan with its main church at Strontian. The issue was further complicated by the very large Roman Catholic population in Moidart and Arisaig. The Church's answer to the problems of large populations and large parishes was to subdivide and create new parishes for religious purposes - the parishes quoad sacra. These parishes had their own ministers and Kirk Sessions but they had no civil responsibilities. A very large number of these parishes were created in the period from the end of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century. In one sense the whole concept of local government in counties was a 19th century one. What existed in Scotland was a system of 'sheriffdoms' - that is, the area of jurisdiction of a Sheriff who was a law officer, a judge, appointed to deal with crimes and disputes. Within these Sheriffdoms there were some elements of local government. Some functions were the responsibility of the Sheriff such as the passing on of Royal Proclamations; others, such as the collection of taxes and the building and upkeep of roads, were the function of the local landowners who were termed the Commissioners of Supply. The thirty-four sheriffdoms into which Scotland was divided appear to date from the late 13th century. The Sheriffdom of Argyll until late in the 19th century was larger than the later county. The situation with both counties and parishes changed with Local Government Act (Scotland) Act 1889 and it is absolutely essential that anyone interested in the northern part of Argyll reads the Report of the Boundary Commissioners for Scotland 1893 which details exactly which places were transferred from the County of Argyll to the County of Inverness. This can be very important in looking for wills and testaments in the Sheriff Court after 1823. The Commissioners also changed the boundaries of many parishes, particularly in Perthshire, but the changes in Argyll in this respect were minor. The main ones were that the area around Kingairloch was transferred into the parish of Kilmallie from (Appin and Lismore) and Kilberry was moved from Kilcalmonell into South Knapdale. The two changes in the boundaries of Argyll were as follows: a) The islands of Canna, Sanday, Rum, Muck, Oigh-sgeir and Eilan nan Each (the last two very small), until 1889 in Argyll, were transferred to the county of Inverness. b) The following places around Fort William and lying to the north of Loch Eil, which up to 1889 were in Argyll, were also transferred to the county of Inverness: (In alphabetical order and 19th century spelling) Achadalieu, Annat, Badabry, Banavie, Camaghael, Caol, Corpach, Corribeg, Craigag, Drimnaha, Drimsallie, Fassifern, Glensuilaig, Invervakaig, Kinlocheil, Kilmallie, Lochyside, Muirshearlich and Torcastle. Frank Bigwood