MELROSE, SCOTLAND - PARISH REGISTERS FOR 1642-1722

Buy it for... A useful transcription of Melrose "bapeteesms".

Publisher: S&N Genealogy Supplies

Price: £13.95 (plus £2.50 p&p)

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These parish registers from Melrose in Scotland cover the years from 1642 to 1722 in a single, searchable PDF file with bookmarks. For family historians hungry for early Melrose data, the CD contains a chronological list of those who were baptised in that particular parish.

The first page has a long list of names. Strangely, though, it offers no explanation as to who these people might be. The most likely truth is that they are Elders of the Church. The rest of the entries are presented in decades, and we get records for the year 1642, then the decades between 1650 and 1720.

Individual entries start on a new line with the year and a date in the left margin. Entries are typed, which means that the documents are transcripts, but they are reproduced in the same charming phrasing (presumably) as the originals.

Entries are partly in dialect, or at least written with an accent, so that we get words like "dachter" (daughter) and "twa twines" (two twins). Personal names are also written as they may have been pronounced, like Margreat, Issobell, Marrione and, but inconsistently, Andro.

If you had relatives born in Melrose during these years, you need to buy this CD.