Lochgelly Fife

[Sumi]

Trying to help a friend whose Scottish grandparents came from Lochgelly? ...but I’ve not searched for Scottish records before so not finding much.

How do we find marriage records of James COOK born c1878 to Elsie Thomson STEWART born c1879 or any other information? Any help much appreciated.

Sue

[Lesley Robertson]

If you go to our Scottish section HERE, you will find a collection of stickies about Scottish searches and where to find the data. Much of it is different to England/Wales, but not all. For example, BMDs started in 1855 in Scotland.

To get you started, I had a look at Scotlands People for their marriage. Searches are free once you have registered, and you can see the resulting index entry, but you need to buy credits and use them to pay to download certificates and register entries.

There are no entries for a marriage between the spellings you have given, but there is a marriage between James Cook and Elsie Thomson Stuart in 1904 in Huntly, Fife. There is no other entry for any variation of those names (before WW1, variation of name spelling was a bit of a national sport). That marriage cert will give you the couple's ages and occupations, names of both sets of parents, whether they're alive and father's occupations.

I also looked at the 1911 census for James & Elsie Cook. Again, it's just the index, but there are 2 James Cooks in Lochgelly listed - one is 32 and the other is 1. There's a matching Elsie Cook for Lochgelly, aged 31. If your friend gets the full entry, she'll get birth parishes, etc.

[Lesley Robertson]

Update (just playing to see how far I can get without paying anything)

I asked SP for anyone called Cook living in Lochgelly in 1911 census and with Elsie at the same address:
James age 1, Amy age 0, Andrew age 5, James age 32, Elsie age 31.

There are 4 births for Cook in Lochgelly between 1904-1911:
James 1919, Amy 1911, Thomas 1910, Michael 1909. The latter probably had other parents, there's quite a few Cooks in town, but this indicates that they may not have been living in Lochgelly for Andrew's birth. There's only 1 Andrew of the right age - 1905 in Auchterdarren.

1901: There is only 1 Elsie Stewart (No Stuarts) aged 21 in Fife - Ballingry (and 7 others elsewhere).
There is also only 1 James Cook aged 22 in Fife - also Ballingry. This is suggestive, but needs to be checked.

That was fun.

[Sumi]

Thank you Lesley, that’s a big help.

[Lesley Robertson]

Don't forget that it's only built from the indexes and must be checked from the certificates and other documents. Fortunately, Scotlands People is reasonably priced compared to some other providers, and scottish certificates are informative. Have a look through all those stickies I gave the link for.
Enjoy!

[Lesley Robertson]

Don't forget that it must all be confirmed from the certificates and other documents. Scotlands People is reasonably priced, and the certificates are very informative.
Enjoy!