GENUKI - Beath

Kingdom of Fife

Contents

Fife Towns & Parishes

Nearby places

Beath

"Beath parish is 4 miles long by 3 miles broad. It is bounded on the north by Cleish, on the east by Ballingry, on the south & west by Auchtertool, Dalgetty & Dunfermline. Its area is 6800 acres, of which 5270 are under cultivation, 516 are under pasture and 530 are wooded. The Hill of Beath commands an extensive and fine view. To the north west is Loch Fitty, about 3 miles in circumference, which containes pike and perch. The bridges in the parish are all in good repair. The average rent of land is £1 per acre. The farms produce oats, barley, a little wheat, pease, beans, potatoes, turnips and meadow hay. There are 3 collieries, although only one, at Kelty, is wrought at present. There is a parish church, and a Free Church at Kelty. There is only 1 school in the parish, with 26 on the roll in 1849. There are 4 public houses and 1 inn. The nearest market towns are Dunfermline and Kinross, each nearly 6 miles distant. The Great North Road from Queensferry to Kinross and Perth intersects the parish from south-west to north-east. There are 2 small villages: Kelty and Oakfield. " from A Descriptive & historic gazeteer of the counties of Fife, Kinross & Clackmannan by M Barbieri, published 1857.

Towns and Villages

Cowdenbeath
Hill of Beath
Kelty

Bibliography Burgh Records - see Town Records Cemeteries Census Church Records Civil Registration Description and Travel Directories Historical Geography Maps	Monumental Inscriptions - see Cemeteries Names, Geographical Obituaries Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc. Population Probate Records Schools Town Records Wills & Testaments - see Probate Records
Please read the main Fife pages if you have not already done so.

Bibliography

Old Cowdenbeath and Old Kelty (Stenlake Publishing) contain many photographs and full descriptions.

Cemeteries

Beath Cemetery / Churchyard, Old Perth Road, Cowdenbeath (grid ref. NT 152922):

The pre-1855 monumental inscriptions are listed in "Fifeshire Monumental Inscriptions (pre-1855) vol. 2 The western parishes" by John Fowler Mitchell & Sheila Mitchell, published by the Scottish Genealogy Society. ISBN 0901061972
The current lair registers (dating from 1859) are administered by Fife Council, Cemeteries Department, Dunfermline Crematorium Lodge, Masterton Road, Dunfermline (tel. 01383 724653; fax 01383 738636).

Census

Parish / district reference number for 1841 - 1901 censuses: 410

The 1841 return can be searched on the FreeCEN website.

The 1851 census has been indexed by the Tay Valley Family History Society.

Further information on the main Fife page.

The original Old Parish Records (of baptisms / births, proclamations / marriages, and burials) of the Church of Scotland, which cover the years up to 1854, are held in the General Register Office for Scotland in Edinburgh, and copies on microfilm may be consulted in local libraries and at LDS Family History Centres around the world. The baptisms / births and proclamations / marriages (but not deaths) can also be searched at Scotland's People - the online database of Scottish Birth, Marriage, Death & Census records at the General Register Office. The index can also be searched on the LDS FamilySearch website.

Deaths are listed on Fife Family History Society's Pre-1855 Fife Deaths CD.

The old parish records span the following dates (although there may be gaps within these ranges):

Beath OPR	Births / baptisms	Proclamations / marriages	Deaths / burials / mortcloths
410/1	1643-1819	1643-1819	1802-1819
410/2	1820-1854	1820-1854	1820-1852

Data supplied by General Register Office for Scotland

The 1865 Ecclesiastical Directory lists the parish church, and the Free Church at Kelty.

Kirk Session and similar records for the following churches are held by the National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh:

Beath Parish Church	CH2/1059
Cowdenbeath Cairns	CH3/1158
Cowdenbeath Guthrie Memorial (Free)	CH3/837
Cowdenbeath North and Kirk of Beath	CH3/1247
Kelty Oakfield	CH2/1385
Kelty Moray (Free)	CH3/1377
Kelty North (Trinity, U.P.)	CH3/1368
Lassodie	CH3/205

Some Kirk Session material (for Beath Parish Church) is to be found in the OPR records (410/1).

Heritors' Records (HR56) are at the National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh.

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Civil Registration

Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths began in Scotland on 1st January 1855. Full information on the main Fife page.

Registration district	number	start date	end date
Beath	410	1855	1910
Cowdenbeath	410/1	1911	1971
Cowdenbeath	430	1972	2002
Fife	430	2003
Kelty	410/2	1911	1971
Kelty	428	1972	2002
Fife	428	2003

Registration districts did not necessarily coincide exactly with parishes. In the 20th century especially, there were frequent changes in registration districts.

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Description & Travel

Cowdenbeath town centre	Ordnance Survey Grid Reference	GPS	Post code	Lat. 56°6'46"N
Cowdenbeath town centre	NT 165919	56.112528 -3.344327	KY4 9QE	Lon. 3°20'40"W

Directories

On the Records pages of the Fife Family History Society website there is a transcription of Westwood's 1861 Parochial Directory of Fife.

Historical Geography

A Vision of Britain provides historical descriptions, population & housing statistics, historic boundaries and maps.

Maps

Historic maps:

On-line maps:
- Ordnance Survey 6-inch, 1st edition (1855) Fife sheets 30, 31, 35, 36 at the Landmark Information Group (old-maps.co.uk).
- Ordnance Survey one-inch, 2nd edition (1895) sheet 40 at the National Library of Scotland.
- Ordnance Survey one-inch, Popular edition (1926) sheets 67, 68 at the National Library of Scotland.
- A Vision of Britain has the Ordnance Survey one-inch, 1st edition (1850s) and the Ordnance Survey one-inch, Popular edition (1920s) - both showing parish boundaries; and Land Utilisation mapping (1930s).
Paper maps:
- The Caledonian Maps Victorian Ordnance Survey Map Series sheet 40 (reprint of the 1895 one-inch map).
- Ordnance Survey one-inch, 7th series (1950s-1960s) sheet 55

Present-day maps:

On-line maps:
- Multimap
- Streetmap
- both Google maps and local.live provide detailed maps and aerial photographs
- Google based mapping showing nearby GENUKI townships / parishes.
- Google based mapping showing nearby places recorded in the GENUKI gazetter.
Paper maps:
- Ordnance Survey Landranger (scale 1:50000 - about 1 inch to 1 mile) sheets 58 - Perth & Alloa, 65 - Falkirk & Linlithgow
- Ordnance Survey Explorer (larger scale 1:25000 - about 2 and a half inches to 1 mile) sheet 367 - Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy & Glenrothes south

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Names, Geographical

The Ordnance Survey [Place] Name Books 1850-1854 are held at the Fife Council Archive Centre. There is an index to the entries for this parish on the Fife Council website (select A in the A-Z list, then Archives).

Obituaries

Fife Deaths Abroad 1855-1900 - a compilation of overseas deaths recorded in Fife newspapers - has been produced by Andrew Campbell of Fife Family History Society. The Society have recently re-published it in their Publications Series, 26.

Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

The relief of paupers after 1845 was carried out by the Parochial Board and later by the Parish Council. Their records are at the Fife Council Archive Centre.

Peter Higginbotham's website has a lot of information about Dunfermline combination poorhouse.

Population

Year	Population
1755	1099
1801	613
1851	1252
1901	15812
1951	22641

See also A Vision of Britain for population statistics.

Probate Records

Prior to 1824, wills, testaments & inventories of residents of Beath may be found in either the St Andrews Commissariot (CC20) or the Edinburgh Commissariot (CC8) records. From 1824 to 1960, commissary business was conducted by the Sheriff Court of Fife at Cupar (SC20). From 1960, it has been conducted at Dunfermline (SC21) Sheriff Court.

Indexes and finding aids are given on the main Fife page.

Local sources worth searching for deeds include St Andrews Commissary Court and Cupar Sheriff Court.