GENUKI - Kilmany

Kingdom of Fife

Contents

Fife Towns & Parishes

Nearby places

Kilmany

"This parish is bounded on the north by Forgan and Balmerino, on the south by Cupar and Logie, on the east by Forgan and on the west by Creich and Moonzie. The Eden river separates it from Leuchars. It is 6 miles from east to west and 2 miles north to south. Its area is 4700 acres; 3550 Scotch acres are under cultivation and 250 are under wood. The west part of the parish consists of softly swelling hills and pleasant valleys. The parish is divided at different places by small ridges, the highest not exceeding 400 feet above sea level. The soil varies but generally is very fertile. Rent of land averages £2-5-0 per acre. Within the last 75 years more than 200 acres of morass have been drained. A good deal of cattle of the Fife breed are raised and sold fat; a great number of sheep are annually fed on turnips for the butcher. There are 17 thrashing mills, besides 3 corn mills and 1 saw mill. There is no coal in the parish, it being brought from Ceres or Cameron. Apart from the sawmill and about a dozen of weavers, there is no industry in the parish. The parish school is at Rathillet, with 2 female schools, one at Hazleton and one at Kilmany.There are 2 public houses. There is no village but 2 hamlets - Kilmany, half way between Cupar and Newport, where the parish church is situated; and Rathillet which is a mile to the west. The late celebrated Dr Chalmers was minister of Kilmany from 1803 to 1815." - edited from A Descriptive & historic gazeteer of the counties of Fife, Kinross & Clackmannan, M Barbieri, published in 1857.

Towns and Villages

Kilmany
Rathillet

Cemeteries Census Church History 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 Taxation Wills & Testaments - see Probate Records
Please read the main Fife pages if you have not already done so.

Cemeteries

There are 2 cemeteries in Kilmany parish:

1. Kilmany Churchyard, in the village of Kilmany (grid ref. NO 388218):

The pre-1855 monumental inscriptions for Kilmany Churchyard are listed in "Fifeshire Monumental Inscriptions (pre-1855) vol. 3 The north east parishes" by John Fowler Mitchell & Sheila Mitchell, published by the Scottish Genealogy Society. ISBN 0901061999

2. Kilmany Cemetery, on the A92 (grid ref. NO 378218):

The current lair registers (dating from 1896) are administered by Fife Council, Cemeteries Department, County Buildings, St Catherine Street, Cupar, KY15 4TA. Tel. 01334 412818. Fax 01334 412896.

Census

Parish / district reference number for 1841 - 1901 censuses: 437

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.

In addition to the parish church at Kilmany, there was an Associate Congregation (Burgher, later United Presbyterian, United Free and Church of Scotland) at Rathillet.
The 1865 Ecclesiastical Directory lists the parish church and the United Presbyterian Church at Rathillet.

Details of church history here.

Church Records

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):

Kilmany OPR	Births / baptisms	Proclamations / marriages	Deaths / burials / mortcloths
437/1	1706-1819	1706-1819	1735-1819
437/2	1820-1854	1820-1854	1831-1854

Data supplied by General Register Office for Scotland

The Associate Congregation has some pre-1855 registers, held at the Special Collections Dept. of St Andrews University Library:

Rathillet Associate Congregation	Baptisms & Marriages
CH3/1565	1762-1840 (with gaps)

A transcript of these Associate Congregation baptisms has been published by the Fife Family History Society Baptismal Registers No. 2 and it is also available on the Records pages of their website.

Kirk Session and similar records for both the parish church at Kilmany and the Associate Congregation at Rathillet are held at the Special Collections Dept. of St Andrews University Library. Some Kirk Session material is to be found in the OPR records (437/1). Details of church records here.

Heritors' Records (HR524) are at the National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh. Details of records here.

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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
Kilmany	437	1855	1967
Cupar	420	1968	1971
Cupar	417	1972	2002
Fife	417	2003

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

Description & Travel

Kilmany church	Ordnance Survey Grid Reference	GPS	Post code	Lat. 56°23'3"N
Kilmany church	NO 388218	56.384501 -2.992725	KY15 4PT	Lon. 2°59'32"W

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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 2, 5 & 6 at the Landmark Information Group (old-maps.co.uk).
- Ordnance Survey one-inch, 2nd edition (1895) sheet 48 at the National Library of Scotland.
- Ordnance Survey one-inch, Popular edition (1926) sheet 64 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 41 (reprint of the 1895 one-inch map).
- Ordnance Survey one-inch, 7th series (1950s-1960s) sheet 56

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) sheet 59 - St Andrews
- Ordnance Survey Explorer (larger scale 1:25000 - about 2 and a half inches to 1 mile) sheet 371 - St Andrews and East Fife

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).

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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, 28.

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. Details here.

Population

Year	Population
1755	781
1801	787
1851	662
1901	502
1951	422

See also A Vision of Britain for population statistics.

Probate Records

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

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.