Becket(t)/Bicket(t) Scotland OPR Downloads Project
What it is
The Becket(t)/Bicket(t) Scotland OPR Downloads Project has produced a spreadsheet (Consolidated Downloads Index.xlsx) with a total of 1479 lines, with one line each:
- For all birth, marriage, and death records
- For all records indexed under any of the surnames (variant and deviant spellings of the surname, in order of frequency) BICKET, BICHET, BICHAN, BISKET, BECKET, BECKETT, BICHAT, BICHETT, BICKER, BICHEN, BICKETT, BECHET, BIGHET, HICKET, BISKETT, BACKET, BICHATT, BICKAR, BISHAT, BIKET, BICKAN, and (1 each) BACKETT, BECHETT, BECKAT, BECKATT, BICHIET, BICHIN, BICKAT, and BICKEL;
- For all Old Parish Registers (OPRs) including the Catholic Church, the Church of Scotland, and non-conformist churches
- For all of Scotland
- From the earliest records until 1855 (when official registration of births, marriages, and deaths began in Scotland)
- From the official Scottish Government website ScotlandsPeople.
Anyone can freely download the basic information from ScotlandsPeople (assuming that they manage to identify the relevant variant and deviant spellings), but the images of the original records must be paid for. These images often include additional useful genealogical information, such as the marriage number for spouses; the child number; and where the individuals were living down to the farm level. Jim Beckett (of the ‘J’ branch, or ‘1009J’ branch) has downloaded all of the basis data, and the images, and has also transcribed the information on those images. We cannot freely distribute the images because of copyright restrictions, but we can freely distribute the transcriptions, which are included in this spreadsheet. Anyone should be able to copy and paste any content from the spreadsheets, including the transcriptions of the images, and use these as supporting information for your lineages.
We can provide individual images on request, subject to the condition that they are not for public distribution, e.g., they cannot be uploaded to Family Search, Ancestry or other websites. However, you can always give the text of the transcription, with a citation of the record on ScotlandsPeople.
We did not include BIGGERT in the study, except for 1 death that appeared on another paid record. There are 61 Biggert entries in total on ScotlandsPeople for the other selection criteria specified above, 48 of which are in Ayrshire, Glasgow, Kincardine, and Renfrewshire.
Purpose of the project
The purpose of this download project has been to facilitate genealogical research, especially for the Ayrshire Becket(t)/Bicket(t) family tree. This is in particular for:
- Branch genealogists to look for source records for early individuals in their own trees.
- A follow-on-project to build additional lineages which are part of the Ayrshire tree, but which are not currently included in any branch lineages. Some of these may have died out. Some may be useful for connecting branches which we know from Y-DNA testing are closely related, but for which we have not yet been able to establish the connections in historical records.
How to use the spreadsheet
The main spreadsheet may be used in many ways. To start with, it is probably best to download a copy, so that you can edit your copy (necessary for some of the pivot table features). Probably the easiest for most people to use the spreadsheet, whether downloaded or not, will be via:
- Filters: The drop-down arrow at the top of every box can be used to select specific records based on their content. A particularly useful selection option for long fields (such as ‘Transcription’ and ‘Parents Other Details’) is ‘Text Filters’, then ‘Contains’ which then allows you to specify certain words or phrases that occur in the records to be selected).
- Find: Ctrl-F (on a Windows PC; Cmd-F on a Mac) will allow you to specify specific text to search for anywhere in the spreadsheet, or in a specific column (if you have previously selected the column). Jim has expanded the transcriptions by adding [standard name] or [alternate name] entries for places, surnames, and forenames where different spellings appear from record to record; to yield more results in any search effort. This does not guarantee all, but certainly more results.
It may be helpful to note that the default listing order is alphabetical by surname, then by county, and finally by forename within each of the eight separate data downloads (by church and then by births, marriages, and deaths) from which this consolidated spreadsheet was prepared.
As you identify records that are relevant to your branch, you can copy full rows from these records and paste them into a more concise collection for personal use or sharing with others.
There are also a few pivot tables supplied in the spreadsheet which provide some different analyses of the data in the main spreadsheet. To use these pivot tables fully, you need to download a copy of the spreadsheet (so that you can ‘edit’ it, which effectively pivot tables do.) If you know how to use pivot tables, you can use these examples to analyse the data yourself in many different ways. If you are not familiar with pivot tables, one thing which is easy to do is to double click on any figure which you find interesting – e.g. in the ‘Surnames by Parish’ pivot table, double click on the ‘31’ for ‘Ayr’. It will produce a new sheet with all of the 31 records which are for the parish of Ayr. This may make it easier for you to work with that specific selection of records.
What’s Next?
This downloads collection is meant to serve as a beginning. It has no real value unless it is used.
While it is hoped that many users will find this pre-1855 collection helpful in itself, individuals can expand the project by doing the same as we have already done, but for additional records from ScotlandsPeople, such as statutory (post-1855) birth, marriage and death records; census records from 1841 forward; wills; and, with a bit more work, Kirk Session records. To explore on ScotlandsPeople, using perhaps the order of surname frequency listed above, go to the main search bar on the login page (located above the ‘Advanced people search’ box) and type in a given surname only. The default is ‘Exact spelling’. Click ‘Search’ and the result will show all records available across Scotland for that surname spelling. You then have the option to narrow the results by record type, by county, and by parish. Once on the resulting screen, you can further sort by clicking in the header for forename, parent, or date, as an example. You may have to purchase more than one image to view the complete set of underlying original records (e.g. for censuses and wills), but it is likely worth it to ensure that you have all of the information they may contain.
Once you locate additional records and update your own databases, you are encouraged to post the transcribed additions to FamilySearch and WikiTree, or find a prior contributor on those sites who would likely be happy to do it or show you how.
If you need help, reach out to us or to each other. Feel free to suggest additional guidance that may benefit others.
Initiate contact with contributors to lineages for any of our branches on FamilySearch, WikiTree, Ancestry, or other public sites and invite them to visit the project website (https://bicket.one-name.net) and perhaps become involved themselves.
Would anyone like to set up and manage a Facebook page for our One-Name Study?
Request for feedback
We would appreciate any feedback you can give us about this project. In particular:
- Ease of use: How easy is it to use the spreadsheet, and do you have any suggestions for how to make it easier to use? What can be better explained?
- Results of using spreadsheet: Please let us know if the spreadsheet helps you to make any breakthroughs in your own research. That will help us justify for ourselves the effort and cost of doing this project.
