'First' baptism record goes online

Christine Hay was born in 1553

What is believed to be the first official record of a baptism in Scotland is going online - 450 years after the ceremony was held.

Records show Christine Hay was baptised on this day in the village of Errol, Perthshire, in 1553.

The document comes from an archive of records also featuring Mary Queen of Scots and poet Robert Burns.

The records are being published by the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS).

Christine was brought to the parish church for the ceremony by her parents, Peter Hay and Jonet Fermline.

The sacrament took place a year after the Catholic Church had ordained that every parish should keep a register of baptisms, marriages and deaths.

The 17th century copy of Christine's record is among 4,000 Scottish parish registers which are going online.

Fragile records

These include the proclamation of the banns of the short-lived marriage of Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley on 29 July, 1565.

Two years later Darnley, her second cousin and great-grandson of Henry VII, was murdered.

Three months after Darnley's burial Mary married the Earl of Bothwell, who was implicated in her late husband's death.

The records also include a rebuke from Kirk elders in the Ayrshire village of Mauchline to parishioner and poet Robert Burns and his lover Jean Armour.

The old and fragile records have only previously been available to the public in microfilm copies at New Register House in Edinburgh.

Digital imaging

The GROS is in the process of creating digital images of the records and aims to transfer everything online during 2004.

The initiative is part of the GROS' Digitally Imaging the Genealogical Records of Scotland project (DIGROS) and can be viewed at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.

The Scotland's People site is the official online source of parish register, civil registration and census records for Scotland.

Containing 37 million names, the database is one of the world's largest resources of genealogical information and one of the largest single information resources on the internet.