https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/St._Ninians,_Stirlingshire,_Scotland_Genealogy gives some interesting information, and https://www.minube.net/place/st-ninian-church-a370661 is a neat review.  My children attended carol service in the church, and I have been looking at records for the area for some time.

regards Seymour

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Both.

From the point of view of family history, St Ninians is a //parish// in the county of Stirling. It happens to be next door to the parish of Stirling, and is now effectively a suburb of the city.

The really important points to understand are (a) that, until the 19th century at least, the parish was the basic unit, not only of the church but also of civil record-keeping and (b) that most events recorded in a parish register did not necessarily take place in the kirk building. Unless you find a record that says specifically that a wedding or baptism ceremony was performed in the kirk itself, or that the witnesses to a baptism were the congregation, you cannot safely assume that it was.

Most wedding ceremonies, for example, were held in the bride's parents home or, if she had no parents living or was married a long way from home, in the manse (the minister's residence) or in her employer's home. Baptisms too were often performed in the parents' home. Kirk ceremonies became common only during the 20th century, though I myself was baptised in my parents' living room, and I have been a bridesmaid at a wedding in the bride's parents' living room.

So you must not assume that James Lowrie and Grace Monteath were married in a kirk building. In 1829, in fact, the overwhelming likelihood is that they were not.

For background about the parish of St Ninians, see https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/parish/Stirling/St%20Ninians
For more information about Scottish marriage customs see https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/economicsocialhistory/historymedicine/scottishwayofbirthanddeath/marriage/

HTH

Anne

Thanks for your explanation Anne.  That explains why my grandmother and her sister held their double wedding ceremony in the home of their mother and then moved on to the Brisbane Caledonian Society for the reception on 26 April 1910.

Happy New Year all

Jocelyn

Interesting indeed.

As I have said before in another thread, the term 'non-conformist' in the FS wiki is incorrect, because it is meaningless in relation to churches in Scotland. The term dates from the 17th century, *before* the union of Scotland and England, It originally refers to people or denominations in **England** who did not conform to the Church of **England** and the legislation leading to that never applied in Scotland.

There was no shortage of church denominations in Scotland that broke away from the Church of Scotland at various times, but the correct term for those is 'dissenting'.

Anne

Even more interesting.

Here are some more images of the old kirkyard of St Ninians https://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=126674503

The review https://www.minube.net/place/st-ninian-church-a370661 contains a link to an entirely different congregation, not belonging to the Church of Scotland, based in a different building in Stirling.

This https://www.stniniansold.org.uk/ is the link to the Church of Scotland congregation that is based in the kirk next to the old kirkyard.

Anne

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