Place:Kinellar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

There is no article on the parish of Kinellar in Wikipedia, but the encyclopedia does include a short description of Blackburn, within the parish which has become a suburb of the City of Aberdeen. Blackburn is a rapidly growing commuter town. The railway station within the parish was at Kinaldie on the Great North of Scotland railway.

[Notes based on A New History of Aberdeenshire, by Alexander Smith (Ed), 1875, and available on the GENUKI website.]

The parish is bounded on the north by the River Don and the parish of Fintray, on the east by Dyce and Newhills, on the south by Skene, and on the west by Kintore. The maximum length of the parish from south to north is 4½ miles, and the greatest breadth from east to west does not exceed two miles. The whole area is computed to be 4,227 acres. The height above sea level varies from 135 feet on the River Don at the boundary with Dyce to 732 feet at the top of the hill of Auchronie on the boundary with Skene. Smith describes the surface as undulating.

[From Samuel Lewis A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1851) - copyright Mel Lockie 2016] (available on GENUKI)

The surface throughout is a series of undulations, and the climate is bleak, the parish being almost without shelter from winds and storms. The soil is light and thin, and frequently rests upon a rough stony subsoil, requiring great labour and expense to reduce it to agricultural use: where, however, proper methods have been adopted, good crops are obtained. Almost the whole of the parish is arable, there being but a few acres occupied by wood, and only a small district of rocky moor. Oats, barley, and turnips are the crops chiefly raised, the last of which are much promoted in growth by the prevailing use of bone-dust manure. The rotation is usually the six-years' shift; and every farmer has a threshing-mill on his premises. There are but few sheep; the cattle are of the usual breed. Considerable improvements have taken place in husbandry within the last few years. Much land which was poor, and covered with heath and stones, has been with considerable expense brought into a state of profitable cultivation, well inclosed, and made to produce good crops of grain and turnips. The farm-houses, also, have been rendered comfortable and commodious. A spirit of emulation, leading to important practical results, has been excited by the institution about the year 1808 of prize-matches for ploughing, by a farmers' club in the neighbourhood; and much skill has been acquired in this branch of husbandry. The annual value of real property (1851) in Kinnellar is £2840.

A superior turnpike-road, from Aberdeen to Inverurie, intersects the parish, and is traversed by the mail and three coaches every day to and from Aberdeen.....The canal between Aberdeen and Inverurie, constructed in 1797, passes through the parish at its northern extremity; but though of great advantage to those who reside in the upper districts, it is productive of little benefit to the larger portion of the inhabitants, who, being at some distance from the nearest station on the canal, find it more advantageous to convey their produce to Aberdeen by land-carriage. A passage-boat plies regularly; and several boats bring coal, lime, and manure from Aberdeen, and take back grain, wood, slate, and other commodities. Among the few mansions in the parish is that of Glasgoego, not now in very good repair, its former proprietor having built a new residence in its vicinity. On the bank of the Don is a commodious house belonging to William Tower, Esq., of Kinaldie; and on the property of Tartowie is a small but elegant house with improved grounds around it. In the hamlet of Blackburn are a post-office, an inn, and some houses inhabited by tradesmen and others. Ecclesiastically the parish is within the bounds of the presbytery and synod of Aberdeen; patron, the Earl of Kintore.

Population Growth

Populations 1801-1951 from A Vision of Britain through Time (http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk).
2001 population from Scotland’s Census (https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk).

Research Tips

There was formerly a note on this page that the parish was linked to the Presbytery of Aberdeen, Synod of Aberdeen, Scotland. It would appear that since 1975 the organization of the presbyteries and synods has been revised. Readers are reminded that the Church of Scotland is Presbyterian in nature while in England the Church of England is Episcopalian. (See Wikipedia. )

• Scotlands People, the website of the Scottish Register Office provides

• official civil (from 1855) and parish registers (from when first produced) for births, marriages and deaths for all of Scotland
• original census images for all years available (1841-1911).
• references to wills and property taxes, and
• an extensive collection of local maps.

This site is extremely easy to use. There are charges for parish register entries and censuses. The charges are reasonable and payable by online transfer.

• The Statistical Accounts of Scotland Online provides access to digitised and fully searchable versions of both the Old Statistical Account (1791-99) and the New Statistical Account (1834-45). These uniquely rich and detailed parish reports, usually written by local Church of Scotland ministers, detail social conditions in Scotland and are an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Scottish history.
• Scotlands Places
• Gazetteer of Scotland includes descriptions of individual parishes from F. H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4)
• The FamilySearch Wiki
• GENUKI which provides, amongst other data, complete quotations from A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1851) by Samuel Lewis, John Bartholomew's A Gazetteer of the British Isles (1877), and A New History of Aberdeenshire edited by Alexander Smith (1875)
• A list of Burial Grounds in Scotland is now available on the website of the Scottish Association of Family History Societies.
• Aberdeenshire and Moray Records. Town Council minutes, accounts, letters, plans and harbour records provided by Aberdeenshire Council plus other local records.
• Aberdeen and North-East Scotland Family History Society is one of the largest and most reputable family history societies in Scotland and has a long list of publications referring to individual parishes.