Marriage of Danish prince to late Queen’s cousin among latest online records

The marriage of a Danish prince to a cousin of the late Queen is among thousands of Scottish birth, marriage and death records that have been made available online for the the first time.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) said nearly 240,000 records have been added to the Scotland’s People website, including births in 1925, marriages in 1950 and deaths in 1975.

The marriage records include the wedding of Prince Georg of Denmark and Viscountess Anson, born Anne Bowes-Lyon, at Glamis Castle chapel in September 1950.

The pair met at a ball at the Swedish Embassy in 1949.

The bride was the niece of the then Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) who attended the reception with her younger daughter Princess Margaret, despite being advised against attending the ceremony of a divorcee.

One of the 126,837 births registered in 1925 was activist and social policy expert Catherine McIntosh Rankin.

As Kay Carmichael she sat on the Kilbrandon Committee, which introduced community based social work and the Children’s Hearing System to Scotland.

Among the deaths is rugby union star Arthur Smith, who passed away in 1975 aged just 42.

Born on a farm near Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway, Smith excelled both academically and in sport.

He is best remembered for his 33 caps for the Scottish national team, while off the pitch he was a gifted mathematician who worked in the financial sector.

NRS chief executive Alison Byrne said: “The annual arrival of new birth, marriage and death records is a big event in the calendar for family historians.

“This is also an opportunity to look back and acknowledge the remarkable lives captured in the records.

“We are delighted to bring these new resources to the Scotland’s People website so researchers in all corners of the world can discover their Scottish ancestors.”

The Scotland’s People website is used by hundreds of thousands of people each year to apply for copies of official certificates and to research family history, biography, local history and social history.