Scottish Records: the Register of Corrected Entries (RCE)

 

Original volumes in the Register of Corrected Entries, held in the Dome Room
All images courtesy of National Records of Scotland

Last month I wrote a post about identifying inaccuracies in records and mentioned Scottish records’ answer to Tipp-Ex, the Register of Corrected Entries (RCE) – or as its entries are now known, the Register of Corrections Etc (well done to the powers that be for keeping the same initials there).  After a conversation with a friend last weekend about these, I thought I’d write a bit more about this great record set.

An entry in the RCE can be viewed only in conjunction with the record it is correcting: a post-1854 birth, marriage, or death certificate.  There is no dataset or searchable index to the RCE on its own. 

On a certificate, you will see a notation in the left-hand margin with a written reference, or like the one in the image on the left here, also marked with an official stamp. 

And if you’re using the ScotlandsPeople system, either on your own device or in a record office, you will see a red hyperlink at the top of the screen on which the certificate appears, that takes you to the relevant RCE.

So what kind of information are you likely to find in an RCE entry? And what do they look like?  

Well, here’s the entry related to the reference above.

You can see that it gives information matching the certificate – a death, in this example – such as the county and registration district, the name of the individual, and the date of the event.  When researching a death, the most likely source of additional RCE detail will be in the “Cause of Death” column.  Here, the cause of death is identical to that given on the original death certificate: “Natural Causes with a virtual certainty of it having been a Coronary Thrombosis.”  This matching of the two records is quite common, when no further understanding of the cause of death has been developed. 

On the other hand, you may see (occasionally graphic) detail about the nature and circumstances of an individual’s demise.  If for no other reason, this can be a good indicator of whether a newspaper report may exist about an accidental or sudden death, which are the usual reasons for a death certificate being linked to the RCE. 

It may also point to the possibility of a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI), another uniquely Scottish aspect of the legal system.  Unlike the rest of the UK, there are no coroners in Scotland, and the procurator fiscal, the Crown’s legal representative, is notified when a sudden death occurs.  FAIs are conducted, at the instigation of the procurator fiscal, by a sheriff (and, before 1976, a jury), and records of their proceedings are held by National Records of Scotland. 

But what about birth or marriage records and the RCE?  Births are most often corrected because of inaccuracies or omissions in the name of a child, or in cases of paternity disputes.  These can be very useful when a father’s name is not given on the original birth certificate, historically in the case of a birth outside marriage.  An addition may be made to the RCE giving the father’s name.  You will sometimes see, on a birth certificate, details in the column for the parents' names such as "Mother: Jean Brown, married to James Finlay, who she declares is not the father of the child".  This is an example of the type of circumstance which has led to the creation of an entry in the RCE.

According to research guidance on the ScotlandsPeople website, there is usually only one situation in which a correction will be made to a marriage record, and that is where the couple has obtained a divorce.  A stamp will have been made in the margin indicating this and giving the RCE reference, and on ScotlandsPeople the link will appear at the head of the page.  This only applies to marriage records until 1984, after which the use of the RCE was replaced by the Statutory Register of Divorces.

As my friend found out recently, not every RCE reference noted on a certificate has had its entry digitised. If you’re using the ScotlandsPeople system to view the certificate, you can contact their help desk and request a scan be made of the RCE.  In this instance, within a couple of days a copy of the RCE record had been forwarded to my friend, providing her with extra information about the cause of a death. 

Corrections for any reason can be made to birth, marriage, or death certificates, including mistakes in dates or spelling. Being aware of the RCE’s existence is the first step to identifying entries when researching in Scottish certificates.  Do be on the look out for them!