Accessing records of same sex marriage in Scotland

The National Records of Scotland has put a notice up to say that the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 received Royal Assent on 12 March 2014, and that it believes that same sex marriages will essentially begin to happen in the country by the end of the year (and about time too!). The story is available at http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2014/news-on-same-sex-marriage-in-scotland.

There is of course a genealogical perspective on this story also, and I have just sent an email to the NRS to ask how the records of same sex marriages will be made accessible at the ScotlandsPeople Centre (www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk). Although there is an online closure period for marriage records on the ScotlandsPeople website that are less than 75 years old, more recent records for marriages are available for consultation at the centre in Edinburgh, and across the country at facilities with access to the same database - usually within a few months of them being recorded (with indexes becoming available much more quickly).

I am assuming that as same sex marriage is essentially the same thing in legal terms now, that equal provision will be made available to access such records - but will they be made available through the current marriage database, or through some other facility, and when?

When I get an update, I'll let you know!

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians. And for those wishing to take Scottish ancestral research a bit further, my next Pharos course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Records, commences May 14th 2014.