If Your Scottish Ancestor Was a Covenanter

If your ancestor arrived in Massachusetts in the 1650s, it is possible that they were Covenanters. Many thousands of covenanters were executed. In your In the event that your covenanter ancestor made it to trial, rather than being executed on the spot, the records of their trial will also be in the records of the High Court, available from the National Records of Scotland.  

Following conviction, the covenanter would be imprisoned and then sent to the colonies of North America. The court papers will provide the detail of the crime (preaching in public), the names of any witnesses and then the details of their sentence.

Both Ancestry and FindMyPast have searchable databases for Covenanters.

A great resource for reading detailed information about the individual covenanters is the website Reformation History. This website is run by the Reformed Presbyterian Church and is a wonderful resource for honouring the Scottish Covenanters. 
http://reformationhistory.org//covenantersscotland.html

Fife Voters Rolls Available on Ancestry.co.uk

Ancestry.co.uk has added the Registers of Voters for Fife into their searchable database. These are for scattered years from 1832-1890. They also have the Registers of Voters for Dunfermline from 1856-1871.

A word on the purpose and research uses of the Registers of Voters from Ancestry's website reads:

"Electoral registers, or registers of voters, are lists of individuals who are eligible to vote during the time the register is in force (usually one year), and genealogists use them to establish a place and time of residence. Many voters on the lists in this database became eligible to vote after parliamentary reform passed in Scotland in 1832 expanded the country’s electorate from about 4,500 to 65,000 voters by lowering the property requirement for franchise to £10. Subsequent legislation would further extend suffrage in Scotland, though women would not be given the vote until the 20th century.
The registers of voters in this database come from several areas in Scotland:

• Burgh of Burntisland, 1864, 1894
• Burgh of Dunfermline 1859, 1869, 1871
• Burgh of Dysart, 1832
• Burgh of Kinghorn, 1832, 1892
• County of Fife, 1832–41, 1846, 1861–62, 1862–63, 1863–64, 1864–65, 1878–79
• Western District of Fife, 1860

Records can be searched by place of residence, register year, and name. Records may also include occupation, street or street address, whether a proprietor or tenant, description of property, and a name of a village, farm, or property."

These records can often prove useful in placing your ancestors in between census years.

http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1984&o_xid=20256&o_lid=20256&o_sch=Search

As always, Happy Searching!!