In the first update of their Roman Catholic Heritage Archive, Findmypast (FMP) has released 1.2 million Scottish records. Included are baptism, marriage, burial and congregational records from all eight of Scotland's Roman Catholic Dioceses: St Andrews and Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Argyll and the Isles, Dunkeld, Galloway, Glasgow, Motherwell and Paisley. The records date back to 1730 and cover over 130 parishes across the country. Details vary depending on the parish and the date. Here's a link: http://search.findmypast.co.uk/historical-records?SearchedRecordsetName=roman+catholic&Region=World  The FMP press release states, "Images of original documents will be free to view in many cases."

My McKlveen ancestors were Protestant, at least that was their affiliation in the U.S. and that was the surname variant assumed by most family members by the 20th century. But it's always tempting to take a peek at new record sets.

According to family lore, my 4X great-grandfather Henry McIlvean - that's how he wrote his name in his will - was born near Glasgow in about 1758. He and his wife lived in Ireland and had three children there before emigrating to Pennsylvania in about 1800. I wasn't surprised not to find Henry's baptism or marriage among the Scottish Catholic records. However I was taken aback to discover so many ways to spell the surname: MacAlwain, McIlvaine, McIlvaney, McGilvany, McIlevain, McIllwee - the list of possibilities goes on and on!  Thank goodness for search criteria that's built to include name variants!