Mr. Davidson, however, though serving the cure from 1652 was not admitted minister of Canisbay until 17th February, 1655, and eleven years later he was transferred to Birsay (Orkney). As noted in the footnotes there are a number of blanks in the Registers, and after 1661 the entries of baptisms, marriage contracts, and marriages were not kept in a separate register, but included in the record of the kirk-session proceedings. The entries in these Registers will be of service to the genealogist interested in such Caithness families as the Sinclairs of Canisbay, of Dunbeath, of Mey, and of Brabster, and also such families as the Groats, the Kennedys of Stroma, the Mowats of Freswick, etc.
Most of the outstanding Caithness families have already been dealt with by Henderson in his Notes on Caithness Family History, but owing to the vast amount of new material it is to be hoped that someone competent for the task will undertake the work of revising Henderson's Notes and so bring the book up-to-date.
