I.
PARISH REGISTERS AND BISHOP'S TRANSCRIPTS OF THE
A. Organization of the Church of England
The
majority of the English were members of the Church of England (known as the
Anglican Church in
Province - an area of jurisdiction covering
several dioceses, presided over by an archbishop.
Diocese - an area of jurisdiction
consisting of several archdeaconries, presided over by a bishop.
Archdeaconry - a group of rural deaneries
presided over by an archdeacon (or just deacon).
Rural
deanery - an area
of jurisdiction consisting of several parishes, presided over by a rural dean.
Parish - an area over which presides a clergyman, whose duty is to see to the welfare
(cure of souls) of the people in that area.
Chapelry - a small, localized group of people within a parish
attached to the parish except that it generally has a separate meeting place
for the sake of convenience.
The
parish officials of the church are:
a. Minister or Incumbent - clergyman
presiding over the parish (curate, rector, vicar)
b. Churchwarden - a lay officer elected to
help the minister and to represent the people in matters of organization
c. Parish Clerk - officer who keeps vestry
meeting minutes and cares for the parish registers
B.
Chronological History of Parish Registers:
|
1538 |
Thomas Cromwell ordered the keeping of records of births, marriages,
and deaths by the parish minister. 678 parishes (of about 11,000) have
registers that date back this far. |
|
1556 |
Cardinal Pole ordered bishops to have their ministers
record godparents (sponsors) names. This lasted only two years and was not
widely followed. |
|
1558 |
Queen Elizabeth crowned. |
|
1561 |
Bishops (archdeacon's) transcripts begin in |
|
1578 |
Earliest known Quaker records |
|
1598 |
A new law was passed stating that a copy had to be made of the parish
registers. The copy was to be sent to the bishop of the diocese. ALSO, Queen
Elizabeth ordered that all previous parish registers should be copied onto
parchment also, especially since the first year of Her Majesty's reign. |
|
1600 |
Other nonconformist denominations begin to keep records |
|
1601 |
Poor law records began to be kept with the parish registers. |
|
1642- 1660 |
Oliver Cromwell's period in which there was civil war and much
disturbance in the Church of England. Because of this, registers were poorly
kept. |
|
1644 |
Earliest know Presbyterian, Independent (Congregational) records |
|
1647 |
Earliest known Baptist records |
|
1653 |
Age of consent for marriage established as 16 for men and 14 for
women. Fee imposed on marriages. |
|
1663 |
Earliest known Roman Catholic record in |
|
1666 |
Law requiring burial in wool passed, generally disregarded until 1680. |
|
1680 |
A law requires all burials to be in wool. This lasted until 1814. |
|
1694-5 |
Parish register entries, childless couples, and bachelors were taxed.
Enumerations similar to a census were required, but only survive for |
|
1733 |
Law forbidding the use of Latin in records. |
|
1752 |
The calendar was changed from the Julian (Old) Style to the Gregorian
(New) Style. The first day of the year was changed from March 25 to January
1. |
|
1754 |
Lord Hardwicke's Act, requiring a separate register for marriages, was
put into effect. The Act was intended to do away with clandestine marriages.
A form or register printed by the government was to be used to record all
marriages. |
|
1783- 1793 |
A stamp duty of threepence was placed on
each entry in the registers. To avoid paying the tax, some people did not
christen or baptize their children until the act was repealed. |
|
1812 |
George Rose Act requires baptisms, marriages, and deaths to be kept in
separate registers. Pre-printed forms for birth and death entries began in
1813. |
|
1837 |
Civil Registration began. This registration superseded registration in
parish registers. Some parishes stopped making Bishop's Transcripts. |
|
1870 |
Most parishes had stopped Bishop's Transcripts by this date. |
|
|
|
C. Contents of Parish Registers
Christenings
generally contain the name of the child, date of the christening, father's full
name, and mother's given name.
Marriages
before 1754 generally give the names and parish(es) of residence of the bride and groom, and the date of
the marriage. After 1754, additional information added to the records included
marital status, whether married by Banns or License, and the names of the
witnesses.
Burials
before 1813 generally give the name of the deceased and date of burial. If the
deceased was a child or married woman, the name of the husband or father may be
given. After 1813, the form also calls for the residence and the age of the
deceased.
D. Availability of Registers
1. There are two main places you may find parish
registers. They are:
a. Most parish registers have been deposited in
the County Record Offices or other local repository.
b. A few parish registers remain in the custody
of the local clergyman.
2. Many family history and genealogical societies have
printed registers at their libraries. There are some printed registers at the
Family History Library.
3. Many are available on film at the Family
History Library and within the Family History Centers system.
4.
An increasing number of
parish registers or indexes, transcripts, or abstracts of parish registers are
available online.
a.
See LDS records online
(NOTE: right hand column is unindexed images) at http://search.labs.familysearch.org
b.
Check the appropriate
county and parish in www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng.
c.
Check other available
search engines and link lists.
d.
For example, http://users.ox.ac.uk/~malcolm/genuki/big/eng/KEN/Minster/
for Minster-in-Thanet and http://cityark.medway.gov.uk/query/results/?Mode=Search&PathList=%2FZ4a_Medway_Ancestors%2F%0A&SearchWords=&DateList (
E. Approach to using the Parish Registers
1. Obtain historical and geographical information
on the parish or place. See Maps and
Gazetteers on this site.
a. The Imperial Gazetteer of
b. Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of England
and Wales gives civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions of all parishes, the
distance to the nearest market town, the 1821 population, principal topographical
features, and the existence of non-conformist chapels. It also includes a map
of each county.
c. Smith, A Genealogical Gazetteer of
England is a good substitute for Lewis' gazetteer. It contains key
information for each parish, plus the beginning date of the parish registers.
d. Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British
Isles is a modern gazetteer, helpful in determining what parish a smaller
place belongs to, so reference can then be made to Lewis' gazetteer.
e. 1851 Population Tables list
some useful background information on each place.
f. The Phillimore
Atlas & Index of Parish Registers by Humphery-Smith
contains maps for each county indicating the beginning dates for the registers,
the parish boundaries, and probate jurisdictions.
2. Determine the extent and availability of the
registers:
a. Humphery-Smith, The
Phillimore Atlas & Index of Parish Registers
contains a listing in the back of the book that indicates where registers that
have been deposited can be found.
b. Steel, D.J., National Index of Parish
Registers can simplify information on available parish registers, if the county
of interest is available, as not all counties have been completed. The typical
entry in the National Index tells what registers are in existence, and
where they are located.
c. Burke's Key to the Ancient Parish Registers
of England and Wales lists the beginning date of the registers and
indicates the existence of printed copies.
d. 1831 Parish Register Abstract gives the
exact period registers existed for each parish in 1831.
e. Original Parish Records in Record Offices
and Libraries indicates repositories in which original records have been
deposited.
3. To search Parish Registers available at the
Family History Library, locate information regarding the parish by consulting:
a. Family
History Library Catalog online at www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp.
b. Hugh Wallis Batch
Number Index: Use this web site to discover which parishes have been
extracted and to get a list of what was extracted from each parish - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers.htm.
NOTE: This lists all extractions through
1990. Only a few post-1990 extractions are included in the IGI.
c. Parish and Vital Records Listings: Use
the current edition to determine if the parish of interest has been included in
Family History's Controlled Extraction Program. If the parish is a part of this
program, a computer print-out MAY be available showing
the information taken from the register, along with the temple ordinance data.
These print-outs, as they become available are run on computer-generated
microfilms and are available to the Family History Centers.
d. Fiche Catalog of the Family History Library
(this fiche catalog is available at the Family History Centers): Locate parish
registers by checking the following headings:
4. To search Parish Registers NOT available at
the Family History Library:
a. Check to see if the registers are available online. Use www.genuki.org.uk, go to the county, then go to the Church Records topic to see if there are
county-level registers or indexes. If this isn’t successful, return to the
county page, then click on the link “Towns and parishes” near the top (for
most, but not all counties). See what’s listed for the parish(es) of interest. A few online services available include FreeReg at http://freereg.rootsweb.com/
and the Online Parish Clerk (see http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/OPCproject.html).
b. Use the services of a genealogical volunteer. Check for a
volunteer for the parish of interest at LookupCentral,
which recently lost their web hosting. An example page is located at http://home.wi.rr.com/lincolnshire/lincs.html. There are other volunteer organizations that
might help, including www.cybercomm.net/~freddie/helplist/uk.htm#eng.
c. Obtain the services of a genealogical record agent - This
is the best approach in having searches performed, as these agents have
experience with the records and the protocol of doing searches. Keep in mind
the following when looking for an agent:
i.
Agents can be found by getting referrals from other genealogists, from
periodicals, from county record offices or libraries, or by advertising. The
list of the Association of Genealogists and Record Agents in
ii. Request
complete information regarding the services offered by each agent being
considered and the fees BEFORE officially employing one.
iii. Be very specific
in information and instructions given to the agent, particularly regarding the time
period to be searched, the names to extract, and the maximum amount of money
you can spend in the effort.
iv. Be prepared to pay for
the agent's time, travel expenses, and any fees necessary for the completion of
the search.
d.
Contact
the record office that has the parish register. Use ArchOn
(Archives Online) at TNA site (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk)
to phone, email, or write a letter to the record office.
e.
Contact
and join a family history society. Addresses can be obtained from www.genuki.org.uk/Societies/England.html
or www.ffhs.org.uk. A family history
society is composed of genealogists, family historians, and others who are
searching for information about their ancestors. When you join a society, you
can advertise in their publication(s) and register your surname(s) of interest.
You can find out about indexing projects, where copies of records are
available, or people who will look things up for you—either for free or for a
fee.
f.
Write
to a minister for searches - This is usually the last resort when trying to
obtain information from parish registers. Most ministers will assist you, but
may not be trained in reading or interpreting their old registers. If this
option is selected, keep in mind:
i. There is a set
legal fee which can be charged. For searches in registers prior to 1837 for
baptisms, marriages, or burials, a minister may charge ?5
for the first hour, and ?4 for each subsequent hour, or part thereof. That fee
includes one copy of the record found. Each additional copy costs
?4.50.
ii. Many ministers will not charge the statutory
fee. However, it is in the patron's best interest to be generous in the amount
offered.
iii. If the minister does undertake to do searches,
there will most likely be a waiting period before the search is completed, as
he must do it in any spare time he has.
iv. Be brief in the initial
request. You can always make further inquiries later.
v.
Obtain the address of the parish, by consulting Crockford's
Clerical Directory, checking the alphabetical parish section.
a) Find the parish in which you are interested.
b) Find the title
of the minister or incumbent of that parish, such as:
V = Vicar R
= Rector
Pc = Perpetual Curate
c) Use the title in addressing the letter, such
as The Reverend Vicar or The Reverend Rector. DO NOT use the name of the
individual, as he may not be there anymore, and the letter would most likely be
forwarded to where he is currently living.
F. Bishop's Transcripts
1. Each year from 1598 to 1837, a parish minister was expected to
make a copy of his parish registers and send them to the bishop of the diocese.
These copies came to be known as Bishop's Transcripts.
a. Many of these transcripts, known as BTs, are
available on film at the Family History Library.
b. To locate the BTs you need, look in the fiche
catalog under either
c. For some counties in
2. A great majority of the BTs are kept at the
Diocesan Record Offices, which is the County Record Office for many counties.
a. Usually the services of a searcher will have
to be obtained in order to search these records.
b. The address of the Diocesan or County Record
Offices can be found in the booklet Record Repositories of Great Britain
3. Some copies were sent to the Archdeacon. These
copies are called Archdeacon's Transcripts.
G. Peculiarities in Parish Registers/BTs
1. Handwriting is often very difficult to read.
From the 1700's back, the records are often written in Old English script.
2. Many records before 1733 were written in
Latin.
3. Entries were often recorded out of sequence.
4. Blank pages sometimes appear in the register
and can be very misleading.
5. Sometimes the minister wrote one way in the book, and then
turned it over and wrote on the backs of the pages in the opposite direction.
6. Sometimes chapelries
kept their own registers, but most often they did not.
7. Peculiar parishes often did not keep Bishop's
Transcripts.
8. Sometimes the BTs for a given parish contain
more information than the parish registers, or vice versa
9. The calendar change sometimes causes
confusion. Before 1752, the calendar year ran from Lady Day (March 25) to Lady
Day.
II.
CONTROLLED EXTRACTION PROGRAM AND THE IGI
A. It is essential to understand
the limitations of the International Genealogical Index (IGI). The IGI is
primarily an index to ordinances performed in the LDS temples. Thus, it
includes names submitted for temple ordinances by individuals and families as
well as names extracted and sent to the temples for ordinances. You can tell
the origin of information in the IGI by looking at the source. Since 1990,
batches have not been used. It does not contain:
a. events extracted from records which have
not received ordinances in the temples.
b. ordinances performed in temples using the NEW
FamilySearch system (started Spring 2007).
B. Use
Hugh Wallis’ web site (I.E.3.a., above) to tell you what parishes have been extracted.
In the Family History Library, you may also use the printed source in C, just
below.
C.
Controlled extraction is a program which was developed in 1961 under direction
of the First Presidency of the Church to supply names needed by the temples for
ordinance work, and to help patrons in researching their family lines. At that
time, the Genealogical Society began to systematically extract christening and
birth entries, with some identifiable burial entries, from British church
records. This program later included marriages, and was extended to other
countries. The Family Records Extraction Program (FREP) today extract names for future resource files and to help members
do temple work.
D.
Parish and Vital Records Listings, or the PVRL, as it is commonly called, is a
listing of the parishes, towns, and other places from which christening,
marriage, or other information has been extracted.
1. The following is an example taken from the
PVRL:
|
1. COUNTY |
2. TOWN
AND/OR PARISH |
3. PERIOD FROM - TO |
4. RECD TYPE |
5. PRINTOUT CALL NO. |
NUM FCH |
6. PROJECT |
7. SOURCE CALL NO. |
||
|
BEDS |
|
1816-1885 |
MAR |
NONE |
|
M 337-2 ** |
1279130 |
|
|
|
|
SHILLINGTON |
1543-1812 |
CHR |
0537074 |
|
P 382-1 |
599349 |
|
|
|
|
SHILLINGTON |
1813-1875 |
CHR |
NONE |
|
C 382-2 ** |
1279196 |
|
|
|
|
SHILLINGTON |
1560-1812 |
MAR |
* 0543870 |
|
M 382-1 |
599349 |
|
|
|
|
SHILLINGTON |
1813-1837 |
MAR |
NONE |
|
M 382-2 ** |
1279196 |
|
|
|
|
SILSOE
see: FLITTON WITH SILSOE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SOULDROP |
1602-1812 |
CHR |
0537042 |
|
P 333-1 |
599353 |
|
|
|
|
SOULDROP |
1813-1875 |
CHR |
NONE |
|
C 333-2 ** |
1279197 |
|
|
|
|
SOULDROP |
1602-1812 |
MAR |
* 543862 |
|
M 333-1 |
599353 |
|
|
|
|
SOULDROP |
1813-1885 |
MAR |
NONE |
|
M 333-2 ** |
1279197 |
|
|
|
|
SOUTHILL |
1538-1812 |
CHR |
0537063 |
|
P 341-1 |
599349 |
|
|
* These printouts are on microfilm only
2. When checking the Parish and Vital Records Listings,
keep in mind the following seven steps:
Step 1 Find the country of
interest. Countries are arranged alphabetically.
Step 2 Look for the county of
interest in column 1. The counties are arranged in alphabetical order.
Step 3 Look for the parish or town of
interest in column 2. They are in alphabetical order. Unless otherwise stated,
the record is for the established Church. If the place is not listed, it has
not been extracted for this program. This does not mean, however, that we do
not have any records for this locality in the Library. Check the Family
History Library Catalog to locate other records that may be in the Library for
the locality of interest.
Step 4 Columns 3 and 4 show the time
period for which names were extracted and the type of record used for
extraction. Names in this time period should not be submitted for temple work
without first being cross-checked against the IGI.
Step 5 Check column 5 to see if there
is a film number. Most printouts are on film in the Library. If there is no
film number, or NONE appears in column 5, the printout is NOT available.
Step 6 Column 6 is an internal reference
number for the extraction program, and the information is generally of no use
to the patron.
Step 7 Column 7 gives the Library
film # (or book call#) from which the IGI listing was taken. Always check the
original source to verify and also to search for additional information.
E.
The printout is an alphabetical list (by surname) of the christening/birth
entries and/or marriage entries for most projects that have been entered into
the computer.
1. Rather than show an example from a printout,
PLEASE NOTE: You can
recreate most printouts in England using familysearch.org. Just select IGI from
the search tab, then enter the batch number (find a person in that parish and
note the batch number), then search WITHOUT entering any names or dates.
2. A few ideas to consider when searching
printouts are:
a. Surname variations are filed under the filing
surname. For example, Smyth, Smythe, Smith, and Smithe are all found under "Smith".
b. The filing spelling is designated with an
asterisk.
c.
A listing of all surnames used in the original records, with their filing
surnames to the right, is given at the front of each printout.
d. The relationships given in column 4 are
abbreviated S-Son, D-Daughter, H-Husband, W-Wife.
e. If the child died before the age of eight, it may
be indicated in column 5.
f. The burial date will be given in column
5 as (Misc), if there is other information found on the original record.
Otherwise, the number given in this column is for computer use only and patrons
need not worry about it.
g. The serial number in column 6 was once used
for obtaining sealing dates will now be found in the IGI.
"Things
to Remember"
The third volume of Genealogical
Research in England and Wales by Gardner and Smith includes examples of
early English handwriting and compares some of those styles with alphabet
letters of today. Volume 3 also defines some Latin terms and Roman numerals.
The call number is 929.142 G172g Vol. 3. A copy of this book is also on the
Reference shelves.
If a parish record is
not available in the Library and a patron wishes to write for a search to be
done, the patron should look the parish up in the Index Section of The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers (Ref 942
E7pa) to find if the registers have been deposited, and where. Addresses are
given for the registers that have been deposited. If a register is listed as
having been deposited, you should not tell the patron to write to the
parish minister but to the place where the register is deposited. The patron
will probably need to hire someone to search those registers.
In 1978, a law was passed in Parliament which stated that all parish records must be deposited in a local record office unless adequate storage (which met set criteria) for those records was available in the parish. A time limit of five years was given for compliance to the new law.
The Parish and Vital Records Listing records the parishes which have been extracted. The Listings for England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand are kept in grey binders near the Register table. Information listed in the PVRL includes the type of records (christening or marriages), the time period extracted, and the call number of the original source for extraction.
Extractions for the past several years may not be listed in the PVRL. Some data which has been extracted but which has NOT been sent to the temples was published in the British Vital Records Index. Two editions have been published. The second edition contains all of the data from the first, so there is no need to check the first edition. This data is NOT available on the Internet. Researchers should check the BVRI in addition to the IGI for each and every name they are searching in the British Isles.
Richard Derrick has
attempted to create an online collection of photos of parish churches. This is
mentioned here only as a means of enchancing a family
history. See www.rca.ukhq.co.uk/temples/indexmenu.html.