Knowledge base

Parish Records

Parish registers

Findmypast.com would like to thank Your Family Tree magazine for kindly contributing this article.

Parish registers – an introduction

Parish records are by far the most important source for family historians before 1837. Else Churchill of the Society of Genealogists explains how to get the best from them...

After working through the civil records of birth, marriage and death and looking at the Victorian censuses, the next step is to use church records. By this we mean the parish registers of the established church recording baptisms, marriages and burials.

These records survive for most parishes and form the basis of family research back (if you are lucky) to the 16th century in England and Wales and to the 17th century in Scotland.

Most of the original copies of registers for nearly 12,000 parishes in the United Kingdom have been deposited in record offices. Since its foundation in 1911 the Society of Genealogists has been collecting copies or transcripts of these records and there are many indexes or finding aids that can be used to help find the information you want within them.

It’s useful to have some idea of the historical context that affects how registers were used. It would be nice to say that all parish registers date back to 1538 when they were introduced in England and Wales, but in fact only about 800 survive from then.

A further enactment decreed that the registers, originally written on loose sheets of paper should be copied up into parchment books but many vicars only recorded the registers from the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I in 1559. From 1598 copies of the registers were to be sent each year to the Bishop. These copies, usually known as bishops’ transcripts (BTs) or sometimes register bills were stored in the Bishop’s registry. 

Civil wars can of course be disastrous for the keeping of records and there are often gaps in the registers in the period leading up to and shortly after the Civil War and the Interregnum (especially from about 1645-1660).

Information in earlier registers can differ with some recording baptisms, marriages and burials together on the page, some keeping them separate. Some can be more informative than others, depending almost at whim on what the vicar chose to note down. In 1753 Hardwick's Marriage Act for the "preventing of Clandestine Marriages" sought to prevent abuses of the marriage system and to regularise the recording of legal marriages.

It introduced the keeping of a separate marriage registers and ensured that marriages occurred only in an authorised Anglican church or chapel, after the calling of banns or the issuing of a licence permitting marriage. Banns were to be recorded either in the register or a separate book, so separate marriage registers begin on 25 March 1754.

As Quakers and Jews were found to be very particular in recording marriages, they were exempt from the act but Catholics and Protestant nonconformists were no longer permitted to marry in their own churches or chapels. Rose's Act of 1812 “for the better regulating and preserving of parish and other registers of births, baptisms, marriages and burials” established that separate registers should be provided to record baptisms and burials and prescribed the minimum information that should be recorded for the event.

As a consequence, all registers will start again from 1813, usually on pre-printed and numbered forms so as to avoid the possibility of fraudulent alterations. At certain times stamp duties and taxes were levied on entries in registers that undoubtedly caused people to avoid the costs of these important ceremonies. This means that you might not find an entry you are seeking especially during the period 1694-1706 or 1784-94. So, how do you start?

Identify the parish

Generally researchers turn to parish registers to look for a baptism, marriage or burial in a particular place having gained a clue to the parish concerned from other sources such as the census. The first thing to establish is whether or not that place was a parish in its own right or was in fact a township or hamlet in another parish.

As the population of the country increased rapidly at the beginning of the 19th century, many new ecclesiastical parishes were created from older ancient parishes. A good contemporary gazetteer should help. The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers (Cecil Humphery-Smith, Phillimore, 2003) includes maps and lists all of the ancient parishes within English and Welsh counties together with similar information for Scotland.

It will give brief notes on the coverage of the registers and says where the original records are held. The Society of Genealogists produces a series of more informative guides to registers known as the National Index of Parish Registers, arranged county by county. All record offices produce guides to the registers they hold and nearly all have useful websites that include this information.

Printed registers

Before you dive straight into trying to decipher the handwriting in old registers, it is worth checking whether anyone has transcribed the registers.

It is usually easier to read a transcript than an early original, especially when the baptisms, marriages and burials may be recorded together, or baptisms were at the front of the register and burials recorded upside down at the back.

A list of all the Society’s copies can be found on its website and small booklets listing the various county sources in the library can be purchased.

Usually parish registers have been microfilmed or microfiched to preserve the originals and it is rare today to handle the old documents.

Whether you are looking at microform copies or printed transcripts it is important to keep careful notes of what years you have searched and note all relevant entries.

It might be difficult to remember much later whether you confined your search to one individual or whether you abstracted all entries of a given surname for a certain period. Make notes of what you searched for.

Marriages

As marriage records were often important documents for the couple it is suggested that when a marriage is recorded the information is usually quite accurate. That doesn't mean that all couples married according the rules of the church or at the appropriate time or place.

As we have seen above, Hardwick's Act was introduced to tighten up abuses that had been happening. It is always worth checking how the marriage took place, as extra information might be useful.

The banns book might record where either party were living if not of that parish. You will often see the abbreviation "otp" meaning of this parish noted in registers.

If the marriage was by licence, the allegation (a sworn statement by the couple alleging there be no impediment to the marriage) might give indication of age or parents if one of the parties was a minor (under 21).

Remember that until 1929 boys could marry at the age of 14 and girls at 12, provided permission was received from the parents.

Parents are seldom recorded in marriage registers but after 1754 witnesses must be noted and they may be family members and hence useful clues. Usually the marital status and place of residence of the bride and groom will only be noted after 1812. 

Burials

Always remember to kill off your ancestor!

You haven't proved a relationship until you are sure that your candidate didn't die in childhood thus making it impossible for him to father children later on. In earlier registers often only the name of the person buried is entered which can make it difficult to identify a specific individual.

In very early registers the only indication that it is a child who was buried rather than an adult might be a reference to ‘chrisom’ child, an infant who has died shortly after baptism.

It's only after 1812 that all registers noted the name, age and abode, so making the registers much more useful to genealogists. In 1801 it was noted that, while very good, burial registers could be deficient because of the following causes:

• Many Nonconformist congregations built their own burial grounds after the Toleration Act of 1689, as did Jews and Catholics in London
• Some persons interred their dead without ceremony, perhaps to avoid fees or taxes
• Children who died before they were christened may not have been buried
• Ministers may have been negligent.

Baptisms

Remember the baptism entry is not the same as the birthday and the first term should not be used when you mean the latter.

Usually the baptism occurs quite soon after the birth: a matter of days or weeks depending on the period involved and custom of the area.

If a child is sickly it may be baptised privately at home, possibly by the midwife who was licensed to christen the child if needed. After its recovery the infant might be received into the church and this may be what is noted in the registers.

Occasionally families avoided the church, perhaps from conviction or a wish to avoid paying money but there might come a time that the church catches up with them, perhaps when the eldest daughter comes to marry.

That can be an instance when you might find indication of adult baptisms or a group of children being baptised together at a much later age than usual.

Although Nonconformists had to marry according to the rights of the established church from 1754, they certainly did not have to get their children baptised and you might well have to look much further a field.

Parish records - indexes and aids

Don't panic if you are faced with a large register with many entries to plough through or don't have any idea when someone might have been baptised or married.

One of the delights of family history is that so many people have collaborated to make records easier to use, and this is largely by creating name indexes to a large number of registers.

The biggest database of entries from registers is of course the International Genealogical Index or IGI.

Remember - as good historians you must check the entry in the original record whenever you find a useful entry in the index. The index is probably abbreviated in some way and will probably not include all that can be found in the register. You might miss vital clues if you only use the indexes, but using them will of course save you valuable time.

Boyd's marriage index (England) 1538 - c1837 at Society of Genealogists and online. This is an index to English marriages taken from parish marriage registers, marriage licences and Bishop´s Transcripts.

The Pallot marriage index for London and some other counties 1780 -1837, to be found at the Institute of Heraldic & Genealogical Studies or online.

County Marriage indexes are listed in Marriage and Census Indexes for Family Historians, Jeremy Gibson and Elizabeth Hamson, Federation of Family History Societies, 2000

The National Burial Index is a finding aid to baptisms and marriages containing information from parish, non-conformist and cemetery burial registers. The entries come from different types of sources, for example, parish registers, bishop's transcripts, earlier transcripts or printed registers.

Scottish Old Parochial Registers indexes for births (or baptisms), marriages (or banns), deaths and burials from 1553 - 1854. 

Clandestine marriages

Marriages that took place clandestinely or irregularly, flouting church rules, are more difficult to track down.

Some parishes such as St James Dukes Place and Holy Trinity Minories in London or Dale Abbey in Derbyshire were notorious as irregular marrying places, either because the vicar behaved incorrectly, permitting marriages without banns or licence for example, or the area was exempt from ecclesiastical law.

The area around the Fleet Prison was infamous for disreputable parsons, often prisoners themselves, performing marriages of sorts. Some of these priests kept rough memoranda or notes on the ceremonies they performed and some 350,000 couples are recorded into the Fleet Registers now held in series RG7 (on film at the Family Record Centre).

Between 1653 and 1660 an attempt was made by Parliament to allow magistrates to perform marriages as a local 'register' or registrar. These marriages may only be recorded in the parish register much later after the restoration of the monarchy when this unpopular measure was withdrawn.  

Parish registers – vicars’ notes.

click image to view a large version
The notes occasionally made by vicars can be quite illuminating

Here's a page from St Weonards Baptismal Registers for 1826, demonstrating how illegitimate children are typically noted. Sometimes the vicar makes comments about the morality of families.
In the case of the entry for Elizabeth daughter of Susan Smith, evidence of such abuse would be shocking to our modern eyes but this is one of the rare occasions when we can guess what the village gossips would be talking about.
This entry was happened across accidentally as I was looking for one of my ancestors born in the same parish. [Entry reads: ‘Elizabeth daughter of Susan Smith, illegitimate. The father supposed to be either her own brother or (more probably) the wanton preacher who was lodging in the family!!! A wolf in sheep's clothing!!!!’]

Dates in registers

Julian and Gregorian calendars

Note that the church's year hasn't always started in January. In 1752 the use of the old style calendar known as the Julian Calendar was abandoned in favour of the new style Gregorian Calendar.
Under the old style dating system the year began on 25 March and continued through to the 24 March following.
However much of the rest of Europe had changed to the new style and often the dates noted in registers between 31 December and 24 March would be recorded in what was known as double dating using both the old and new style, for example 16 January 1746/7 or perhaps 16 January 1746 "OS" (old style) and 1747 ‘NS’ (new style).
If you see a date in an index, for example in the IGI, between 1 January and 24 March and before 1752 you must make sure that the double dating problem has been taken into account. If you can't find the entry in the original entry in the year you are expecting, look a year either side.

Data and dates at the Society of Genealogists

The Society of Genealogists has been collecting copies and transcripts of records. Here’s a guide to what you’ll find

1538 Loose papers
1558 Books copied up from Elizabeth I
1598 Bishops Transcripts
1645 - 1660 Civil War/ Commonwealth gap
1694-1706 Tax on registration
1753 Hardwick's Marriage Act (separate registers from 1754)
1812 Rose’s Act (dedicated christening and burial registers)

Locating registers

Most older registers have been deposited in a record office

English parish registers are held in local County or Metropolitan Record Offices 
Welsh registers are at the National Library of Wales or Welsh County Record Offices
Scottish registers before 1855 are held at General Register Office for Scotland.

Frank opinions

click image to view a large version

This is the first page of the baptism registers for Spilsby in Lincolnshire in 1813. The new printed forms gave a space for the vicar to record the occupation of the father and mother.

In this case the Reverend Trollope is more than frank in his opinions on Liddy Day and Mary Wynne writing that her occupation was "Whore".

Presumably he caught up with Liddy and insisted it was about time she get both her children baptised. Because the date of this register is so removed from our generation the entries are both interesting and amusing (though of course it would not have been so funny at the time!)

[ previous | item 6 of 10 in knowledge base | next ]