Search Berkshire registers & records

This collection currently holds two titles:

• Parish Registers of Leckhamstead, 1558-1812 – This title includes baptisms, marriages, and burials for Leckhamstead in north Berkshire. Entries will include names and event dates but may also include fathers’ names or additional details. For example, a baptism that took place in 1600 includes the following information: ‘Peter, s. of John Smith, was bapt., whose mother was taken in labour near ye Parish, being a stranger’. In addition to vital event entries, there are included notes pertaining to the parish. For instance, it is noted on ‘26 Geo., A.D. 1753, N.S.—On Thursday morning, Jan. 11, there was as great a flood as has been known for thirty-seven years last past, occasioned by the great wind and rains which happened the day before. The water came almost as far as the end of ye chancell, but went away providentially without doing any further damage’ (image number 7).
• Parish Registers of St Mary, Reading, 1538-1812 – Volume one pertains to baptisms and includes a list of vicars with brief biographies. From the baptism register, you can learn individuals’ names and their baptism dates. Volume two, which begins on image number 315, covers marriages and burials and includes names and event dates. Names of both the bride and groom are included in the marriage register. The marriage entry may also include a note as to the couple’s statuses and means of marriage – by banns or by licence. Burial entries (which start on image number 403) occasionally include additional notes, such as an individual’s marital status or occupation. You may even learn that an individual was a prisoner at the time of their death.