ENGLISH PARISH REGISTERS
By Rebecca Richards
Why do we look in the Parish Registers?
CIVIL REGISTRATION of births, marriages and deaths started in 1837, before that time, all records of said events were recorded on the parish level. The ceremonies of births, marriages and deaths were performed with Christian rites as early as 597 when St. Augustine founded the first church in England at Canterbury. It wasn't until 5 September 1538 that Thomas Cromwell Vicar general to Henry VIII established the system of all clergy registering Christenings, Marriages and Burials.
At first only the bare facts were recorded. For a christening only the child's name and date christened.
History of Parish Records
1553 thru 1558 was the reign of Catholic Queen Elizabeth which resulted in the restoration of papal supremacy. This led to confusion and chaos and many marriages went unrecorded.
In 1558 at th beginning of Queen Elizabeth I's reign, many clergy men began sending a copy of the years events to their Bishop or Archdeacon. This meant the original was kept in the Parish and a copy or Transcript was kept at the head office. We will discuss more about BT's (Bishop's Transcripts) later.
In 1598 Queen Elizabeth ordered that all registers were to be kept in more durable parchment books and that all earlier books were to be copied into these books. This specified records from the beginning of the Queen's reign so some clergy men did not include records from 1538 to 1557.
Some clergy did not do the copying and some of the records were lost.
1598 is also the year that Bishop's Transcripts were required by law. These had to be turned in within a month of Easter. It depended on the clergyman how much or how little he included in these transcripts.
In 1644 new regulations came into being. Children were to be registered by birth not just by Christening date. All marriages were to be by Banns. In 1653 Banns could be called in church or the market place.
In 1752 England changed from the calendar year starting March 25, Lady day, to the year beginning Jan 1. In 1752 the year ran from March to December so it was a short year. It is important to remember that before 1752 March was the 1st month, April the second and so forth. When recording these dates we put both years. The correct way to describe a date in the overlap period of Jan 1 to Mar 24 in any year before 1751 is to state Old Style/New Style as in 1712/13 which means Jan 24 1712 in the register is what we would now call Jan 24 1713.
If John married Jemima on 6 April 1721 and Jemima died February 2 1721 what happened? Remember, in the old calendar, February was at the end of the year after April. It is wise to have a reference guide that will help you with the different dates in the different countries. Different Christian countries changed in different years.
Or go to .http://members.iinet.net.au/~inphase/sedgley/calendar_julian_table1.html for Richard Crook's Julian Calendar Calculator
What is contained in the Parish Registers?
Births:
The earlier registers contain scant information. In 1812 Day books that had columns were used that contained: date, child's Christian name, parent's Christian names, parent's surname, Abode, (this could be town, parish or address), Quality, trade or profession, who preformed the ceremony.
Marriages:
Earlier marriages contain only the two parties names. Later father's names, addresses, witnesses as well as date was included.
Most marriages took place in the brides parish. Others in the groom's parish. There were some clandestine marriages that were irregular. There were 120 London area churches and chapels that performed at least some clandestine marriages. There are also Fleet Prison marriages. These were performed for a reduced fee by clergy men who were in Fleet prison. Gretna Green in Scotland was like our Las Vegas now. Quick marriages, few questions.
There are many other laws and rules that the family historian needs to be aware of. Spend some time doing some historical background before you search Parish Registers.
Deaths:
The burial date was the one recorded. Earlier records contain only the name and date. Sometimes you will have the father's name sometimes the mother's and their abode.
Things to remember:
SPELLING: not all clergymen were learned. Names can be spelled more than one way in the same record. Be sure to note abode as well as dates, parents names and occupations when putting families together. Again, get a good research guide to help with name variations.
X in place of Chris such as Xtian or Xmas. This capitol letter is the Greek letter Chi and is Symbol of Christ.
Where do we find the Parish Registers?:
Family History Library. Found in the in the Family History Library Catalog. 90% of English parish registers are filmed. Go to Familysearch.org. Choose library, choose catalog, and place search. It is best to have a parish name to put in then choose county. You can search on the county level. They are filed by county, church records, parish.
Bishops Transcripts
These are annual copies of the information in the parish registers sent to the Bishop annually. They were on loose sheets of parchment of paper and there are gaps due to lack of writing them, or loss. They were started in 1597.
How do you know which parish registers you need to look at?
If you have some children in the family born during civil registration, look in the parishes for that registration district. Review the lesson on civil registration for how to's on finding those records and registration districts. Census records. These give birth places. Start with what you know and start backwards.
IGI
First look here for records. A lot of counties in England have most of their parish registers extracted.
I would suggest finding the original record on film to see if there is more information than is on the IGI.
If you have the birth record of a child, check back in the same register to the years when the parents would have been 16 to 30 for their marriage. This is a wide spread. But you want to check all possibilities. Check forward and backward from the child's baptism for siblings in the same parish. Some families stayed in the same parish for years and even generations. Others moved regularly. Either because of poverty or for work. Use censuses to track families to give you an idea about whether or not they moved a lot. Check parishes within up to a 20 mile radius. Start with 3 to 4 miles first then move out. They may have walked to a different parish. Brides parish may be 10-15 miles from groom's parish. Use PARLOC to find the parishes and how far away they are. Use Phillamore's Atlas to check on which years the parishes have records for and which one's have been extracted.
Parloc is a database that tells us how far apart parishes are. It is a free down load from http://www.parloc.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ This should be the Bennett family page. Click on continue and then at the top of the page click on Parish Locator, downloads. At the bottom of the page click on the words under lined in blue (ParLoc26exe) follow instructions from there. This program is on all the family history center computers.
National Burial Index
Check Ancestry then discs
Boyd's Marriage Index
Check ancestry then fiche or film Use Phillimore's Atlas to find which years have been indexed in Boyd's. If you find your marriage here try to find the parish record also. Boyd's used a soundex system for his index. First names were abbreviated.
PALLOT”S Index
This index was taken from BT's for the period 1780 - 1837
GENUKI
This site has county pages. Family History Societies in England are working county by county to preserve and index records.
Consider extracting all people with the surname you are searching in the parish registers. They may fit into your family some day.
Collect Birth marriage and death records for all members in a family. This will give you insight into the family dynamics.
Photo copies are cheap. If something is hard to read make a transcript exactly as you see it. Keep it with the photo copy. If there is a question about what you are reading, mark it with [ ] and make a note. Keep a list of all abbreviations used and keep a good research log telling what you found, didn't find and where you looked.