Hi there. Now I'm going to give you a brief overview of the parish registers and their history. I am aware that if I went through every little detail about their history and what you might find in these documents, this would be very long and tedious lecture. So don't worry, I'm going to keep to the facts that are more essential for you to know at this point. Much will be learned as you carry out research for yourself. First of all, what exactly is a parish?

Well, quite simply, since medieval times, it is an area under the charge of the local clergyman at the local church. Most villages fall into one single Parish, although they sometimes include a smaller village or Hamlet located nearby. Of course, cities and most towns will be split up into many different parishes each with its own church. It is important to remember that up until the 19th century, the church was an extremely important administration center. It was not only in charge of people's religious life, but also secular admins administrative duties such as local petty crime, local repairs, and the care of the sick and the poor. So as well as the parish registers there are many other parish records that can be viewed either online or at the county record office.

These include important records such as the poor law records. However, for now, we are only concerned with the parish registers. So what are the registers and when and why did they begin? Well, efficiently the records of all baptisms, marriages and burials across the country began in 50. 38 men Henry the Eighth Vicar general and right hand man, Thomas crumb well ordered that each parish should keep registers of these events. Sadly, very few registers go back as far as this date.

Many of these early registers have been lost or destroyed. Some were not started until years later, and many are completely illegible because they were written on poor quality paper. In 1598, it was ordered that all the registers should be copied onto parchment. But unfortunately, many priests interpreted the order to only copy those registers starting the beginning of Queen Elizabeth reign. And therefore, you will find many registers appear to begin in 1558. You will find that in some cases, some parish registers do not even go back that far.

Over the years some have been damaged or destroyed by war, theft, fire or carelessness and some have been lost for good. This picture shows an old perished chest from the 16th century, in which the registers which have been kept out since the 20th century, all parish registers have to be sent to the local record office, where they are copied onto microfilm or microfiche to preserve the originals, and many have been published online. When you start to research the registers, it is a very good idea to go to the relevant county record Office website, where you will usually find the list of all the counties parish registers and the dates that they begin. This can save you some wasted time searching for parish registers that don't exist. There are also gaps in the registers in particular Many registers have gaps during the period of the civil wars and the subsequent Commonwealth period.

And some individual parishes might have gaps for various local reasons. Again, you should be able to check these dates with the relevant county record office. Another thing to be aware of with the early registers is that they can be difficult to read, and some of the earliest registers was often written in Latin. The one in the picture from the 17th century is in English and fairly easy to read compared to others. But don't be too worried about this. Reading old script becomes easier the more you practice, and if they are in Latin, you really only need to know a few Latin words, as well as the way some foreign names were written.

And this can be very quickly picked up once you get back as far as 17 The early 18th centuries it would be a very good idea to arm yourself with a Latin dictionary for genealogists, very easy to find websites such as the Society of genealogists or on Amazon. Also the National Archives website as a very handy little online course in reading old hand. So, what information can be found in the parish registers? Well, this has changed to a certain extent over the years and will also vary from parish to parish. In the very early days, there was no standard format, and the incumbent priest could record the baptism, marriage or burial in whichever way he chose. So you will find very unkind information from parish to parish.

For example, some entries might give the occupation of the Father and occasionally burials might give the reasons for death, especially if it was unusual. illegitimate Baptists baptisms will often be named as base born or natural child off. And very often only the mother's name will be given very often to in these early records, the baptisms, marriages and burials would all be jumbled together and not always in date order, which can make it extremely challenging when you are browsing the registers on a microfilm. indexing has of course made this easier, but there will be times when you might find it necessary to browse the original registers. So you have been warned. To make things a little clearer as to what you can expect Here are a few important dates for you.

So from 1538 to 1812, parish register entries for baptisms, which shows dictate the name of the child and the child's parents. However, in many early entries, only the Father's name might be given from 1538 to 1764. Marriages usually just recorded the date and the couple being married. Up until 1812. burials might only give the person's name occasionally and occupation or the widow of However, if it was a child, it will very often give the name of the parents. From 1598 each parish was required to make an annual copy of the parish registers, which would then be sent to the relevant Bishop who had authority over that area. These are known as bishops transcripts or BTS for short.

And sometimes they have survived where the original registers have not. And so it can often be useful for the Family historian. These mostly stopped being done in 1837. As they are copies, they can contain errors. But if you are unable to find the existing parish register for your area, then it is always a good idea to find out at the local county record office holds the bishops transcripts. Now, up until 1751, the calendar was very different to what we have now.

Before this date the year began on March the 25th. So before 1751 all dates between January the first March the 24th, should be written down with both the years to avoid confusion. In 1754, an Act of Parliament known as Hardwick's Marriage Act, all marriages are now required to be written onto a printed form and provided specific information include in which parish each party was from, whether they were bachelor spinster widow or widower, whether the marriage was by bands or license, the signature and marks spouses and also the names of the witnesses, all useful information for the genealogist. Sometimes the groom's occupation would also be included. This act also stipulated that all nonconformist marriages have to take place in the Anglican Church. Now, this may not have been very popular with the Methodists or Presbyterians at the time, but it certainly makes our job easier as family historians be talking about this a little bit later.

In 1812, a law required all parish registers to be written onto specially printed standardized registers and for baptisms, marriages and burials to be in separate books. These are much easier to search read that in the earlier registers. under this law baptisms now showed the place of residence and the occupation of the Father. burials showed the residence and the age of the deceased marriages remained the same. The registers from 1812 will probably be the registers you will see first as you will be searching back from the information you have gathered from the 19th century. In 1837, civil registration was introduced and parish marriage records were written in the same format as we have talked about before.

Now, I cannot give a history of parish registers without mentioning another important record for you to bear in mind, and that is non conformism. So far I have been talking about the parish registers of the Anglican Church. I'm going to touch on this lightly but you You do need to be aware of the possibility of your ancestors being from a different denomination and therefore they may not always turn up in the usual parish registers. If you do not find your ancestors in the usual parish registers, or perhaps if there are some clues that they might have been nonconformist, for example, many Methodist gave their children very biblical names such as Jacob, Abraham and Isaiah. It might be worth searching to see where local nonconformist records exist. If you're searching the indexes on ancestry, any published records should come up anyway.

But you should also consult the local record office as some non conformance records may not be published online. The picture shows a nonconformist chapel in Wales. And as you can see, they are often very beautiful buildings and when you do find you have nonconformist ancestors it can be quite a nice thing to find out if the local chapter still exists, have a look at it. Well, that's enough for now. You will learn a lot as you go along. But if you want to dig deeper into this subject and also all other genealogical resource resources, I recommend that you pick up the latest copy of a book such as ancestral trails, which is a huge tome, which will give you everything you need to know and I believe that that is updated regularly.

Are there many many other publications available at places such as society of genealogists, Amazon or indeed your local county record office?