Find Ancestors

I have come back to the present in my tree and have filtered out parents,grandparents basically all those I have been able to get birth/marriage/death certs for, what I am trying to do now is to get more info one rels born before 1837 and what I was thinking about doing is to go to the churches I know my rels were married at and get more info that way, what do you guys think, also who do I contact to get permission to look at the relevant churches records and I've no doubt there will be a charge. I live in Stoke-on-Trent and all the churches are in the same area (Stoke-on-Trent).

Thanks
Polly

Why not ask at your local church. The main library too may be able to advise you. Is there also a main records office in the area. Lots of parish records etc are at the local records offices

Not 100% sure but I think all records will be held at local archives - click here for details:

http://www.stoke.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/leisure/libraries-and-archives/stoke-on-trent-city-archives/

And you can try Familysearch site for online records:

https://familysearch.org/

Jan

Google for Staffordshire Records office brings this site up

Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archives - Staffordshire County ...
www.staffordshire.gov.uk/leisure/archives/homepage.aspx

Have a look through the website for more details - many church records will have been deposited at the county records office -
Address: Eastgate St, Stafford ST16 2LZ Phone:01785 278373 but you may find some in Stoke - addresses etc on above website

You may need to take a trip....

thank you for your advice which I plan to follow, I didn't realise that some records could be found on the sites you've mentioned and even if I have to travel well thats no great problem :-D

Polly

Just wanted to check you're aware of the local 1837 onward BMD indexes at:
http://www.staffordshirebmd.org.uk/

Here's some marrs:
Staffordshire Marriage indexes for the years: 1837
Surname Forename(s) Surname Forename(s) Church / Register Office Registers At Reference
SMITH Elizabeth FLOYD Henry Stoke, St Peter Stoke-On-Trent 31/01/011
SMITH Enoch HOOTON Ann Bucknall, St Mary Stoke-On-Trent 2/01/009
SMITH Mary STEVENS James Hanley, St John Stoke-On-Trent 46/01/008.

In a ref like 31/01/011, the first bit (31) identifies the series of rgisters, here those for Stoke, St Peter, the next item identifies the rigister within the series, and the last item is either an entry # or a page # - The Stoke indexes seem to use the entry # for marrs, and the page # for births and deaths. Knowing the entry # is very handy in locating a particular entry. Also, unlike the GRO index, we know who wed whom.

Althoigh not relevant for the parish records query, a local index can have info not on the GRO index, e.g., age at death pre-1866 - e.g.:

Staffordshire Death indexes for the years: 1837
Surname Forename(s) Age Sub-District Registers At Reference
SIMPSON Theresa Jane 1 Burslem Stoke-On-Trent BUR/001/020
SMITH Henry - Longton Stoke-On-Trent LGN/001/025
SMITH John - Fenton Stoke-On-Trent FEN/001/010
SMITH John - Stoke Stoke-On-Trent STO/001/017
SMITH Kitty Copeland - Hanley Stoke-On-Trent HAN/001/013
SMITH Sarah Jane - Longton Stoke-On-Trent LGN/001/040

OK, so it's not there yet for every subdistrict, but every little helps.

Here's some Stoke area births pre-1911q3:
Staffordshire Birth indexes for the years: 1837
Surname Forename(s) Sub-District Registers At Mother's Maiden Name Reference
SIMPSON Henry Burslem Stoke-On-Trent HARVY BUR/001/012
SMITH Fanny Stoke Stoke-On-Trent BRIAN STO/001/012
SMITH Henry Fenton Stoke-On-Trent BARNES FEN/001/012
SMITH John Hanley Stoke-On-Trent BUXTON HAN/001/019
SMITH Kitty Copeland Shelton Stoke-On-Trent FAULKNER SHE/001/004
SMITH Martha Longton Stoke-On-Trent BAGGELY LGN/001/023

I would also first check:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1®ion=UNITED_KINGDOM_IRELAND
It helps to know what dates to check, if you can find that out first.
If there's doubt what the church is, look up the FHL film # in the FS catalogue.

Records for the dates you are researching will not be held at the Churches.........and some of the Churches may no longer even exist

www.freereg.org.uk have transcribed some Stoke-on-Trent PR.

Churches only keep their record books until they are full. They are then passed to the local archives.
How quickly the books get filled depends on how busy the church is. In a large city they get filled very quickly whereas in a small village, they could still hold records going back many years.
Also, as has already been pointed out, many churches may no longer exist & it´s worth remembering that from 1837 onwards, marriages could take place in Register Offices.

Hi just thought that as you have been so helpful that I would post part of an email I got from Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Services after mailing them with regards to parish records
________________________________________________

"We hold the parish records for North Staffordshire here at the Stoke-on-Trent City Archives and these may be viewed here or at our sister office in Stafford who hold all parish records for the county.
Parish records can be very useful however please be aware that prior to July 1837 marriage records did not give as much detail, e.g. no fathers’ names nor witnesses. The baptisms and burial church records are only recordings of the christening and burial service held at the church in question. The baptism record does not give you the child’s mother’s maiden name and the burial record only records the name, age and address."

In order to view these records you would be required to book a microfiche reader prior to your visit.

There is no charge for using the service, we do charge for any printout made from the microfiche and this is 60pence per A4 sheet.
___________________________________________________

This information may be helpful to others who are considering looking at parish records.
I'm not sure if the charges would be applicable to all areas other than Staffordshire/Stoke-on-Trent but I rather think they would be.
I plan to go and take a look when I have time (have a bit of a crisis going on at the moment), I will let you know what I find in terms of who is or isn't in the records