Genealogy Chat

How do you find out which parish or church someone was married in? Is there an easier way than trawling through microfiche?

I have found the marriage on the GRO records – but so far have not got any further – I just wondered if there was an easier way than what I am doing?

Elaine

have you tried

www.familysearch.org

go to Search Records, click on International Genealogical Index on right then enter the info, they have parish records from a number of churches and may have the one you want

EDIT of course if you order the cert from the GRO (£7) this will tell you where they got married

Hi Helen,

I will try the IGI index again.

I have so many certs to order that I am having to limit myself on how many I order!!! I thought that if I could find the parish - I could get a copy from the parish records for free to tide me over!!

Many thanks.

Elaine

IGI is a good way or you can find the family on a census and look at the heading at the top of the page.
It will usually say which parish it is. Couples often married in the bride's home parish, so that is where I'd start with that method.

Gwyn

If your family come from Kent, you can sometimes be lucky in finding a copy of the actual parish record on:

cityark.medway.gov.uk

Baptism registers also online at this site.

Depending when the marriage took place, have you considered that the marriage may have taken place in a registry office? Then you would not find it in the parish registers

Thank you to everyone who has replied.

I will try your suggestions - and failing those - get back to searching the parish records!!

Elaine

If you have relatives in Lancashire, then their Online Parish Clerk site is quite outstanding - www.lan-opc.org.uk/indexp.html - with 1000's of records.

You could also try www.gengold.com/html/online_parish_clerks.html to see what other counties have on line.

There is also the Pilot Scheme on Family Search

I am in Nottingham. A pilot scheme of family search? - I shall have to look into that!

Thank you.

To add to Major Bloodnok's post, if the marriage was in Lancashire, Lancashire bmd site shows who married who and where.

Elaine i have the Nottingham marriages up to 1812..any good??

Give me details and i'll look,anyway.

Derek

Sorry - just got in from work!!

Hi Derek - no the marriage took place in 1903 - but thanks anyway.

Hi Potty and Major - how do you get onto these BMD sites and do you know if there is one for Nottingham?

Major - I cannot find a pilot scheme relating to my area.

Hi Gwyn and Helen - I have tried the IGI and it comes up with no results everytime! I dont know wether there is a trick to searching that I have missed - but I am getting no luck on that website!

Helen - cant afford another cert this month - already spent £50!

Elaine

If the marriage took place in 1903 it may not appear in the parish registers. It depends very much on the parish. Some go up as far as the 1980's and beyond but many stopped recording once the civil registration system became established. Some only continued to register Banns, etc.

You say you have found the marriage on the GRO index which will give the registration district. That district could contain few or many parishes so there will be no easy way of check unless you know the actual parish.

Even knowing the parish you will still have to troll through the records unless you can find transcribed records which can be copied and pasted into something like Microsoft Excel where you can then do sorts by name, date, etc.

I would have thought that if you have the GRO index info then ordering the certificate would be the easiest option.

Thanks, Brandyman [strange name - I assume that you like your Brandy? lol]

I am currently in the middle of searching the main parishes within Nottingham - at the library - but if can find nothing then will have to resort to spending more dosh when I can afford!

This 'looking up dead relatives' [as my husband calls it] is getting costly now!

Elaine

You can buy BMD certs from the GRO or from the local RO.
As you've learned, the local RO's keep indices too, although not all have them online.

The local registers are organized differently from the GRO copies.
Events were rego'ed at the local churches and subdistrict offices.
A copy was made for the GRO every quarter. Typically, when registers got full, they were lodged at the local district office.

So the local index will say which church/subdistrict register the event is in, typically the volume of the register (and the year, although that's really redundant for finding the entry, but folk want it for looking stuff up), and the entry #. Since we have the entry #, there's no bother deciding who married whom.

Sometimes e.g., LancsBMD, the church/subdistrict rego code is translated for you. Sometimes one can make a reasonable guess, and sometimes it's quite cryptic. (Often, C will denote CofE, A=Approved persons, F=Quakers/Friends, J/S=Synagogues, R=Register (either in office or attended a ceremony).)

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Now, as far as you're concerned, whether this is useful depends on what the local RO will make available, but if you can see their index, and a key to their codes, then you'ld maybe know what registers were of interest.

If you get a FreeBMD hit, e.g.,
BARNET John Basford 15 273

then clicking on the "Basford" link, then the more info "here" link tells all the villages in Basford rego District. There's now abt half a dozen rego D's in Notts, so you can track likely parishes to their current location. Possible locations are given at the foot of the villages page.

Hi mgnv,

Thanks for your reply.

I had investigated how many parishes Basford covered for the period I am looking at, it is 60!!! That is why I was trying to see if there was an easier and quicker way than the way I was doing it!! [if there is an easier way, I am always the last to discover it! lol] So I thought that I would ask, this time, to those with greater knowledge than me, to check.

I am going to continue with it on Tuesday - wish me luck!

Many thanks.

Elaine

So give Basford RO a call, and see what sort of access you can get to their local indices:

Basford The Register Office, The Woodlands, Highbury Road, Bulwell, Nottingham, NG6 9DA.
Tel: 0115 927 1294. Fax: 0115 977 1845.

Hi mgnv,

Just looking through old threads to see if anyone mentioned when register offices were 'born' [I know I have seen this info somewhere!!] and just read you tip about registration districts - this is so easy and quick! I have been trawling through the Genuki site seperately to check out districts when just one click gives me the info I need.

A delayed but heartfelt 'thank you'

Elaine

Elaine - you're welcome.
I'm not quite clear from your remarks exactly what you were looking for. In general, registery offices were created in 1837, along with registration. Initially, the districts were based on the poor law unions. The 1841/51 censuses seem to have been run by the Home Office, but the Registrar General seems to have been responsible from 1861 on.

There's a couple of useful resources - suppose I look up Basford RD, and see it contains Annesley. Now the obvious question is what was Annesley - a parish, township, what? So look it up in Lewis (1848):
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=445
and see "ANNESLEY (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Basford, etc."

A new resource (maybe just new to me) is the 1851 map:
http://maps.familysearch.org/
You can click the layers tab to add civil registration districts.

Hi all, I was browsing through the tips board when I found this query, and I just wanted to say thank you to you all, especially Major Bloodnock with details of the web site for records in Lancashire, I had never heard of it before and as lots of relatives lived in Lancashire it is most helpful. So once again thanks to you all. Mags.