Genealogy Chat

Can anyone tell me the advantages of seeing Parish Records. Will they tell me anything more than BMD Certs. ? Also would I have to know the church and make an appt. to view any records? Thank you. Linda

Parish records are the only way to go back beyond 1837 when registration began. You need to search them at the record office central to your area of research. They give baptisms, marriages and burials, and you can also access marriage banns And yes--you need to know the actual parish! Sometimes you will need to trawl through many parishes before you find the right one!

Thank you Wendy

Lindy, it depends on the time frame you're looking. If it's 19th century then it's unlikely the church holds the register. It will be archived somewhere. Depending on the parish depends on the archive. Yes, I've found the parish records worthwhile. Sometimes another entry will give you a lead. Also there can be other stuff written in margins, etc that won't be on the cert. I view my parish records through the family history centres of the CLDS. They have many, but by no means all, church registers microfilmed. Ozi.

As Ozi said, what you'll find depends a lot on the time period in question, and also on the diligence of the minister of that particular church. Baptisms - pre-1813 you will generally only get the date of baptism, child's first names and the parent's names (but not usually the mother's maiden name). Sometimes, especially for the earlier ones, you don't even get the mother's name at all. Occasionally these early registers show the abode (i.e. the village within the parish where they lived). From 1813 onwards, baptism registers are on printed forms and show all the above info plus the occupation of the father. Some registers do show date of birth in the margin. Non-conformist registers often have more info than the CoE ones - they are more likely to show date of birth (I have seen one which even recorded the time of birth) and also sometimes do give mother's maiden name. Marriages - pre-1754 the registers generally only give the date of the marriage and the names of the bride & groom. From 1754 onwards, marriage entries should also show the marital status (bachelor/spinster or widowed), whether ''of the parish'' or not (and if not, then the parish is named), whether the marriage was by licence or banns, and the signatures of the marriage partners and two witnesses. From 1837 onwards, the information in a marriage register is exactly the same as you would see on a marriage certificate. Burials - pre-1813 you will most likely just get the date of burial and the name. Sometimes you don't even get the full name, e.g. ''30-Oct-1750 - buried widow Smith''. If you're lucky, there may be additional info shown such as the age at death, but this is by no means guaranteed. For child burials, the registers usually (but not always) name the father of the deceased. From 1813 onwards you normally get the full name, age and the abode of the deceased. It is always worth looking at the original registers as there may be additional info that is not shown on the IGI or other transcriptions. For example, I recently looked at the Woodbridge register for the baptism of my George Bowles, born in 1807. The IGI gave his parents names, but the actual register also recorded that his father was a soldier, was deceased, and even named his regiment. From that info I was able to trace the father, who had come from a different part of the country. Richard

As Richard has said in his excellent summary, different eras tended to have different standards of recording. A lot depended on the priest/vicar of that parish and how much he chose to put down as, with the exception of marriages after 1837, it was pretty much up to his discretion. The post 1837 marriage cert was a legal document which is why it had a set format. Having said that, Catholic church marriage records, right up to the 1960s, tended to recorded in Latin. Obviously, the civil certificate, which would be held by the GRO and local registry office, would be English and in standard format. Local records offices would be able to provide you with a layman's guide to the Latin terms that appear in the registers. Once you've seen a few, they're fairly straightforward and easy to understand and you don't even need the translation. Catholic baptism records also tended to be in Latin up until the 1960s, though surprisingly, the further back you go (1700s, for example) the more likely you are to find them in English. Some priests/vicars very obligingly added a lot of 'extras' such as the family's exact address; god-parents' names and where they came from; marriage witnesses' exact addresses; people's precise ages and so on. Some even wrote (with regard to baptisms) things like sixth child, fourth son of ......., which can be extremely helpful when you're trying to put together a whole family. I highly recommend viewing parish records as they are a real wealth of information and, if the marriage was in a parish church, can even save you the expense of sending off for marriage certs. You can usually get a print out of a particular entry for about £1.00 where you would have to pay the local registrar £7.00 for exactly the same thing. The best thing though is that elated feeling you get when you find something for yourself, especially after a long time searching.

hi does anyone have any info on maureen stephens and hugh crichton thanks ann

hi does anyone have any info on maureen stephens and hugh crichton thanks ann

hi does anyone have any info on maureen stephens and hugh crichton thanks ann

Very interesting thread... thanks everyone for this info. Have been wondering the same questions myself. Now I dnont need to ask!!! Thanks Clare x