 Parish Registers
Family History before
1837
Once you have got as far back as possible using BMD and census
records, you will need to turn to Parish Registers for information.
You will usually find parish registers at the local County Record
office, or, if you have access to the Internet, at websites like
TheGenealogist
that offer Parish Register transcripts and other services (e.g.
census, bmds, etc).
Available Information on each Record
In general births were not recorded but children were normally
baptised within 2 to 3 months of their birth. These baptism records
will usually give the name of the child's parents and their 'abode'.
Use this information to find the marriage record of the parents
which hopefully are in the same parish or surrounding area. The
marriage record will usually tell you the name of both parties and
their parents names. Use that to then find the baptism records of
the parents and so on. Burials records contain the name and date
of burial. Incidentally after 1837 you will find that marriage records
in a parish are the same as the records held by the Registrar and
not nearly as difficult to obtain.
About the Website
On this website, there is a short history
of how Parish Registers began and some information
about them. We can also offer you information on finding
these records on CD or online, show you how to search
through the online records, and even search for available
products on CD for you.
There is also a section of the site which offers reviews,
where we will show you the latest reviews of Parish Register CDs
& similar products. There is also the latest
genealogy news, more information on
genealogy, and links to related sources
and websites.
Daily News & Information
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Who was W.P. Phillimore?
Phillimore has played a huge part in the transcription and printing of marriage register, and by the time he died he had covered over 1200 parishes.
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Viewing Parish Records in your own home
With the use of personal computers becoming more widespread, the best way to make the parish records easily accessible to the general public is to transfer those records from micro-fiche and film to CD-ROM.
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A Short History of Parish Records
As we have seen, both Civil Registration and Census Returns run out when you get back to c.1840, and rarely provide information relevant before 1800. At this stage you need to turn to Parish Records.
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Phillimore's Marriage Indexes on CD-ROM
Phillimore's Marriage Indexes can help you track your ancestors back to the 18th century.
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