Parish Records and Family History Research

Parish Records Page 1 - Parish Records Page 2 - Parish Records Page 3

To learn more about Family History Research see our Online Family History site

Welcome to ParishRecords.info, the site for introductory information about English Parish Records and their role in researching your family history.

When starting researching our own family history most people tend to begin with living family members then progress to those who died within living memory. After that we need to turn to the census returns of 1841 to 1901 and the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths dating from 1837. All of this information is available on-line, usually with free indexing followed by either subscrition or pay-to-view in the case of the census returns or a reference number to order a copy of birth, marriage or death certificate from either the Local Register Office or the National Register Office at Southport. Once these sources have been exhausted where do we then have to search to find our earlier ancestors? The answer, of course, lies literally in the Parish Records stored within the Parish Chest. The Parish Chest is, literally, a large chest holding important Parish Registers and Records sometimes dating back to the reign of King Henry Vlll of England. These documents were so important to the smooth running of parish affairs that they were kept in the double or triple locked chest with, for security, each key being held by a different oficer of the parish. Today, these documents offer the researcher an insight into the lives and times of even the most insignicant member of the Parish; they reveal names that would otherwise have been lost forever.

Perhaps we should look at what the term 'parish' actually encompasses. It is defined as an area of land, usually within a single boundary but, occasionally, including discrete 'parcels' of land at a distance. Each parish has its own Parish Church and by the mid 1500s they reached a total of over eight and a half thousand. Parishes covering larger physical areas sometimes had additional churches scattered throughout them which were known as Chapels-of-Ease. The incumbent minister could be a Rector or Vicar, receiving tithe payments from the parishioners, and the more inferior curate would receive a fixed salary. Until the reign of Henry Vlll the religious institutions were just that but, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the churches and the parish officers were expected to take on the additional duties of civil administration and record-keeping.

So what can we expect to find in the Parish Records and are we allowed to rummage through this chest? The answer to the first part is, 'a wealth of information not found anywhere else,' and the answer to the second part of the question is, most emphatically, 'No!' That, however, does not mean that we cannot access the information that is there. Most of the contents of the chests have been deposited with Diocesan Record Offices. The Parish Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials (as distinct from the records of births, marriages and deaths after 1837) were considered of such importance, and were subjects of legal requirement, that that they largely remain intact. From 1837 two sets of registers had to be kept and, as the books were filled, one copy was deposited with the Local Registrar. Copies of the majority of registers are stored on micro-film or fiche and viewable at local history centres and libraries. Other documents were not quite so fortunate and many were destroyed for any number of reasons. The quantity of material surviving in the Parish Records varies enormously from parish to parish but, where it does survive, is invaluable.

Continued on Page 2