Parish Registers

Important Dates

1538 Start of official registers of baptisms, marriages and burials, usually recorded on paper.

1558 Many registers actually start from the beginning of Queen Elizabeth 1's reign, recorded in vellum

1598 Requirement that the records be kept on vellum and old registers be copied at least back to the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Where both sets of registers survive, the paper ones are often more detailed.

1598 Bishops' Transcripts - annual copies of the registers, sent to the bishops (or occasionally the archdeacons) begin to be kept

1649 - 1660 The Commonwealth period. This almost always causes a hiatus in record keeping, usually for a generation.

1754 Introduction of Harwick's Marriage Act.

Marriages are kept in a separate, usually printed, volume. Entries are numbered to ensure that none are falsified.

They should show:

Bride and groom's names, marital status and the parish where they are currently living

Date of marriage, whether by licence or banns and by whom the service was performed

Signatures (or marks) of both parties and two witnesses

Banns books also start from this date.

These will show:

Bride and groom's names

Marital status and the parish where they are currently living, being the parishes where the banns are called

The Sundays on which the banns were actually called.

They were not regarded by all the clergy as official parish registers and do not always survive.

1812 Rose's Act

This required printed volumes for baptisms and burials. These showed:

Baptisms

Number of the entry

Date

Christian name of the child (or adult!) Baptised

Parents' christian names

Surname

Address

Father's occupation

Name of minister performing the service

Burials

Number of the entry

Date of the burial

Name of the deceased

Age

Address

Name of minister performing the service

1837

Modern style marriage registers introduced, which additionally showed for each party:

Age

Address

Occupation

Father's name and father's occupation.

Before the nationwide introduction of printed registers, the format of the entries varied amazingly from county to county and even from parish to parish. Even if you have found an entry on the IGI, it is always worth checking against the original, not only to see whether it is correct, but also to find out whether the original provides any additional information.

Also worth remembering

From 1783 to 1794 a Stamp Duty Act meant duty of 3d was levied on baptism, marriage and burial entries in parish registers. It was waived for paupers so sometimes you'll find P next to an entry in that period to show no duty was payable (I have come across subversive vicars who didn't like collecting taxes and designated most of their parish paupers).

If you can't find an expected baptism during this period, it is worth looking at registers post 1794 to see if the parents delayed, and then took older children to be baptised after the tax was withdrawn.

Dade Registers

Very detailed registers that contain far more information than the standard baptism and burial entries.

1770 Rev Dade (a Yorkshire vicar) wrote "This scheme if properly put in execution will afford much clearer intelligence to the researches of posterity than the imperfect method hitherto generally pursued."

The baptismal registers were to include child's name, seniority (eg. first son), father's name, profession, place of abode and descent (ie names, professions and places of abode of the father's parents), similar information about the mother, the infant's date of birth and baptism.

This form of entry ended when Rose’s Act was implemented in 1812

180 English parishes have Dade registers.

Yorkshire Ainsty (14)

York (23)

Yorkshire East Riding (46)

Yorkshire North Riding (33)

Yorkshire West Riding (42)

Barrington Registers

These are not so well known, but contain similar information, including age and cause of death on burials.

A similar practice was followed in some Norfolk parishes, although they did not use printed volumes. Between about 1780 and 1812, baptisms would usually include date of birth, whether privately or publicly baptised and mother's maiden name. Burials would show age (slightly suspect, as you can also see the marginal notes where the calculations have been done!). For men and children, both parents' names would be given, including mother's maiden name. For married women, their previous surnames were given.

Baptism and burial registers in theory showed much less information after 1812, but it remains worth checking the originals as some vicars continued to note down as much information as before.

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