Typical questions

Considerations

The 1538 Act of Elizabeth I decreed that every church should maintain a register listing baptisms, marriages and burials in the parish. Parish registers in the UK officially started in 1538, but in many places not until 1598 or later. They show baptism (not birth), marriage, and burial (not death) records. The amount of detail varied considerably until the introduction of printed registers for marriages in 1754, and for baptisms and burials in 1813. ‘Parish registers’ here are those of the Church of England, the established church in the UK. All baptisms, marriages and burials had to be registered with the local parish church until 1837. Thereafter parish registers were still maintained for those people who chose to marry in church, baptize their children, or be buried in the parish churchyard.

Where to look

General

Present-day registers are generally kept at the relevant parish church, but most older ones will have been deposited in local record offices.

Some registers have been printed by regional societies such as the Yorkshire Parish Register Society. Check with your local record office or local history library to see if this is the case in your area, since, if so, the task of tracing entries is considerably eased. The existence of indexes is also important. In many cases the registers may have been transcribed and/or microfilmed.

BMD Registers www.bmdregisters.co.uk

Includes Nonconformist registers for England and Wales.

UKBMD www.ukbmd.org.uk

This site has links to all the sites with online versions of local registrars’ indexes (which are sometimes more accurate than the ones at the General Record Office).

Humphrey-Smith, C. R. (2003) The Phillimore atlas and index of parish registers, 3rd edn, Phillimore.

Coloured county maps showing the boundaries of individual parishes.

National index of parish registers: a guide to Anglican, Roman Catholic and Non- Conformist registers with information on bishop's transcripts, modern copies and marriage licences (1968–) Society of Genealogists. In progress This multi-volume index is a useful location source. Available on the internet at www.sog.org.uk.

Scotland's People www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

Includes indexes and records of parish registers.