Genealogy Chat

I have to give a talk on parish registers. I have my own ideas about the sort of information I should include, but what would YOU want to learn about? All suggestions gratefully received, though I'll have to leave the rabbit to run by itself for a few hours as I'm off to work.

Wow, thats impressive. I think I would like to know 1. How to find them easily in the first place at a records office. I spent half an hour faffing about not understanding what I was supposed to do. Also, how to use the microfiche and film machines. What I can expect to find. If they are total novices - things like what OTP means in the register or private baptism, base born, the difference between formerly, late and also known as. How to find overlapping parishes to check one of the ancestors hasnt moved across the road and fallen into a diff parish.

Exactly TC, having never been there, How does one, for example get to see parish registers for St Georges in the East? London. Bob

What to do if you know an entry should be there but is not - bishops transcripts. Searching other parishes round about Good luck with it Alice

Sorry to butt in on your thread, but can someone explain what Bishops' Transcripts are? Sounds like it might be useful. Parish registers - They can also show where more than one person has been baptised together at the same time, ie brothers and sisters. I even saw once the details of a group of prisoners being christened as adults together!!!

Bob London Metropolitan Archives has St Geo in the East registers. Helen - parishes used to make a copy of their registers and send it to the Bishop - they are the Bishops Transcripts (BT). They are useful if the original register has been damaged/destroyed/lost, but as they are copies they may not be 100% accurate. Mind you the original entries often aren't either! nell

I've always wondered how the earlier registers work. As i understand it, registers that date back fairly early were not required to included parents names for example in Marriage registers. So if i found a marriage entry for one of my rellies, how do i go about finding the parents names if they aren't recorded? There's more than likely a really easy answer to this, but i'm not particularly bright! c x

Hi Helen, thanks for the information. I'm still looking for the same 3 children......bishop's transcripts here I come!

I was interested to find that the format of the registers changed at certain dates and more details were included so perhaps you could say something about that. Heather

Re: information given in registers I found my gt gt gt grandparents' marriage in 1805 in Chelmsford. It just gave their names and the witnesses as well as the priest. No ages, no fathers, no occupation. Between 1805 and 1820 they only seem to have had 3 children (need to check the burial register next visit!). In 1816 and 1820 it gives the family's address AND father's occupation, but of course the 1812 one which is my direct ancestor, just has a list of baptisms under '1812. Dec.' without even an exact date, and baldly states 'son of John Smoothy & Elizabeth'. Looking through some marriages in London parishes though, they seem to have more detail. I think a lot depended on who did the register as to what was included. In a small village I suppose everyone was known, whereas in a London parish you would need to be specific as to who was who. nell

Hi Nell I'm not sure when the baptism registers changed. I have a baptism from 1813 listing parent's names, address and father's occupation. Heather

Lyla Then there are the parish clerks who witness every flipping marriage cutting down the odds of finding other relatives, lol. Heather

My local Library has literally hundreds of Parish Registers from all the little surrounding hamlets and villages, all on film - not indexed. It's important to encourage researchers to try to pinpoint exactly where they should be looking as well as the names of neighbouring churches which may need to be checked as well. Include also 1752 when 11 days were lost in September because the calendar changed!

Bishops Transcripts retained in a Cathedral or Diocesan offices may be better preserved than parish registers which may have been in a damp cupboard in a vestry. Additionally, you often get baptisms, marriages and deaths for a year all together, rather than in three separate registers.

Talking of serial witnesses, there was one in Buckinghamshire who rejoiced in the splendid name of Wildsmith Badger! nell

I guess the use of Latinised names in early registers would be helpful too. Talking about humour in the parish registers, in one of my family tree mags recently I read how the parish priest would sometimes put in Latin a note against an entry. The lay person would have no idea what this was, probably thought it was a blessing or something, but was in fact quite often an insult! Apparently one that a reader submitted for translation at a wedding said something like 'Yes, you have plenty of people here for your wedding, how many friends would you have without all your money'!

Thanks for the input, folks. I try to have as many illustrations as possible, so that people can see for themselves what the records look like. TC, you've asked all the most difficult questions right at the start! Every record office is different, all with different ordering procedures, film/fiche readers. Some have plenty of instructions and nice friendly staff. Others have no information, no parish maps, nothing, and the staff only appear when you've wound the film the wrong way and shot yards of it across the floor. I agree with you, Lyla, about humour. It's not too hard with my family, where you get comments in the baptisms, such as 'husband transported several years ago' or 'child of her husband's son'! And then you get the wonderfully informative 'Jane Smith buried' and you have no idea whether it is mother, or daughter, or a completely unrelated Jane Smith who happened to be wandering through. Which I have to persuade the audience may prove to be useful. A one hour talk in a hall with hard seats, something tells me that this is going to be a challenge!

Hi Tabby, You also have to remember that films of Parish Registers start at the oldest date and work forward. So it is possible that you ignore the families you have never heard of only to find out 50 years later one of them married one of your ancestors and you have to go back and start again. Either that or you wind the film to the end and work backwards. Friar

I have been had that way before, Friar Tuck. I start in 1538, plough through all the latin spellings, the cramped handwriting etc, to discover three hours later that my ancestor born in 1793 was the first (and last) of that surname in the parish. My notes always look rather muddled because I take twenty year periods at a time, to gauge whether they were locals or incomers. Then two years later I find that another set of relatives were in the parish, so I've got to go through it all over again.

Just a couple of things I'd like to ask Do the OPR's contain Catholic records - when did they separate? Are they available at the local Record Office? Bishops Transcripts - do Scotland Bishop's have them or something similar. Looked at OPR and found beautiful writing for year I was looking for - unfortunately she must have been born year before where all there is is an occasional entry - water damage had taken the ink of all the rest for several years before unfortunately.