Church of England Parish Registers

If you want to take your family tree back beyond the early 1800s, you will need to use parish registers.

You may also be looking for our online list of parish registers held at the Dorset History Centre.

Key facts

Parish registers record baptisms (rather than births), marriages and burials (rather than deaths)

For most parishes, they will start in the 1500s and continue to the present day

This section of the guide looks at Church of England registers - other denominations and faiths will have kept equivalent records, but the survival of these records can be patchier

You will need to contact the relevant local record office (opens in a new window) to check their holdings (for Dorset, there is an online list of which parish registers we hold)

Indexes to parish registers are starting to appear online, but these projects are mostly still in the early stages - the International Genealogical Index (opens in a new window) and FreeReg (opens in a new window) both provide access to information from registers (but like all indexes should be used with caution)

What are they?

In 1538 Thomas Cromwell ordered that all parishes should compile registers of baptisms, marriages and burials. In 1597 an order signed by Elizabeth I required that the parishes had to use parchment registers and that previous entries gong back to the start of her reign (1558) be copied into these registers. The content of the registers is often different as it depended upon what the individual vicar wanted to record. Early registers commonly include baptism, marriages and burials in one volume, usually in Latin.

In 1754 Hardwicke's Marriage Act was passed. This was designed to stop clandestine marriages and stated that marriages could only occur after the publication of banns, which were to be recorded at the back of the marriage register or in a separate volume, or the issue of a licence from the Bishop. It was at this point that volumes of specially printed forms were introduced. The Act also stated that all marriages had to be performed by a Church of England clergyman. The only exemptions were for Jews and Quakers.

The next act to affect parish registers was the 1812 George Rose's Act. This stated that all vicars had to keep two specially printed volumes to record baptisms and burials, in addition to the standardised marriage register as stipulated in Hardwicke's Marriage Act. Before this act it was up to the individual parish to provide the registers for baptism and burial and the content of the registers varied.

In 1836 the laws relating to marriage changed again. The Superintendent Registrars were authorised to issue licences for marriage in a register office or in a non-conformist church. Prior to 1816 the only marriages not conducted by Church of England clergymen were for Jews or Quakers. After 1836 you will need to be aware that your ancestors may have married in a register office or a non-conformist church and will therefore not occur in the parish registers. Obviously there should still be an entry for them in the GROI.

Where to find them

Parish registers are usually to be found in the local county record office, sometimes called the Diocesan Record Office. Dorset History Centre holds the parish registers and records for all Dorset parishes in the diocese of Salisbury. The History Centre also holds some microfiche copies of older parish registers for parishes in Bournemouth and Christchurch, which are in the diocese of Winchester and the original registers are held at the Hampshire Record Office. The most straightforward way to locate the correct registers is to contact the relevant county record office. They will usually be able to tell you where the registers are.

Dorset History Centre has microfilmed almost all of its parish registers and you will be asked to use these surrogate copies. This is to prevent any further damage or deterioration from continuous handling. This is common practice among all record offices.

What information do the registers provide?

Baptisms

Children were usually baptised soon after birth, but you may find examples where children were baptised several years later. Annotations were often added if the child was illegitimate. These include 'base-born', 'bastard child' or 'spurious'. If a child died in infancy the next child to be born would often be given the same name as the deceased. This can be confusing when you are trying to work out dates. It is always worth just checking the burial registers to see if any of the children died in infancy.

Until 1754 it was common to find baptisms with marriages and burials in one volume. Initially they will probably only record the name of the child, the date of the baptism and the name of the father. Some may note the name of the mother. After 1754 and the marriage act you can expect to find the baptisms in the same volume as the burials. The situation changes after Rose's Act in 1812, when the following information is recorded:

Date of baptism
Child's given name
Parents' given names and surnames
Abode or residence
Trade or profession of the father
Name of the officiating minister

You may also find the date of birth recorded. Later registers from the mid-late 20^th century usually record the date of birth and the names of god-parents.

Marriages

After 1754 you should find individual marriage registers containing specially printed forms. Before a marriage could take place banns had to be called or a marriage licence had to be obtained.

Banns: These were the published intention of marriage and had to be announced on three Sundays before the intended wedding. They were issued in each of the parishes in which the couple resided. Their purpose was so that any potential objectors to the marriage had three weeks in which to comment.

Licences: Licences were obtained from the diocese in which the marriage was to take place or the Vicar General of the province. They allowed the couple to avoid the inconvenience of publishing banns. Either the bride or the groom had to swear that there was no impediment to the marriage. Marriage licence allegations are usually found in county record offices, diocesan registries or the Church of England Record Office at Lambeth Palace.

Between 1542 and 1836, much of Dorset was in the Archdeaconry of Dorset and formed part of the Diocese of Bristol. The registry of the Bishop for this archdeaconry was based in Blandford and, unfortunately, early records (perhaps including marriage licences) were destroyed by fire in 1731. Records of the Diocese of Bristol are held by Bristol Record Office. In 1836, the Archdeaconry of Dorset was transferred to the Diocese of Salisbury and marriage licences from this date are therefore held at Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office.

Before 1754 you are likely to find only the date of the marriage and the names of the bride and groom. After 1754 you should find the following information:

Number in register
Names of bride and groom
Their parish
Licence or banns
Date of marriage
Name of officiating minister
Signatures of parties and witnesses

After 1837 the information becomes more comprehensive and is the same as a civil marriage certificate:

Date of marriage
Place
Names of bride and groom
Age and condition of the bride and groom
Their rank or profession
Their residences at the time of marriage
Father's name and occupation for both bride and groom
Name of officiating minister
Signatures of parties and witnesses

Burials

Until 1754 these were usually found with the baptisms and marriages in one volume. Until 1812 you are likely to find burials and baptisms together. After 1812 there should be individual burial registers. The early entries give the name of the deceased and the date of the burial. You may find additional information such as the name of the parent or spouse, whether the deceased was a widow or widower or if the deceased was a child. As with the other types of registers it depends upon the individual minister. After 1812 you will find the following information:

Name of deceased
Number in register
Abode
Date of burial
Age at time of death
Name of officiating minister

Parish registers are an extremely useful source for family historians. For many of us they are the only way in which we can trace our ancestors back to the 1600s and earlier.

However, there are problems with using the registers. As you get further back you are likely to find that the quality of the registers diminishes. The handwriting may become more difficult to read. You may find that the ink seeps through from the other side and obscures the text. It may be that the registers were kept in damp conditions and the parchment has shrunk or warped in some way. Parchment is also a favourite food for rodents so you may find that the edges of volumes have been nibbled on.

On the plus side, you will find that your eyes get accustomed to the handwriting and that after a while you can pick out the names that you are interested in quite clearly. It is quite likely that you will find that transcripts have been made of the registers. At the Dorset History Centre we have transcripts for many of the registers. These have either been done by volunteers from local Family History Societies or in the case of some of the earlier transcripts, by interested vicars. You should not use these in place of looking at the registers but they are helpful in checking whether a family comes from a particular parish. Many other record offices will have transcripts of parish registers available.

Other denominations and faiths

The Church of England (whose members are called Anglicans) has been the established, or official, church since the 1500s. The denominations outside the Church of England are often referred to as non-conformists. Whilst the majority of the population has been Anglican since, your ancestors may also have belonged to another denomination (including the Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists and Quakers) or another faith (for example, Judaism).

Because these other denominations experienced varying degrees of discrimination or persecution during the last five centuries, and because there are not the same legal requirements for depositing records as there for the Church of England, records for these other denominations and faiths do not have the same survival rates as Anglican records. The coverage for many non-conformist groups is often patchy.

In the first instance you should still contact the relevant local record office to check their holdings for other denominations and faiths. However, records may also be held at The National Archives (opens in a new window) , at individual churches, or other specialist repositories.