The different types of record that are usefull for genealogical research include the following:
Also see the note about The Poor Law
Parish
Registers
Parish records mostly started in 1538, when under Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell
issued an edict that all churches should keep a record of baptisms, burials and
marriages. Today each of the county record offices hold transcripts (and some
of the original) parish registers going back to around 1550. Most of these are
indexed by parish. These can be inaccurate but hold a lot of detail. The origins are
fascinating, but completely illegible. The transcripts provide a typed version of what the
experts were able to glean from the crumpled, faded, illegible Latin writing. (See some examples)
A bishop's diocese
comprised parishes. Many parishes were villages with a church and a clergyman
(or incumbent.) Larger towns and cities would contain several parishes.
Not all churches date back to 16th century and not all clergymen kept proper
records in the early years. The early baptism, marriage and burial records
were usually jumbled together and some of them were written in Latin, but by 1732 all
registers were required to be written in English. During 18th century the
baptisms, marriages and burials were maintained in separate registers or on separate
pages. For the first 200 years it was normal to record only the father's full
name and that of his child in baptismal entries so proving ancestry for a popular surname
is often difficult. Most original parish registers are today in county record
offices (CROs), but some are still in churches. From 1598 the
clergy had to send a copy of their entire year's parish register to the local bishop.
These copy entries are known as the Bishops' Transcripts (BTs).
Microfilmed copies of most parish registers and BTs are available for viewing at some
local libraries.
Care must be taken in reading copies of the old parish registers. There are numerous
surname variations and, as many of our ancestors were illiterate, the surname was written
phonetically. The date in a baptism entry is not the birth date and the burial
date is not the date of death. Typically, a child was baptised a few days or
weeks after birth but this is not always the case. A burial followed
fairly quickly after a death. As Civil Registration in England and Wales
only commenced in 1837, parish records are the genealogist's main focus of research in
developing a family history. Be alert to the fact that your
ancestors may have been non-conformists so check those records, if you cannot find
entries in the Anglican church. In the case of marriages check the banns
books. The 1851 to 1891 Censuses provide pointers to an ancestor's parish of
birth since there is a 'Where Born' column. The Industrial Revolution resulted
in the migration of many people from the countryside to the major cities during the first
half of the 19th century. By the time of the 1881 Census the population of
London was 3.8 million and living within its bounds were more Scots than in Edinburgh,
more Irish than in Dublin.
Census
Records
Census information is now located at the Public
Record Office, Chancery Lane, London. They provide
full access to copies of the actual census returns for all of England and Wales. These are
wonderfully useful and rich in information, however the indexing is non-existent. It is
necessary to know exactly where in the country you want to look. I have recorded most of
the returns for 1841, 1851, 1861 and 1871 for Tetsworth and Abingdon and also I did find
an indexed Census record for the whole of Oxfordshire for 1851. There is quite a lot of
really interesting work to be done there.
The first official census of England and Wales took place on 10 March 1801. Censuses have been taken every 10 years since with the exception of 1941. Details of individuals only appeared on a compulsory basis for the first time in the 1841 Census, but a researchers have been able to provide names and ages of individuals from the 1821 Census, so do not assume the early years are useful. Because of the 'One Hundred Year Rule', the census returns available for the genealogist are only those up to and including 1891.
The actual census was undertaken on following days: |
||
1841 |
7
June |
|
The census returns were for all the population as at midnight on those dates. |
||
Civil
Registration Records
Register of births, marriages and deaths are at
St.Catherine’s House in London. Queen Victoria’s
administration founded the central records from 1837 on. These provide
an fairly accurate copy of the parish records indexes, holding and issuing certificates of
Birth, Marriage and Death for England, Wales and most registrations from British Embassies
and Consulates from around the world. The accuracy and usefulness of
these registries increase the younger the records as more information has been included
for the later years. I have recorded all the LINDARS' in all the Birth,
Marriage and Death indexes, (which took quite a while.) I have not
pursued particular certificate information, this would be much more detailed and so much
more useful, but also costs £7 a go.
Lord Melbourne's
government of 1836 introduced two major pieces of legislation: the Marriage Act and the
Registration Act. The acts necessitated the creation of a new office, the
General Register Office (GRO) in 1837. Under the new legislation, all births,
marriages and deaths were to be recorded and appropriate certificates
issued. Copies of the records were kept locally at a parish register
office and centrally at the GRO and copies of the entries may still be obtained from
either the local (district) Register Offices or the GRO, but see Certificates before
ordering. Most, but not all, births, marriages and deaths were recorded
until 1875, when it became an offence not to register an event. The GRO
merged with the Government Social Survey in 1970 to form the OPCS. The
Public Search Room was housed at Somerset House from 1837 until 1973, when it moved
to St. Catherine's House. The Public Search Room has since moved to a new building.
Civil registration commenced in July 1837 and today there are 8,500 leather bound volumes
available on shelves for the public to examine. Births are in red covers,
marriages in green and deaths, appropriately, in black. The volumes contain
indexes with references not original entries. A researcher may consult the
indexes without charge and obtain therefrom a reference to a particular event.
Then, a form has to be completed for a certificate to be issued at a cost.
They are much cheaper and much faster since they make both
the initial search/ordering visit and the collection visit on your behalf, and will
furnish you with the same result - an official certificate of a birth, death or marriage.
The Public Search Room is now located at the Family Records Centre on Myddelton St, just off Faringdon Road in London. Some Scottish and Irish records
are now maintained there as well.
Poor Law
There have always been poor people and records to account for them. Overseers of the
poor were first appointed in 1572 and the Poor Law Acts of 1601 and 1604 established the
poor law administration which existed until 1834. Churchwardens were tasked
with taxing parish inhabitants to pay for the upkeep of the poor. Poor Law
records, including Overseers' account books, provide detailed records of those living on
the edge of existence. Some entries in burial records may indicate someone as
"poor", this allowed their family to avoid paying the costly burials fees of the
time.
