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Family History in England
Part 2
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Types of Church Records
Parish Registers:
These are the best types of records to search. They are the originals written by the parish clerk.
Bishop’s Transcripts or Archdeacon’s Transcripts:
The Church of England required a yearly copy to be made of the parish registers and sent to headquarters. These copies were made by the Bishop or Archdeacon in the area. Sometimes these are in better shape than the parish registers and they may include additional information. However, it is generally recommended that parish registers be used because they are the more original record.
Parish Chest Records:
The Family History Library has a lot of these records. They include things like: settlement certificates (generally for poor families in the area), churchwarden’s accounts (accounts of expenditures; these may include your ancestor if he was poor and needed parish support, or if he was rich and made donations), and bastardy bonds (these may give the name of the father if your ancestor was illegitimate.
Parish Register Transcripts:
Sometimes someone has typed up parish registers and indexed them. These are good ways to find your ancestor quickly, but it is definitely recommended that you also look up the original record for verification and any additional information.
The International Genealogical Index (IGI) and Other Indexes
IGI:
This is the BEST index for British research. In the 1970s, the Church began the temple extraction program, in which they took information from christening records and sent that information to the temple. This information became part of the International Genealogical Index, which indexes all completed temple work.
Uses for the IGI:
If your ancestor joined the Church, or his or her children joined the Church, his temple work may have been done sometime in the 1800s. You can check the IGI to get dates for his baptism, endowment, and sealings. With this, you can look up the temple records and find the person’s birth information, sometimes parental information, and other members of the family.
It is best to always search for your British ancestor’s christening or marriage in the IGI before searching parish records because there is a good chance it will be found in the IGI. Once you have found it there you can find it quickly in the parish records.
Once you have found your ancestor’s christening, a quick way to find his siblings is to do a parent search in the IGI.
British Vital Records Index (BVRI):
This index is similar to the IGI. The Church has extracted names from many parishes and put them in this database, but they have not been sent to the temple, so they are not in the IGI.
This database is on the Family History Library computers. Click on “Find Ancestors” then “Databases on the Network” near the bottom. Then double-click Vital Records Index – British Isles. You can do an individual, marriage, or parent search.
National Burial Index:
This index includes burial records for much of England and Wales and is an excellent way to save time while searching for your ancestor’s burial. It will tell you your ancestor’s burial date, the parish in which he was buried, and the age at burial (if given in the record). Find the burial in the original parish record after finding it in the National Burial Index. To find this index at the FHL, do a “Title Search” in the catalog and type in “National Burial Index for England and Wales.”
County Marriage Indexes:
Marriage indexes exist for many counties in England. To find one in the catalog, do a “Place Search” and type in your county of interest. Then scroll down to “(County) – Church Records – Indexes.”
If a marriage index does not exist for your county, there may be someone in England who has one. Look in Phillimore’s Atlas and Index of Parish Registers to determine whether this is the case. Any marriage indexes will be listed after the list of parishes for your county and will give the name and address of the person with the index.
Most of the marriage indexes at the FHL are not 100% complete.
Non-conformist Church Records
Although most people christened their children in the Church of England, not all did. There were Methodists, Independents, Quakers, etc. in England. These persons were called “non-conformists.”
Many of the non-conformist records at the Family History Library have been extracted and are found in the IGI or the BVRI.
To find out what church records are available for your parish of interest or near it, search the National Index of Parish Registers or NIPRs (pronounced “Nippers”). These are orange books located on the reference shelves near the reference desk. Ask a consultant to help you find them.
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