ONCE you have exhausted your search of the Census returns and the civil registration certificates in the quest for your ancestors, there is one main resource you should consult.

And that is the parish registers.

It has been obligatory for the established church to keep records of all baptisms, marriages and burials since 1538 when Thomas Cromwell, Vicar General of King Henry VIII ordered the clergy to record these events in a book to be written up after the service on Sundays in the presence of the churchwardens.

In a few parishes meticulous records are in existence form 1538 onwards, but in reality many churches did not begin keeping records until a further notice was sent out in 1558, and even then, many did not comply.

In 1597, Queen Elizabeth I decreed at all existing records should be copied into "fair parchment books� but again there was opposition, with many churches complaining about the cost and sheer size of the task.

Many records have been subsequently lost and in most cases there is a large gap in the 17th century during the civil war period, and the Commonwealth period which followed it. However, from the 18th century onwards there is a wealth of material. Some parish records have been painstakingly transcribed by local historical societies - for example, the Lancashire Parish Record Society www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LAN/lprs/ has many published volumes containing thousands of entries for the county’s parishes. Where these volumes exist they are a huge resource for the family historian. Many contain useful information about the area, list of occupations and other interesting facts.

If your luck is in the parish register you want may be available on the Web. Try http://www.freereg.org.uk

One of the best sources of information on the parish registers is your local family history society www.liverpool-genealogy.org.uk/home.htm
who will often have parish register CDs/fiche for sale.
Most of the original parish registers are now stored in the county record offices, although a few are still in possession of the individual churches.

At the record offices it is usually necessary to search the microfiche/films line by line to search for a particular record. It is a long and tedious task, particularly if you do not know the specific year when your ancestor was baptized/married/buried.

A really useful internet resource is The International Genealogical Index (IGI) index at www.familysearch.org/ This is the database of the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS). It is also available for viewing at all LDS Family History Centres, on microfiche or CD ROM.

However, although it is easily accessible on the internet, this resource must be treated with caution. Although not a complete record it is a fantastically useful guide, but it does contain errors and in some cases, unsupported data from LDS members. Many of the entries are from the Bishop’s Transcripts – official copies of the original registers – so the golden rule is to check the IGI entries against the original parish register entry. A comprehensive list of the sources is provided on the IGI site.

Church records are complicated by the existence in many areas - and particularly the North West - of nonconformist chapels. These chapels sprang up in rural communities after their congregations broke away from the established church. Many kept their own registers. Again these can be tracked down at the county records offices and local records offices. Sometimes these nonconformist entries will appear in the main parish register - particularly if a burial took place at the established churchyard.

So if you cannot find a suspected event in the parish register, search for any nonconformist chapels/meeting houses which were in the area at the time – I spent hours attempting to track an ancestor’s birth, eventually to discover it listed in the nonconformist register of a neighbouring parish.

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit