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Friday, 18 April 2014

A-Z Challenge 2014: P is for Parish Registers

www.a-to-zchallenge.com
You have traced your ancestors back using birth, marriage, and death certificates - which go back to 1837. 
You have followed them through the censuses - the ones useful to the genealogist are 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, and 1911 (bearing in mind any privacy rules).

So, where do you go next?  The answer is today's letter: P is for Parish Registers.  These were records of baptism, marriage, and burial.  There MIGHT (I repeat 'might') be birthdates in there.  There MIGHT be other tidbits of information in there.  But your main expectations should be the church rites: baptism, marriage, and burial.

You will (hopefully) have got an idea of which parish to look at from your earlier searches in the civil records and the censuses.  Now download a small freeware program called Parish Locator which will show you lists per county and parishes within a radius of another parish.  If you are fortunate enough to have relatives in Devon or Cornwall, there is a thriving OPC community (Online Parish Clerks, whose objective is to collect genealogical records and may have what you are seeking; a link to Devon is here, and Cornwall is here).  Or, if you are REALLY fortunate, you may have relatives in South Devon and can go here - the South Hams Resources pages, which contain transcriptions of many parish registers.  Happy hunting!
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5 comments:

  1. Birgit18 April 2014 at 13:48

    I will make another trip to my father's home town of Barry's Bay (near Algonquin Park in Canada) and the main reason is to find out more information about the church. The original church burnt down but hopefully the new one will have information

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    1. Ros Haywood18 April 2014 at 18:19

      Of course, my posts are about genealogy in the South West of the UK, as opposed to Canada - but 'never say never'. You might turn up a gem...All the best.

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  2. A Tarkabarka Hölgy18 April 2014 at 14:45

    Interesting :) I have always wanted to visit Cornwall (professional storyteller here) but have no personal ties. My boyfriend's family is from England, but he has not found out yet exactly where. Parish records in Hungary, sadly, are very scarce because of the wars.
    Great blog!

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    Multicolored Diary - Tales of colors
    MopDog - The crazy thing about Hungarians...

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    Replies
    1. Ros Haywood18 April 2014 at 18:37

      Hope you get to visit Cornwall some day. :o) Thanks for stopping by my blog.

      Delete
  3. Unknown18 April 2014 at 19:09

    Hi Ros! I'm so glad to have found you. I also am an avid Trekkie, writer, and have an interest in family history. It's good to meet another Latter-day Saint on the blog hop. Thanks for following me!

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