Nonconformist records

Nonconformist meeting houses and chapels were first licenced from the late seventeenth century. After civil registration commenced, two Parliamentary Commissions were set up in 1840 and 1857 to collect and examine nonconformist registers. Thousands of registers were deposited with the Registrar General and are now held in The National Archives in the series RG 4 and RG 8. Search the online catalogue for particular registers for the places you want. Some chapels served large areas not just a particular parish, so search for chapels in a wider area, by county or even region. You can now search by name of individual online at www.bmdregisters.co.uk.

Most Protestant nonconformist chapels complied with the Non-Parochial Registers Act of 1840, but most Roman Catholic churches and chapels held on to their registers, and the Jews did not surrender any registers at all. Some Anglican institutions like the British Lying-In Hospital in Holborn, the Foundling Hospital, and the Royal Hospitals at Chelsea and Greenwich also handed in their registers, as did some foreign Protestant congregations. These registers are in series RG 4, and also RG 8. Almost all the births and baptisms in RG 4 are included on the International Genealogical Index and British Isles Vital Records Index www.familysearch.org. Later nonconformist church and chapel registers may have been deposited in local and county record offices. The online indexes of the National Register of Archives can also be searched for surviving records of nonconformist churches.

Dr Williams´ Birth Registry

In 1742, a group of Baptist, Independent and Presbyterian dissenters established a birth registry in Redcross Street, London to record births, as their chapel registers were not legally acceptable evidence at that time. The records are in the series RG 5 available on microfilm at The National Archives. Although originally for parents living within 12 miles of London, it soon became open to anyone, regardless of religious denomination or residence, who on payment of a fee, and with two completed forms from their minister, the surgeon or midwife and at least one witness, could register the particulars of a birth.

Almost 50,000 births were registered before the registry closed on 31 December 1837, six months after civil registration commenced. If you want more detailed information about a birth consult the indexed registrations in series RG 4 and the duplicate birth certificates in RG 5.

Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry

A similar registry was opened for the Wesleyan Methodists in Paternoster Row, London in 1818. Some 10,000 births were registered before it was closed in 1838. The indexed registers are in RG 4 and the numbered certificates in RG 5.

Quaker (Society of Friends) Records

Lord Hardwicke´s Marriage Act 1753 allowed Jews and Quakers to continue to marry in their synagogues and meeting houses and record their own ceremonies. Many of the minute books of Quaker meetings recording births, marriages, deaths and burials from the mid-seventeenth century up to 1837 are in the series RG 6. Copies are available on microfilm here at The National Archives. Many of these registers contain integral indexes. The registers were meticulously kept and give details of living relatives and local Friends.

There are county digest registers on microfilm at the Society of Friends Library. If you do not know at which monthly meeting a particular event was recorded or your family traveled around the country, the county digests can help you track their movements. The death and burial registers often give a person´s age and parentage, enabling you to trace back a further generation. Not all the registers are held here, the Society of Friends Library can advise on those held elsewhere.