Parish records

Thomas Cromwell first ordered the keeping of parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials in 1538, though only a very few registers actually date so early. Further instructions were issued in 1598 to keep new parchment registers and copy up the entries from the earlier paper registers, but many were only copied from 1558, the first year of Queen Elizabeth´s reign. Many surviving registers only date from the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, and where they survive there are often gaps, sometimes of years, especially during the Civil war and Interregnum from 1642 to 1660. Gaps in the registers can sometimes be overcome by consulting copies made from the registers and sent every year (from 1598) to the Bishop in each diocese, called Bishop´s Transcripts. These are now deposited in those county record offices that also act as diocesan record offices. There are, however, gaps in the transcripts as well.

Registers of parishes belonging to the established Church of England are now mainly deposited in local and county record offices. Registers for parishes in Scotland, from about 1553 to 1854, are held by the General Register Office for Scotland, and indexes to the registers are available online at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. Information on the registers of the Church of Ireland, many of which were lost in 1922, can be found on the websites of the National Archives of Ireland at www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy/church.html and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland at www.proni.gov.uk/records/church.htm.

Baptisms, marriages and burials before 1837

Many parish registers have been transcribed and published by parish register societies, local history, and family history societies. The International Genealogical Index (IGI) compiled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints includes birth, baptism and marriage entries extracted from many parish registers and are a useful tool to find entries and establish where families were living. The British Isles Vital Records Index (BVRI) consists of entries taken from parish and vital records and is also a useful tool for researchers; both can be accessed on the Mormon family history website www.familysearch.org.

The National Burial Index is an on-going project to index burials. Copies are available in The National Archives and on CD-ROM in many libraries and from the Federation of Family History Societies. Its coverage is far from complete but is increasing. At present coverage is better for the Northeast, the Midlands and East Anglia, but other areas are included.

'Irregular' and 'Clandestine' Marriages

Before Lord Hardwicke´s Marriage Act of 1753, irregular and clandestine marriages were frequent events. An irregular marriage was one where neither the bride nor groom belonged to the parish in which they were marrying, and had not obtained a church licence to marry or were marrying at a time forbidden by church cannon law. A clandestine marriage was one conducted in secret, often after elopement, without banns and often without a licence.

The most notorious places for clandestine marriages were certain taverns, coffee-houses, churches and workshops clustered in an area known as the Rules or Liberties surrounding the Fleet Prison in Farringdon Street, London. Couples from all over the country came here to be married by unscrupulous clergy for a small fee. People married in this way to avoid the formalities of banns or licence, parental consent if under twenty-one, or to hasten matters if the husband was a soldier or sailor. People of all social backgrounds can be traced here and the registers are worth checking if a marriage can be found nowhere else.

Almost all surviving Fleet registers are in the series RG 7 recording some 250,000 marriages between 1678 and 1754. Researchers should be aware that, though indexed, the registers were badly kept, and the entries include forgeries, false names, mistakes, duplicate entries and altered dates. Some registers RG 7/3, 44, 87, 95, 118, 162, 163, 190, 293, 294, 403 and 563, have been published by Mark Herber, Clandestine Marriages in the Chapel and Rules of the Fleet Prison 1680-1754 (London: Francis Boutle Publishers, 3 vols. 1998-2001).