Genealogy Chat

Can anyone tell me if Parish Records are still held at the local churches, or have they all been sent off to archives somewhere?

Hi Fay Most parish records are held at the local record office, except London where they're centralised in a couple of places. Try googling the name of the place + parish records. Heather

It depends on the church. I would say that most records are probably now at the nearest Record Office but it is wise to check what they hold before visiting. Some have websites with their holdings shown.

I usually google genuki and then go into county and then town or village, to find out what records are where. We have several different record offices in Yorkshire, and some times neighbouring villages are in different record offices. Makes it a bit of a pain if they were ag labs and moved to work on the next farm - that might put them in a different parish, and therefore a different RO Jay

I emailed the church warden at my familys church, she had actually kept the original records though she was supposed to have passed them to the Records Office. It was brill, I sat there looking at their original signatures (or marks) for page after page of entries. As the warden said to me, if it wasnt for my lot half the 18th century and 19th century would be virtually blank in the book.

In 1975(I think), a law was passed which concerned the storage of archives, including Church Records. The law stated that archive documents must be kept in a place of safety, with controlled humidity and adequate fireproofing. Since most small Churches cannot do this, they only keep a current register. When this is filled, it goes to Church Head Office and thence to a place of safety - this is usually the County Records Office, but some Cathedrals do have lawful storage facilities. So, the brief answer is, all but current records will be held in the County Records Office relevant to the Church. There are exceptions, but CRO is the first place to look. If you cannot easily get to the relevant CRO, then dont forget the Mormons have filmed many thousands of Church records. Go to their site to find out if they filmed yours and if they did, you can order a copy at your local Mormon family history centre for a small fee. (Local centres are also on the mormon site) Hope this helps Olde Crone

Further to the comments by Heather and O.C. Last year I viewed the parish register of a small Herefordshire village, which had recently been deposited in the Record Office. Started in 1837, it was still only HALF FULL and it was great to see so many of my family's signatures there. The only trouble was, I found I was needing to copy so many entries as village lads and lasses tended to marry into nearby families Gwyn

I was the same Gwyn - that was my first real foray in to first hand info and the church warden (who is now a friend!) must have thought dozy apporth, scribbling away in a notebook, getting all the Thomas's and Johns confused!