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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => London and Middlesex => Topic started by: dawnsh on Thursday 03 September 09 17:23 BST (UK)
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PLEASE READ THIS INFORMATION TOPIC BEFORE YOU REQUEST A PARISH REGISTER LOOK-UP
There are very few Rootschatters who visit either archives or local studies to do look-ups for the London & Middlesex boards.
The number of outstanding requests on the London & Middlesex boards runs into hundreds, which is regrettable, but a result of the above.
London was and is a city of millions of people with many many parish churches. Finding parish register entries for events before the earliest census can be extremely time-consuming. Please remember that those who do look-ups, give their time freely but may incur costs for fares and/or carparks. Please do not take advantage of their generosity. We are aware that look-up charges can be made by archives/local studies centres. It would be unreasonable and naïve to think you can always obtain information free of charge.
This message is posted to ensure you understand the situation and make sure that you, for your part, have done everything you can to trace your ancestors before requesting a look-up.
Before you start, do some research on the parish and its churches, especially if you are unsure of where in London & Middlesex the parish is
http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/LND
http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/LND/parishes.html
http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX
http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/Where/index.html
http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/ParishIndex.html
There are some excellent outline parish maps on the genuki site (www.genuki.org.uk), showing boundaries and listing the churches with their consecration dates.
For example, St Marylebone
http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/StMarylebone/outline.htm
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Civil registration started 1st July 1837 and each registration district covers many, many churches so it is easier to obtain the certificate for births, deaths and marriages after that date directly from the General Register Office at Southport than to request a look-up, as long as you have the reference.
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/
Information on how to access the indexes can be found here
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,403524.msg2723827.html#msg2723827
Information which can be found on English certificates is described here
http://home.clara.net/dixons/Certificates/indexbd.htm
Details of what can be found in parish registers before civil registration commenced can be found here
http://www.british-genealogy.com/resources/registers/home.htm
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Please use the International Genealogical Index (IGI) provided by the Church of Latter Day Saints – LDS - (also known as Mormons) to search for births and marriages. Very few deaths and burials have been extracted or transcribed from the registers they have microfilmed. You may find many entries that have been submitted by members and in a lot of cases are ‘best guesses’. Please remember that this is an index, not a primary source, and all entries should be verified where possible. The index is incomplete as not all parishes are included and not all entries in the registers are included
www.familysearch.org
The LDS have many family history centres around the country and their volunteers will happily help you further your own research. You can order and use their microfilms for a small charge.
http://www.londonfhc.org/content/other-uk-centres
If you find an entry in the IGI look for the batch number at the bottom of the result screen and make a note of the film number next to it. You can use this to search their catalogue to see if this film is in stock in the UK or if it has to come from the United States.
http://www.londonfhc.org/content/catalogue
The parishes they have collections for are here
http://www.londonfhc.org/content/catalogue?c=1617&p=England,England,London
http://www.londonfhc.org/content/catalogue?c=1071&p=England,England,Middlesex
You may see references to the Hugh Wallis site, another source for finding out what is included in the IGI, batch numbers and corresponding dates can be found here (although not always completely up to date, as newer parish additions might have been made to the IGI )
http://tinyurl.com/n8fsqn
The British Vital Records Index (BVRI) is also provided by the LDS.
British Isles Vital Records Index, 2nd Edition database contains information extracted from baptism & marriage records from various counties in England and Wales. The records date from 1538 to 1906 for baptisms and 1940 for marriages. The records included in this database do not represent all localities in England and Wales and for any given area, coverage (both records within a year and total year range) may not be complete. Some parishes and counties are more complete than others
Coverage information is here
http://www.genoot.com/downloads/BVRI2/
This data is now available on subscription from www.ancestry.co.uk
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You may be lucky to find a reference for a Middlesex marriage here, details have been taken from the Phillimore Marriage Indexes published over many volumes.
http://www.angelfire.com/fl/Sumter/Middlesex.html
Volume 01
Acton 1566-1812, Heston 1559-1812, Hanwell 1570-1812, Harlington 1540-1812, and Greenford 1539-1812
Volume 02
Hillingdon 1559-1812, Hayes 1557-1812, Northolt 1575-1812, Ickenham 1558-1812, Cowley 1563-1812, and West Drayton 1568-1812
Volume 03
Hampton 1657-1812, Twickenham 1538-1812, and Teddington 1560-1837
Volume 04
New Brentford 1618-1812, Hounslow 1708-1812, Stanwell 1632-1812, Sunbury 1566-1812, Ashford 1696-1812, Feltham 1634-1812, Hanworth 1732-1837, and Pinner 1654-1837
Volume 05
Uxbridge 1538-1694, Harefield 1546-1837, Great Stanmore 1599-1837, Enfield 1550-1837
Volume 06
Edmonton 1557-1837
Volume 07
Finchley 1560-1837, South Mimms 1558-1837, and Monken Hadley 1619-1837
Volume 08
Ealing 1582-1837
Volume 09
Tottenham 1558-1837
Coverage is not complete for all parishes for the dates shown, and from personal experience, names may be mis-transcribed or simply not transcribed. Please remember to try variant spellings if you are sure an entry should be there.
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Pallot's Index to Marriages covers all but two of the 103 parishes in the old City of London. Information available includes: spouses names, marriage date (usually year only) and parish of marriage. The dates span the time from 1780 to the start of General Registration in 1837. There are more than 1.5 million marriage entries that come mainly from London and Middlesex, but also include entries from 2500 parishes in 38 counties outside of London-many not available in other sources. Also included are several records from counties in Wales.
Pallot'sBaptism Index is a collection of baptism entries from the Greater London area and once included 12 million entries, but it was mostly destroyed in the Second World War, so that only 200,000 entries remain, dated between 1780 and 1837. These parish christening and baptismal registrations (with some birth dates recorded) cover at least 22 parishes in London and Middlesex, around 27 other parishes, and there are many other miscellaneous entries. They usually give the name of the child and parentage, the parish of baptism and the date.
The card index is owned and held at the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, who sell copies on CD, and it is available online at Ancestry
There is also Boyd’s Marriage Index, dates covered are 1538-1840, which includes over a million names relating to London & Middlesex marriages. Boyd’s Index is available by subscription at
www.originsnetwork.com
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Use the censuses to make sure the person you are looking for gives a consistent place of birth. If they aren’t consistent, please mention all places given when making your request.
The 1841 census required the enumerator to find out if people were ‘born in the county’ marked ‘Y’, ‘not born in the county’ marked ‘N’ or whether born in Scotland – ‘S’, Ireland – ‘I’ or Foreign Parts – ‘F’. The answers given may not always be accurate.
If you have results from the 1841 census, remember that ages could be out by 5 years, due to ages for those over 15 being rounded down to the nearest 5 years. Until recent times, little emphasis has been placed on dates and places of birth and ages. Many of our ancestors just didn’t know their own details.
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Thousands of parish register entries for those with Docklands, East End and Thames Watermen & Lightermen Ancestors. ancestors can be found at
http://www.parishregister.com/searchpage.asp
You can search for free, entries can be viewed on a ‘pay-per-view’ basis or cd’s of the transcriptions can be purchased.
This data is now available on subscription from www.findmypast.com
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An extensive collection of non-conformist records have been deposited at the National Archives at Kew.
In association with another subscription site, the index and the actual images from the parish registers can be accessed here
http://www.bmdregisters.co.uk/
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There are many archives and local studies centres around the capital. Details of some of their holding can be found here.
http://www.londonlibraries.org/servlets/llil/archives
or here
http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/LND/boro-lib.htm
You may find that holdings at these centres are greater than those listed and that some are willing to do a limited amount of free research is you supply exact names, dates and parishes. If you have to pay for the research, the fees are usually quite modest.
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The City Of Westminster Archives (CoWAC) is situated in St Anns Street, close to Scotland Yard and St James’ Park.
They have an extensive collection of Anglican parish registers that have not been deposited at the London Metropolitan Archives.
A detailed list can be found here
http://www.westminster.gov.uk/libraries/archives/indexes/guide/guide15.cfm
and a useful guide which can be easily printed is here
http://www3.westminster.gov.uk/docstores/publications_store/archives/infosheet1.pdf
Details of their non-conformist holdings are here
http://www.westminster.gov.uk/libraries/archives/indexes/guide/guide16.cfm
and another useful guide is here
http://www3.westminster.gov.uk/docstores/publications_store/archives/infosheet3.pdf
They have another sheet for Roman Catholic registers here
http://www3.westminster.gov.uk/docstores/publications_store/archives/infosheet2.pdf
If you are unable to visit the Westminster Archives Centre, they can supply copies of parish register entries where the exact date and church is known. The charge for this service is £4.00 per entry. Cheques should be made payable to the City of Westminster and posted, along with full details of the request, to City of Westminster Archives Centre, 10 St Ann's Street, London SW1P 2DE, telephone: 020-7641 5180.
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The London Metropolitan Archives (please visit their website for more detailed information)
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Leisure_and_culture/Records_and_archives/
Although the LMA has many hundreds of parish records, they do not cover every Anglican parish in London. Some archives are still held at the churches, others are deposited elsewhere, e.g. parishes in the ‘square mile’ City of London are held at the Guildhall Library.
Their searchable database of sources (not the actual entries) is here, where you can find out what they hold
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/londonGenerations/
Remember to use the word ‘Saint’ not ‘St’ when looking for parish register holdings i.e. Saint Leonard Shoreditch, and put in a range of dates. Leaving the date field empty will usually return too many results, for Saint Leonard Shoreditch, that’s 68 pages
Searches can be made on the Access 2 Archives site for holdings at the LMA that can’t be found on the London Generations database
The LMA has a ‘copy of a parish register entry from microfilm service’. This service can be used to apply for up to two copies of parish register events only when the exact details can be provided. This means that you need to provide the name of the church, the event, name(s) of the person(s) involved, the day, month and the year that the event happened. The fee is £8.57
Details of other print/copy fees can be found here
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Leisure_and_culture/Records_and_archives/Visitor_information/price_list.htm
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The Guildhall Library (please visit their website for more detailed information)
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Leisure_and_culture/Libraries/City_of_London_libraries/guildhall_lib.htm
A brief list of their parish register holdings can be found here
http://www.history.ac.uk/gh/parrec.htm
Before making a trip to the Guildhall library, you should phone to enquire whether the holdings you want to look at are available there. Some of their holdings are currently/temporarily at the LMA while the Guildhall is being refurbished
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Contact local family history societies (fhs) for the areas you ancestors came from to see if they can supply you with the information you require from their resources, even if you have to pay for it. FHS’s are usually registered charities and welcome enquiries from non-members. Also consider joining. Publications on CD or microfiche are often subsidised and good value for money. Don’t be put off by records on microfiche. Most ‘central’ libraries have readers somewhere in their reference sections.
Details of Family History Societies can be found here
http://www.ffhs.org.uk
and here
http://www.genuki.org.uk/Societies/England.html
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If you don’t have access at home to ancestry.co.uk (a subscription site), please check with your local library.
Many have free access to Ancestry Library Edition, an alternative version, where you can search the censuses (1841-1901), use Pallot’s marriage and baptism indexes, and check the England & Wales Birth Marriage and Death indexes not yet transcribed by the FreeBMD project.
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The London Metropolitan Archives and the Guildhall Library have entered into partnership with Ancestry to digitise some of their Parish and Board of Guardians collections.
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Leisure_and_culture/Records_and_archives/Ancestry+digitisation.htm
This is a major work in progress. Some of the Board of Guardians records are now searchable online. More of these records will be added in due course.
The addition of more baptism, marriage and burial records from the LMA collection to the Ancestry database has been eagerly awaited for several months now and are now on-line (15th September)
http://landing.ancestry.co.uk/lma/default.aspx
However, please note:
It is not permitted to ask for, or offer lookups from, any commercial or copyrighted databases, for example Ancestry, Findmypast, The Genealogist, the IGI and others, too many to list here.
With ref to Ancestry, their terms state
"Online or other republication of Content is prohibited except as unique data elements that are part of a unique family history or genealogy."
Rootschat is not the place for any unique family history or genealogy and posting of their content here is prohibited.
The Copyright team works hard to ensure that any request or offer which contravenes the Terms & Conditions is dealt with by its removal. There is a "zero tolerance" deletion policy in place.
Rootschatters are also asked not to reply to these requests.
Moderator Comment: Topic amended 14th September for LMA/Ancestry update
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So, if you’re ready to post your request, do so on the Look-up Request board, not offers or resources.
It can be very time consuming trying to search London parish registers because of the sheer number of entries in most. Please give as much detail as you can with regards to the name of the parish, not just the area, and a limited date range but please be realistic.