Bishop's transcripts - St Laurence, Reading

[Kavill]

Hello,

I am trying to find out the Bishop's transcripts coverage for marriages for St Laurence, Reading, for the period 1676-82.

I've tried the Wiltshire Archives and they can only tell me that Bishop's transcripts exist for the period 1668-82, but they are unable to confirm whether marriages are covered either wholly or in part for this period without me using their paid research service. There is a gap in the parish register for marriages between 1676-1686.

Commissioning a search for them to come back and tell me there are no records for that period seems rather a waste of money. If some kind person could confirm the Bishop's transcripts marriage coverage for this period then I would be happy to commission a search for a particular marriage.

Many thanks,
Keith

[pjm99]

Hi,
The LDS Catalog does say that Banns are also available so it might be worth looking at those.
Peter

[Kavill]

Thanks, Peter. I've checked the banns and unfortunately they're also missing for the period I am interested in.

Keith

[jonw65]

Records of banns being called were not kept until much later. Have you checked for a marriage licence?
BTs are copies of the parish register that were made annually. In other words, copies of the baptisms, marriages, and burials recorded in the PR. It's unlikely that baptisms and burials were copied up, but not marriages. There are usually gaps in the BTs
The LDS catalogue has -
Bishop's transcripts for St. Lawrence's Church, Reading, 1605-1836
microfilm 1279466 Items 1 - 4
Baptisms, marriages, burials, 1606-1607, 1611-1612, 1615-1617, 1619-1623, 1626, 1631, [no date], 1635, [1660?], 1661-1663, 1668-1673, 1675-1680, 1682, 1685-1693, 1595, [3 pages, no dates], 1700, 1707, 1713-1726, [1727?], 1729, 1728, [1730?], 1732, [no date], 1735-1836.

I've seen it myself, years ago at the London Family History Centre (then in Kensington, now at Kew)
So that may be another option for you.
Good luck!
John

[ribbo39]

Hi Keith,

The Berks FHS has transcribed St.Laurence's marriages onto a CD but for the period you refer to
they say "There does not appear to be any record of marriages between July 1676 and March 1686"

If they can't find any record of marriages for this period and bearing in mind they are located adjacent to the Berks RO, then I think it is clear that none exist.

I would have thought that the Wilts Achives wouldn't charge anything if none exist, only if they had some BT records to search thru.

Alan

[Kavill]

Hi John,

At St Laurence banns exist from 1654 to 1660, 1668 and then there's a break right through until 1772.

Thank you for the LDS information. The marriage I am looking for should be between 1675 and 1680 so I could be in luck if there are marriages with the Bishop's transcripts.

It's odd that the LDS has that on microfilm and yet there is no St Laurence coverage on the IGI or Familysearch site (or at least there wasn't the last time I looked!).

Many thanks,
Keith

[Kavill]

Hi Alan,

I have the Berkshire FHS St Laurence transcript on CD, thanks. There is nothing anywhere to say that the Bishop's transcripts have been consulted or included in the transcription. Judging by the list of documents in the Registers sections, it appears to be purely a transcript of those registers in the Berkshire Record Office, so there's still a chance I might find what I'm looking for at the Wiltshire Archives.

I was surprised that they were unable to tell me exactly which records they have without me having to pay them to search!

Many thanks,
Keith

[jillruss]

Hi Keith,

Are you absolutely sure the marriage took place in the St Laurence parish church? I have occasionally come across marriages which took place in nearby parishes, perhaps because the 'home' parish church was undergoing repairs or even because the couple preferred another church or minister.

Can you tell us who the couple in question were and roughly when you think they married and it might just be possible to find them marrying elsewhere.

Jill

[Kavill]

Hi Jill,

No I'm not absolutely sure, but it is certainly a good place to look as it's the groom's home parish (I don't know who the bride is yet) and the time frame of the gap in the registers fits when he would be marrying.

I come from a long line of Reading Protestant dissenters and finding them in the records is difficult enough. Usually they married at St Laurence or St Giles, with only a couple at St Mary's. I have been lucky with coverage through marriage licence bonds, but they don't seem to have got into the marriage licence habit until the 18th century.

Rather than commissioning a search from Wiltshire Archives, I've ordered digital images to be made for the period I'm interested in and then I still have the pleasure of searching through the documents myself.

Keith