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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: icini on Wednesday 29 July 20 21:04 BST (UK)
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Hi. I also asked this question to scotlandspeople as i am very curious
The government website has records starting in 1553. I realise at the time the reformation was beginning.
What about records of baptisms and marriages before that ? I’m sure they were recorded somehow. They were so interested in illegitimate births and bigamy. Shouldn’t there be something ?
Where would they be found ? Or kept ?
Just asking
Thanks
Donna
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You could look at "The Parish Registers of England" by J. Charles Cox, published in 1910,
https://archive.org/details/parishregisterso00coxjuoft
Stan
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I'm afraid there are no parish registers from the period before the Reformation (1560), and even then 1553 is a very early survivor. In some places there is nothing before the end of the 18th century.
If you have traced branches of your family back to 1560, the chances are that they have owned property of some kind. For that class of person, especially in the burghs, a surprising number of records can exist. One branch of my own family has left a convenient paper trail back to the 1360s in Edinburgh. More information survives for the 15th and 16th century members than for some 19th century ancestors. The records mention husbands, wives and children, but no post-Reformation style details of dates of birth or baptism. There are no post-Reformation style marriage records, but I have found the odd marriage contract and also records of husbands acknowledging payment of the tocher (dowry). Records of property transactions following on from a marriage are also to be found.
There are papal dispensations for some marriages, but again ordinary people don't feature in them.
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Thanks to you both.