Link: Canterbury Cathedral archives now at FindmyPast

[smudwhisk]

Hi

Probably a silly question but the signatures on the Parish Registers - would these be the original signatures of our ancestors or are these Parish Registers copies which were sent from the Church to Canterbury?

Thanks in anticipation ...

They will be the originals which will have been deposited by the respective churches with the Canterbury Archives. 

[baltibluebird]

Ok thanks for the confirmation.

[Ravelin]

Just been looking at the list of parishes on FindMyPast and St James, Westgate and St Saviour, Westgate are not listed.

On a previous visit to the Canterbury Archives i looked at the original St James, Westgate marriage register as they did not have it on microfilm.

If they are digitising from original registers then surely St James, Westgate would be included. 

[Alan b]

I'm not sure if FindMyPast are digitising the originals, however I believe if the archives doesn't hold the originals they aren't included in any digitisation program.  That was definately the case with the LMA and ancestry.

I presume this is the reason why Harbledown isn't included ?

[panda40]

I have been having a good look for some of my ancestors tonight. There are gaps in the years between the collections and sadly it mostly the years my ancestors got married or baptised. Still the ones I have found have been worthwile. It just takes time as it is not indexed.
Regards panda

[Alan b]

I have noticed that some of the pages have been doubled and even trebled in some cases and the actual index themselves are not always correct. For example "Baptsims 1595-1638" sometimes contains marriages and burials for the same period so it is worth checking all the index if you are looking for something. Hopefully these couple of issues will be corrected once they are indexed.

[panda40]

A quick update about the records held on findmypast. They are now fully searchable by name date and place. This makes locating your ancestors very easy. A big thank you to findmypast for this valuable resource.
Panda

[bearkat]

These records are a fantastic resource. 

Do you know how complete the searchable index is?

Findmypast has pdf documents listing the parishes and dates included but not how much has been indexed.  I have found people on Familysearch who are not showing on a Findmypast search.

[panda40]

It is mainly the Church of England records. They are not complete. Some of the parishes have records going back to 1700's others have very little past 1812. I would suggest treating this as a secondary source but if you wanted to do a thorough search you would be best visiting the full collection at the Cathedral archives. I have not been over there since they reopened to see if anything has changed.
Regards panda