Parish Records

Welcome to ParishRecord.com - this site is design to help you understand Parish Records and how they can be used to help you with your research into your family history. Below you can read a short introduction, and you can view other information by clicking the links above.

Introduction to Parish Records

Parish registers are the basic resource for the family historian before 1837 with the parish church having recorded baptisms, marriages and burials.

The original order by which this information was required to be recorded dates from 1538, but very few registers have survived from this date. The majority of parishes, however, have registers which date from before 1600. Whatever the starting date, there are gaps in the period covered by the registers - particularly during the period of the Civil War and the Commonwealth, 1642-1660.

Finding more information on Parish Records

To find more information, you can follow the links at the top of this page which can take you to information, find you available records, show you how to view Parish Records, and more.

Parish Records Daily - Top Items

Phillimore's Marriage Indexes on CD-ROM Phillimore's Marriage Indexes can help you track your ancestors back to the 18th century.		Lord Hardwick's Marriage Act This Act enforced a separate marriage register which was later pre-printed and had spaces for witnesses, the signature of the bride and groom, the condition and parish of the bride and groom and the signature of the minister.
A Short History of Parish Records Parish Registers were first ordered to be kept by Thomas Cromwell, Vicar General of King Henry VIII in 1538.		Viewing Parish Records in your own home With the use of personal computers becoming more widespread, the best way to make the parish records easily accessible to the general public is to transfer those records from micro-fiche and film to CD-ROM.