Parish Records ?

[sarahandmatt13]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone can help ! I've managed to trace my ancestors back using the census and now need to start looking at church records for christenings births etc.... I think i have found a christening record but how do i know if its the right one??? Forgive me if im asking a silly question ! Also the record has lots of references on it can these be used to locate the original record which pehaps holds more info ???

Kind Regards


Sarah Curtis

 

[p.risboy]

Hi Sarah,
If your ancestors lived in and around the same area for a number of years, find a Family History Society for that county.
Sometimes they will have the records you require transcibed and recorded.

I have the records for my Family area on CD. And have found a huge amount of info.
If you 'google' the county FHS for your family, have a look and see what they offer.
It cost me £14 for a year, and £10 for the records. It has saved me so much time and money.

Steve.

 

[JMR]

Hi Sarah and welcome to FHUK!

I'm reasonably new to family history research myself and am grappling with this same question at the moment.

The problem is that you can't be 100% certain, because if your family member was born before 1837, there were no official registrations. So you have to know about your family born after 1837 in a great deal of detail first. Ben has a knack for doing just that!

You need to be familiar with their naming patterns, the area they lived in, the occupations they had and all the other sociological clues that you can pick up from the official data, then I've found I've been more confident that I have the right families. If you get all the birth marriage and death certificates you can and write down all the clues eg maiden names, witness to the marriage or death, place of birth and ant street addresses listed then you will have much more information to use when looking at the Parish registers. An old map of the area is a good thing to have on hand as well. Plus look at the other pages on the census to see who the families were that lived around your relatives at the time. I've found that if I have the right family, then these other names usually pop up on the Parish registers around the same time as well.

The most important thing of all is to tap into the expertise on this site for a sanity check from time to time!!!!

Cheers,
Jill

 

[benny1982]

Hi Sarah

If you give me a name, and whether you have found him on the censuses or birth registrations, I can help you determine if it is the right ancestor.

Ben