Genealogy Chat

im going to search parish records, can anyone tell me what info they give or is it just a waste of time?

Christine!!!! Wash your keyboard out with soap & water. Parish records are NOT a waste of time. They are our primary record. Surfing the interent for one's ancestry is more of a waste of time. Whatever you find on the internet is only a guide. To do our research properly we should always check the info we receive And where do we check? Parish records. Good luck, Jim

Thanks Jim, just thought i'd ask as i was told they dont give you much info, iv washed my keyboard out!!!!!!!!!!

Christine, Thank you for taking my comments in the light-hearted way they were intended. After I had posted it I did wonder if you would be offended. When we are doing our family research we have choices. We can enter a site like this and accept the info we are given at face value. We can look up on the LDS site which only gives us info submitted (warts and all) by Church members. We can search listings and Transcripts done by others. The problem with all of these is that we are totally dependant on fallible people. So far, just typing this short note I have had to go back and correct 6 typos. There is no substitute for searching the actual Parish Registers oneself. Sometimes all we get is the date and name of the baptisee. Sometimes a whole paragraph of info. The main thing is that we can say with pride (and truth) "My tree is as accurate as I can possibly get it". Good luck, Jim

What bugs me is that parish records are increasingly (for good reasons) archived centrally in diocese offices or County Record Offices. So if you go hunting on foot, so to speak, you find the church, find the vicar and get told that he'd love to help but the records are fifty miles away and he doesn't have a copy. A local copy or transcript would retain the links and make "casual" searching possible.

I agree with you about Parish records,but it does depend how near you are to them. Personally I would have to travel from Preston to Co.Durham. Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Worcestershire and Shropshire, so I have to choose second best - the internet. Its as we have said before, we all love the hobby but we have do it to suit our needs. June, Preston.Lan.

Hi all, Don't forget that many Parish Registers have been microilmed/microfiched. A visit to your local LDS can get you access to all these and viewers. You can buy microfiche of the records if you want, and I find my local library are quite happy to supply me with access to a viewer free of charge. One word of caution, however, sometimes the quality of the photograph is less than perfect (typical English understatement). Jim

Thanks everyone i'll try the records at the library first otherwise i will be travelling north-south Christine

I find the parish records in our local library fascinating. Some of the entries you come across show some very strange things. One body was buried locally as "unknown man pulled out of the Trent" and "Fell off the Church Steeple". These were margin comments by the vicar! Elisabeth