Church of England Parish Registers: Difference between revisions

{{Wikipedia|Parish register}} A law passed in 1537 that required ministers to record the baptisms, marriages, and burials that took place in their parishes by the following year (1538). Though the clergy recorded these events in '''registers''' and kept them at the '''parish''' level, which is the basic unit of authority in the Church of England, there smaller units called chapels, chapelries, ecclesiastical churches, and/or district chapels.  

Within some parishes, chapelries were created to provide for the worship needs of the parishioner when the parish church was over populated and/or not easily accessible. [[Chapelry (England)|Chapelries]] sometimes had the authority to perform baptisms, marriages, and burials, so they kept their own registers.  

Most bishops’ transcripts of Church of England parish registers have been preserved. Many have also been copied to microfilm or microfiche. The condition of the records is relatively good considering their age and their storage conditions over the centuries. In 1598 ministers were required to copy their registers onto parchment. These copies are referred to as bishops’ transcripts (BTs), or sometimes archdeacon transcripts. As a result, two copies of many parish registers exist from 1598 to about the mid-1800s. If the minister failed to make such a copy, the register for that parish and its records did not survive. During the Commonwealth period, 1649–1660, many parish registers disappeared or were not regularly, if kept at all. Many transcripts were not kept because ministers were deposed from their parishes up to the year of the Restoration (England's monarchical form of government, returned with Charles II). For those ancestors who were likely born, married or were buried in the 1640's and 1650's--when most parish records were not kept, always search parish BTs and parish registers from 1660, onward, as some parish curates entered in many retro-entries of christenings, marriages and a few burials due to the change in the political climate, with the return of many parish vicars/rectors to their parish livings (paid ministry).  

Starting in 1582 the old style [[Julian calendar]], which started each year on March 25th, began to be replaced throughout Europe by the new style [[Gregorian calendar]]. However England and Wales did not make the change until 1751. This was 170 years after most other European countries had made the change. For countries in the [[British Empire]] (except Scotland) the year 1751 began on March 25th and ended on December 31st, meaning the year was only nine months long. The following year 1752 saw an adjustment of 11 days to realign the calendar to the seasons. Wednesday, 2 September 1752 was followed by Thursday, 14 September 1752.