Parish Records 'film' - what to look for?

[Bee]

Not only were the entries mixed but they were out of year sequence, and some were wrong way up!

I also noticed that there were several 'Item' numbers which had title pages (black with bold white typed titles of parish name, years covered etc and a number) which had no actual register pages scanned in.

Is this usual? Or was I just doubly unlucky??

But you're right Nell - I'll feel more confident next time. And I'll have at least a small idea of how it all works.

If entries before 1837 don't show parents - or at least, fathers - how do you get back a generation? And the one I found for 1734 didn't have witnesses noted, only the bride and groom and what parish they each came from.

Bee.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Bee

Some of the early filming undertaken by the LDS was a little, erm, haphazard, shall we say!

The first, the very first, film I ever ordered to view from an LDS centre, was entirely black from start to finish and I sat in the car and cried!!!

(They did order me a much better copy, bless them, but I wonder why they didn't just throw this useless film away!)

Another register had been written on parchment the size of a bedsheet and folded over to make a sort of map-like book.

The Vicar just started a new page wherever he unfolded it, and whoever filmed it managed to get one-and-a-half pages at a time. I still don't think I have covered all of it, but have no way of ever knowing.

OC

[Peter Evans]

Bee,

To answer your question about identifying parents before 1837 you need to note all the entries of your relevant surnames and then sort them into families. If you are lucky you may identify quite easily the parents of your bride and groom by age and rarity of forename but from now on you are dealing in degrees of probability.

Now that you have been to an LDS centre you should consider visiting a county record office.

Peter

[Guy]

I would suggest working on the following lines.:

Write the film title church dates covered etc. at the top of each loose page you use.
If using a notebook it is sufficient to only write this at the beginning of the section covering transcripts from one film/fiche.

Before making each transcript of an entry note the year [registers before 1751 will more often than not record January, February & March up to 24th at the end of the year (keep this order)].
This is important if a wife died 11 November 1750 she could not be the mother of a child born 19 January 1750.

The accepted convention is to write such dates as 19 January 1749/50.

When browsing films make a note of periods of missing register or entries. Most registers have the occasional gaps in them.
(If later one suspects an ancestor could be recorded in such a period check if Bishop’s transcripts are available.)

When ending a session always note where one got to.

It may be useful to start at the end of a film and scroll back, page by page, to the beginning as modern handwriting is often easier for the beginner to read than older scripts.
Whichever way one reads the register I would suggest always start from one end and work through to the other never just dip in to “relevant” periods as much may be missed.
Cheers
Guy

[Olde Crone Holden]

Oh yes, Guy makes a good point - make a careful note of missing pages/years/events and keep it.

Saves you wondering two years down the line why you didn't extract anything from 1699-1714!

Also wind the film from absolute start to finish and read all the blurb, boring as this may first seem. By doing that, I discovered that the church had burnt down and for seven years everyone traipsed off to the next parish for all their life events.

Another register had sunday school notes at the back, covering the late 1700s, early 1800s, along with people's addresses, and also a list of those attending communion classes, with the wonderful information that MY woman was "born a papist but has seen the true way to God" pmsl!

OC

[Mary from Italy]

Very good advice, Guy.

We have some pre-printed forms in pdf format for transcribing parish records which you can download and print. Alternatively, you can create your own forms with Word or Excel.

http://www.familytreeforum.com/reference-information-how-guides/34219-downloadable-research-forms.html

[taffyfrog]

And can be worthwhile looking at the beginning too and not just at the actual entries. One fiche I had started off with a hand-drawn map of the graveyard, the position of tje graves and who was in them. invaluable as the graveyard is now lawned over.

[KiteRunner]

If entries before 1837 don't show parents - or at least, fathers - how do you get back a generation? And the one I found for 1734 didn't have witnesses noted, only the bride and groom and what parish they each came from.

The witnesses' names will only appear from 1754 onwards, when Hardwicke's Marriage Act came in.

How do you get back to the parents before 1837 - this is when the real detective work comes in! You hope that they didn't move around the country too much, look out for middle names taken from mother's middle name, look at those witnesses' names. Very often a couple named their first son after the father's father, first daughter after the mother's mother, second son after the mother's father and second daughter after the father's mother, and even if they didn't use that exact pattern, it was unusual (but not unheard of!) for none of the children to be named after their grandparents. So if you can get the names of all the children born to a couple, then make some guesses as to what the grandparents were likely to be called, look to see if you can find families that match, then work on finding info to link the members of that family to your couple - for instance, are there brothers and sisters whose names match the wedding witnesses? Did your couple witness their brothers' and sisters' weddings? Did any of their parents leave wills? And so on.

[Olde Crone Holden]

That's why it is worthwhile extracting every entry for the surname you are researching, and trying to put them into family groups. This can be easy, or impossible!

Hubert and Letitia's family will be easy to identify, John and Mary's not so easy. But there may be other clues in the register which will help and you can always pray for monumental inscriptions/wills etc!

Personally, I love this side of the research and almost always finish up doing a village tree.

OC

[Cool Blue]

May I suggest that someone writes this up as an article for the Wiki or the magazine? Lots of brilliant tips and exactly what I was looking for in the endless struggle to sort out some of my lines.
I suppose that I have to add that if you don't find what you want in this particular register, you work your way outwards to adjoining parishes.
What is the best way people have found to locate same? Is Genuki easier than Parloc or vice versa or do you recommend something else?
Thanks so much to all previous posters for a fascinating master class
Janexxx

[Peppie]

Never heard of Parloc Jane , just had a look, thank you!

[Phoenix]

It is always worth looking at marriages, to see where brdies and grooms tended to come from if outside the parish. Sometimes you find the lord of the manor owned properties in two or three parishes which are not contiguous, so you would not think to investigate them.

Pre 1837, provided the surname is unusual, I look at all the county sources: wills, poor law, hearth tax, whatever transcripts I can find to see where the surname crops up and then see whether the family was established, or passing through. (If close to a county boundary, you have to repeat this for the other counties!) If you own land, you stay put. Everybody else tends not to be in a parish for more than three generations.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Not forgetting Settlement and Removal orders, which can sometimes track a family through ten parishes!

OC