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Bishop's Transcripts

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  • Bishop's Transcripts

    Forgive my ignorance but is there a Research Site with this title in Particular. Records are much clearer than the Parish Record from which they are recorded. The writer/clerk takes time with his writing rather than the normal scrawl I have to decipher.

  • #2
    I'm not aware of any specific sites - sometimes they are clearer than the original records (but not always), and sometimes the information is not exactly the same, so they are always worth checking if they still exist. Sometimes you might find the Bishops Transcript still exists covering years where the original Parish Registers have been lost. County archives usually are the place to find them

    Ancestry has both for some parishes, and always worth checking which you are actually looking at.
    Retired professional researcher, and ex- deputy registrar, now based in Worcestershire. Happy to give any help or advice I can ( especially on matters of civil registration) - contact via PM or my website www.chalfontresearch.co.uk
    Follow me on Twittter @ChalfontR

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    • #3
      FMP has some in its Yorkshire collection.

      Jay
      Janet in Yorkshire



      Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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      • #4
        Thanks to Jackie & Anthony for your responses.
        Last edited by AlanC; 16-03-15, 12:24.

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        • #5
          FMP also has them for Cheshire

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          • #6
            Familysearch have many for Norfolk from the Norfolk Record Office.

            Problem with the transcripts is they are another step from the original records and open to mistakes, etc.
            Phil
            historyhouse.co.uk
            Essex - family and local history.

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            • #7
              One problem with BTs (if they are all in the same, neat handwriting) is that they have been written up all at once, usually just before they needed to be sent off to the Bishop. This isn't always true of course, some vicars/clerks wrote the BTs at the the time and it was the parish register which was written up all in one piece at the end of the year.

              It is always worth looking at every version of every record IMO, but it can be maddening when the records differ!

              OC

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              • #8
                I was looking at some Bishop's Transcripts a week ago and they were dire. They were written on little scraps of paper and were in no particular order. The PRs were much clearer.
                Elizabeth
                Research Interests:
                England:Purkis, Stilwell, Quintrell, White (Surrey - Guildford), Jeffcoat, Bond, Alexander, Lamb, Newton (Lincolnshire, Stalybridge, London)
                Scotland:Richardson (Banffshire), Wishart (Kincardineshire), Johnston (Kincardineshire)

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                • #9
                  The great beauty of BTs, though, is for when the registers have gaps, are unavailable, not yet filmed etc; i.e something is better than nothing.
                  I have found the family search images of Norfolk BTs & ATs invaluable, although it's an awfully laborious task getting into the one you want.

                  Jay
                  Janet in Yorkshire



                  Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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                  • #10
                    Bishop’s Transcripts (BTs) sometimes called Archdeacon’s Transcripts were required to be made by orders in 1562 and 1597 and carry on to the mid to late 19th century.
                    They are often easier for large organisations to gain access to which is why sites like Familysearch, Ancestry, Findmypast and even some Online Parish Clerks use them in preference to Parish Registers.

                    The LDS Family History Library staff members estimated in 1998 that about 85% of BTs and 45% of Parish Registers (PRs) had been filmed (more PRs have been filmed in the meantime).

                    Jeremy Gibson’s Bishop’s Transcripts and Marriage Licences (pub. 2001) lists the whereabouts of all known BTs.

                    Caution, there was no requirement for BTs to be kept unlike PRs, this meant that BTs sent to the Bishops were often dumped in piles in cellars or attics and gradually mouldered as damp and rodents got to them some ended up as piles of foul smelling lumps of paper which disintegrated when researchers tried to separate the leaves.

                    This means that there are often gaps and omissions in BTs as well as the other disadvantages pointed out by others in this thread.

                    This does not mean that researchers should disregard BTs as but should treat the BTs with caution. On the plus side BTs may be easier to read and indeed may contain more detail than the original Parish Register.

                    Cheers
                    Guy
                    Last edited by Guy; 17-03-15, 06:37.
                    Guy passed away October 2022

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                    • #11
                      Thanks to everyone for their input which made interesting reading.

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