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A History and Timeline of Parish Registers

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  • A History and Timeline of Parish Registers

    I just came across this and thought it made interesting reading.

    Parish Registers - A Short History of Parish Registers

    No idea how accurate it is, but have bookmarked it in case I ever manage to get back that far :D:D
    Joan died in July 2020.

  • #2
    If you click on the "Search the Records" tab it takes you to a page that is all about searching PR's on The Genealogist website - they bought up the domain name www.parishregister.co.uk a while ago; I remember James from Docklands Ancestors / ParishRegister.com wasn't too impressed as people searching for his site could have gone to that one by mistake.

    It looks as though it is trying to give the impression that it is not actually associated with The Genealogist but just recommending them, the way it says "The website that has the most Parish Register records available for people to search is TheGenealogist, and they are continuing to add more." I do hope it doesn't fool anyone! As for the truth of that statement, I would like to see the figures!
    Last edited by KiteRunner; 17-09-08, 09:18.
    KiteRunner

    Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
    (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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    • #3
      Sorry to keep going on about it, but if you look at the example given of "searching for an ancestor in the parish registers" it is obvious that their data is not taken directly from the PR's anyway, but from Phillimore or something similar (since the entry shown is a typed one!) so even if you found an entry "at the click of a button" you would still need to check it was correct.
      KiteRunner

      Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
      (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

      Comment


      • #4
        Their timeline looks cobbled together and not hugely accurate. Somebody is bound to correct me, but I thought that it wasn't until the 1920s that marriageable age was raised to 16 for both sexes. There was an act in the mid victorian period, but I thought that was actually aimed at child prostitutes, not marriage.
        Phoenix - with charred feathers
        Researching Skillings from Norfolk, Sworn from Salisbury and Adams in Malborough, Devon.

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        • #5
          Yes, you are right, Phoenix, the marriage age was raised to 16 in the 1920s.

          The Victorian Act to which this website refers, was the age of CONSENT to sexual intercourse. There had previously been no minimum age of consent to intercourse, which had left a nice loophole for child prostitution, and more importantly, no way of prosecuting what we would now term paedophiles.

          OC

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          • #6
            Anyone interested in that timeline may find my pre 1812 pages of interest
            pre1812.htm
            It is part of my Acts of parliament site
            Acts of Parliament for Genealogists
            Cheers
            Guy
            Guy passed away October 2022

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            • #7
              Thank you, John, for access to a splendid site. Have bookmarked it,

              Marion

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              • #8
                The bit about the Gregorian Calendar is slightly inaccurate too. The Act adopting it in Britain and Ireland was passed in March 1751, but it did not actually come into force until 1st January 1752 (which was the next day after 31st December 1751), followed by a correction made later that year, when Wednesday 2nd September 1752 was immediately followed by Thursday 14th September.

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                • #9
                  Guy,
                  Your Acts of parliament site is impressive. It must have taken a lot of time and effort. I am very impressed.

                  However, I assume they apply to England and Wales and that there might not be equivalent legislation covering Ireland and Scotland.

                  Hugo

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                  • #10
                    Just to put the record straight, my post above about the calendar was not referring to Guy's excellent sites, but to the one mentioned in the first post of the thread. I hope no one thought I was criticising Guy. I apologise if I gave that impression.

                    For the record, the Act about the calendar was referred to as "Chesterfield's Act", or formally as 24 Geo. II, c.23, and was passed in March 1751.

                    Roger

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                    • #11
                      Thanks Hugo and Roger in Sussex for your comments.
                      The "Change of Calendar Act" is online at
                      Full text - British Calendar Act of 1751 for 1752
                      in case their are those who wish to view it.

                      As for my Acts site it was done progressively (from 2001) as I noted various questions about laws of interest to family historians on mailing lists and also as part of the campaign to regain lost access to various records.
                      Such as access to registers held by registrars and access to the 1911 census etc.
                      I am glad they are still appreciated some years later.

                      Unfortunately they are in the main specific to England & Wales, I just don't have time to copy the Scottish & Irish legislation as well. ;)
                      It should be remembered that for example the civil registration of Births, Marriages & Deaths in Scotland only started in 1855 not 1837.
                      Some later Irish Acts and S.Is. are here
                      Irish Statute Book, Acts of the Oireachtas
                      Cheers
                      Guy
                      Guy passed away October 2022

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                      • #12
                        They stole the information!

                        I came across the site parishregister.co.uk while I was looking for links to update the 'parish register' part of my 'Genlinks' website Genlinks - Genealogy Help.

                        My page was made from material I gathered in 1976 for a family history evening class I ran. It was first posted on the web in 2001.

                        I immediately noticed that parishregister.co.uk seem to have used much of the information on my page to construct their site. They simply removed the examples and some of the content. They also included one of the two errors in my content - the one implying there was an act passed in 1763 regarding age at marriage. (In fact this was a church directive stating marriages below the age of 21 required parental consent and licence if under 16.) The other error on my page referred to a riot in Hexham and was not copied by geneologysupplies.com (who are listed as being the owner of parishregister.co.uk and thegenealogist.co.uk)

                        Looking at the code on their page I see they have claimed copyright 2006 for my content! I have contacted them regarding this but have so far not received a reply.

                        There is one other site using my content. History of Parish Registers at the Joiner Marriage Index but Paul Joiner, who was with me a founding member of the Cleveland Family History Society, uses the content with my permission.

                        You might want to bookmark the original page rather than the stolen version or better yet use the new page being created on parish register history at Genlinks - Parish Register History

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                        • #13
                          Jaydax

                          Thankyou for your most interesting information!

                          I sincerely hope you can whop 'em for stealing your copyright. What a cheek.

                          OC

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                          • #14
                            Message for Guy

                            Just thankyou for such an instructive site which has all the Acts so easy to access. I have been engrossed for the past 2 hours and will be using it again.
                            Jo

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                            • #15
                              Geneology Supplies responded to me apologising and telling me that they had changed their site so that it no longer displays and spoken to the web designer who 'does not remember having used my content'.

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                              • #16
                                Thanks to Guy and Jadax, have bookmarked all the sites;)

                                A pity about the Irish and Scottish Information! That's the trouble with time!

                                Janet
                                Last edited by Janet; 10-01-09, 20:02.

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                                • #17
                                  I second the thanks, bookmarked some very interesting stuff.....

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