BMD's at Records Offices?

[Chrissie Smiff]

I went to Matlock last week to look at Marriage and baptism records for pre 1837 and something just occurred to me. I'm sure that the dates available went way past 1837, or was I seeing things? I need to see 2 birth, 1 marriage and 1 death certs that I don't actually need for my records and they are all between 1860 - 1864. Would they be available to look at on film please at the Record Office concerned?

[KiteRunner]

Chrissie, the church marriages will be there but if they married at a register office then it won't be there. Births - no, but baptisms will be there. Deaths - no, but burials will be there. Of course you don't usually get as much info on a baptism or burial entry as you do on a birth or death cert but it saves money!

[Chrissie Smiff]

Thanks Kite, that's very helpful. I only need to know the parents of the children's births, so I will have to try and find out if they were baptised. I'm not sure how I go about that though The death I only want to know the cause of death (he died in the same quarter that they married in ) and I don't know whether the marriage was in church or not. I didn't realise that there were register office marriages in 1873.

[KiteRunner]

Chrissie, register office marriages started in 1837 when civil registration began. The burial record is unlikely to give cause of death, unfortunately.

Finding baptisms - it would be worth looking in online indexes first, e.g. IGI, FreeREG, etc. but also there may be printed indexes / transcriptions at the record office. Failing that, you would have to trawl through the PR's for the likely churches looking for them.

There might be a printed marriage index too but they often stop at 1837.

[Chrissie Smiff]

Thanks again Kite. I have never looked on Free reg. Off to google it now

I think I may ring the records office to ask how their marriages are listed.

[Mary from Italy]

You do occasionally get a cause of death in burial registers, but it's unusual - I've seen it sometimes when children died of contagious diseases like scarlet fever, and occasionally accidents like drowning are mentioned in older records.

There's a lot of Derbyshire stuff on the Wirksworth site, which may be worth a look:

WIRKSWORTH Parish Records 1600-1900, Portal

[Chrissie Smiff]

Oh thanks Mary. I have to log off now but I shall put that in my favourites and look later.

Non of the ones I wanted were on FreeGEN. Maybe they haven't done much of Derbyshire yet.

[Gwyn in Kent]

Finding the family in 1861 or 1871 census will give a parish name at the top of the page. This would be a good place to start your baptisms search.

[Chrissie Smiff]

Thanks Gwyn. I have them in 1861 and 1871, it's 1851 when they are all AWOL :D I do know the area I want, it's Clay Cross but not a lot seems to be on line for that.

Mind you, while I was googling I did come across a site that I could order certificates on line for £25 So be warned everyone.

[Margaret in Burton]

I have looked at Parish Registers up to the last 20 years in the Records office.

I have also visited churches and looked at them when the book is still in current use.

My daughters were baptised in 1984 and 1986. They are underneath each other in the register. Very small village church, viewed the register for our wedding too in 1983.

It is a common misconception that parish records stop in 1837.

[KiteRunner]

I wonder whether Scottish parish registers post-1855 will ever be scanned in and made available online?