Church of England Parish Registers
What are parish registers?
Parish registers are records of baptisms, marriages and burials in the Church of England (Anglican Church). They have been kept since 1538.
Few parishes and none in the Rotherham area have any registers from this date, but some do survive from the later 16th century.
What information can I get from them?
Remember that parish registers were not kept for family historians. The information they contain varies according to date and to parish. Registers were not standardised until 1754 (marriages) and 1813 (baptisms and burials).
Baptism registers
Date of baptism, the father’s and later the mother’s name and the family’s place of residence (often just the parish).
Marriage registers
Names of the couple and their parish of residence if different from the place of marriage (to 1754); marital status and the signatures of the couple and witnesses (1754-1837); age, job, place of residence and father’s name & job (from 1837).
Burial registers
Date of burial (to 1813); age at death and place of residence (from 1813). The name of a child’s father or a woman’s husband may also be recorded. Date and cause of death are rarely given.
Do they record everyone?
As the Church of England is the established state church, most people have been baptised, married and buried by it.
There are, however, exceptions:
Baptisms were never compulsory and some people were never baptised. Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics baptised their children in their own chapels.
Marriages - until 1837 a marriage was only legal if it took place in the Church of England, so most people, even if not Anglicans, went through the ceremony. Some Roman Catholics and nonconformists refused to do so. Jews and Quakers could conduct their own ceremonies.
Burials - until the 19th century the parish churchyard was usually the only official place of burial, but ministers could refuse to allow non-Anglican burials.
How easy are they to use?
All registers are handwritten, either by the minister or the parish clerk. Earlier non-standard registers can be difficult to read unless the writer was very neat. Until the early 18th century most registers were kept in Latin, the official legal language. As the entries are brief, you will soon learn the few words needed to understand them. It does, however, take patience and practice to read these early registers.
Will I be using the original registers?
Rotherham Archives and Local Studies Service does not hold any original parish registers. Most have been deposited at Doncaster Archives or Sheffield Archives, the recognised diocesan record offices.
We have microform or typed copies of most pre-1900 Anglican registers for the Rotherham MBC area.
Anglican Parish Registers List (53.1 Kb)
Sheffield Archives Parish Register List (198 Kb)
Non-Conformist Registers
Who were non-conformists?
Nonconformists were Protestant Christians who left the Church of England. The main groups were Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Wesleyan Methodists and Primitive Methodists.
Do they have the same sort of registers?
Yes, with the following exceptions:
Nonconformists met at first in ordinary houses. During the 18th century they were gradually able to worship more openly and build their own chapels. It is from this period that records are most likely to survive.
Because of the less established nature of these chapels, registers have often been lost. They might be treated as the minister’s own records and go with him when he moved or fall into private hands and be lost.
Until 1837 nonconformists could not marry in their own chapels. After that date they could apply for a licence to celebrate marriages, but this was often not done for many years, if at all.
Many chapels were built in urban areas where there was no room for a large burial ground or in the second half of the nineteenth century when they were no longer allowed to have their own burial grounds for public health reasons. There are, therefore, very few burial registers.
Non-conformist Register List (8.3 Kb)
Sheffield Archives Non-conformist Register List (488 Kb)
Where are they?
Rotherham Archives and Local Studies Service holds a number of (mainly Methodist) registers for the 18th-20th centuries. These are usually originals, although when copies exist these are used. In 1837 nonconformists were asked to deposit their existing registers with the Registrar-General and those deposited are now in the National Archives. Sheffield Archives has microfilm copies of a few for the Rotherham area.
Roman Catholic Registers
What about Roman Catholic registers?
Roman Catholics, like nonconformists, were discriminated against and it was not until the mid-19th century that they were able to set up organised parishes like the Anglicans, although earlier chapels did exist, for example in Sheffield.
Early registers have often been lost, for the same reasons as nonconformist ones. Roman Catholics were particularly unwilling to deposit them with the Registrar-General. Sheffield Archives has copies of known pre-1837 registers for the Rotherham area
Where are they?
Sheffield Archives is the recognised place of deposit for registers of Roman Catholic parishes in the diocese of Hallam and you should enquire there about any area you are interested in.
Catholic History
Useful website for tracing Catholic ancestors with links to Catholic Archives Society and the Catholic Family History Society.
Catholic Library
Website of the Catholic National Library and is a major resource on Catholic family history. The Library currently houses mission registers which list baptisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths etc. dating back as early as 1694. Membership fee is payable for use of the library, research and enquiry services.
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