Unpublished Parish Registers

[Norfolk Nan]

Just a quick question about the possibility of PRs not in the hands of county/national archives - is that still the case? Are there any lists for quick reference? This is related to a brickwall question so I’m musing out loud - apologies if it seems a bit daft

[Mick Loney]

My goto source for that kind of information is the 'Phillimores Atlas & Index of Parish Registers" by Cecil R Humphrey-Smith (ISBN 1-86077-239-0)
it cost £50 then, but I see Amazon have copies from £19.99 upwards

This lists each parish and notes which PRs are available and where etc. An invaluable guide, and one of the first books I asked for as a Christmas Present

[Norfolk Nan]

Thanks Mick. Christmas is coming …

[VALLMO9]

Some parish registers are still held by the churches themselves. For registers that have not been deposited with local records offices and archives you'd need to contact the relevant vicar in the case of Church of England parishes. Not all parish registers have survived.

Using Norfolk as an example, the Norfolk Records Office (NRO) website has a comprehensive section of parish registers they hold. There is also a separate PDF list, which includes original register availability at the NRO, which is very handy.

EXAMPLE: For a Norfolk parish register not on that list, one could contact the NRO for guidance (e.g. has the register not yet been deposited or has it not survived?)

I appreciate that not all local records offices will have an online list of available parish registers, and therefore not be in a position to offer guidance on unpublished registers.

https://www.archives.norfolk.gov.uk/hel ... -registers

[Norfolk Nan]

Thanks Mo.

I’m looking for an elusive baptism c1740 and have exhausted all possibles that crop up on the usual search engines/resources. I’ve nothing else to go on (no siblings, no will for example) and marriage certs give no clues so I thought working through undeposited records would be the next logical step. Any other ideas always welcome

[AdrianBruce]

Just a quick question about the possibility of PRs not in the hands of county/national archives - is that still the case? Are there any lists for quick reference? This is related to a brickwall question so I’m musing out loud - apologies if it seems a bit daft

It's not remotely daft. In my view, it's almost but not always certain that the only lists are:

1. Lists of churches & chapels in a county (or whatever) (e.g. produced by GENUKI or County Record Offices);
2. Lists of registers at archives;
3. Lists of registers on web-sites.

Notice that I've written the first of that list as just churches & chapels - not registers - because if a church's holdings are not held by an archive, it might be that no-one knows what the registers actually are, only that there are some for that church.

If you want a list of registers not in the hands of archives, someone has to go through list 1, and remove the churches that are in list 2. Believe me, that's not easy because loads of the churches built in the Victorian era have registers too recent to have made it to archives, never mind online. It might make it easier if you can reduce your list to churches & chapels prior to a certain date. When I experimented with seeing what there was in Cheshire that hadn't made it to archives, I got stuck on the late 19th century urban parishes, some of which were, as I say, too recent to have been sent to Chester and were still at the churches in question. I might have done better to have just looked at pre-1837 churches.

So far as I know, as a for-instance, the only parish in Cheshire proper that is pre-1837 but hasn't sent those registers to Chester, is Astbury, which has retained its own registers. There are one or two others that are sort of Cheshire and sort of Manchester that I can't work out. However, even with Astbury, the big thing is that the Bishops' Transcripts were sent to Chester (well, usually they were), and those BTs are online with FindMyPast. So always look for BTs at the county / diocesan record offices.

Always worth looking at the Record Office sites as Maureen suggests - Devon do some very good lists that explain what the situation is with the various churches in their area - some have sent their registers in, e.g, but refuse to allow them to be put online.

Depending on who has filmed the PRs and BTs, it's always worth looking at the FamilySearch Catalogue for the places in question - see https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog - their catalogue may tell you all about what registers they have filmed, even if you can't access them.

So, sorry, it's a bit of a "knife and fork" job to try and work things out to see what is missing - I'd only advise that I personally think the only practical way is to identify possible churches first and then look at those.

[Norfolk Nan]

Thanks, Adrian.

I knew it would be an uphill task but I lived in hope anyway

[VALLMO9]

If your search is related to Bucks then don't forget FMP's Buckinghamshire Index Parish List (from Bucks Archives).
The parish list displays a full list of the parish available in the collection followed by the year ranges available.
The year ranges are not exclusive and there may be gaps within the records. So the latter is another consideration for your struggle to locate a relevant parish record(s).

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/articles/b ... arish-list

Also, I've read that some local records offices hold unpublished parish registers, and may need to be viewed in person, if allowed. So always worth asking the relevant records office if they have any unpublished registers.

[Jimbo50]

Hello everyone.
'loads of the churches built in the Victorian era have registers too recent to have made it to archives, never mind online. It might make it easier if you can reduce your list to churches & chapels prior to a certain date.'
Adrian Do you think this might lead to missing registers retained temporarily whilst operations were housed somewhere else, while building/ renovations were going on. Couldn't they then be returned to the new building ?

[VALLMO9]

If the "missing" parish record in question is for Little Linford, it appears the online baptism records don't begin until 1757. Too late for the era you're focusing on.

So you would need to research the availability or existence of earlier parish registers for Little Linford's church (St Leonard?), or other local churches. Perhaps MKHA and/or Milton Keynes Local Studies & Family History Library can advise on any unavailability of pre-1757 baptism records as regards Little Linford's church, etc.

Apparently, the original copies of the parish registers for St Leonard, Little Linford have been deposited in the Buckinghamshire Record Office in Aylesbury. So it makes sense to direct your enquiry to them, in the first instance.

https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/sites/ ... lm-PAA.pdf

http://www.mkheritage.org.uk/hav/docs/c ... -1812.html