Often described as a good way of taking your research back before 1837 (when civil registration started), parish records can provide so much more than this.
Records stored in churches, cathedrals and records offices often complement your existing research by adding extra detail, opening up new avenues and verifying assumptions, facts and data from elsewhere.
This episode looks at how I used parish records, both Anglican and Catholic, to bulk out my research – using online and physical sources. I talk about the time I sat in the basement of a cathedral looking at details of my parents’ marriage, along with other baptism, marriage and burials going back nearly 200 years. White cotton gloves are essential!
Regardless of what you’re hoping to achieve in researching your family’s past, parish records are an essential tool in your kit-bag, and can uncover detail unavailable elsewhere.
Other religions are – of course – available, so please get in touch at amateurfamilyhistory@gmail.com with your experience of trawling through these records, and I will share them on future episodes.
Recommended drinks to accompany this episode: Whatever you can find in the vestry. Sherry usually.
Recommended biscuits to accompany this episode: Hot cross buns. Not strictly a biscuit, but they have religious connotations and it is Easter.
Amateur Family History Podcast 