Annually, around Easter, copies of baptisms, burials and marriages had to be sent to the diocesan bishop which were then transcribed and kept. The copies for the bishop and the writing-up of parish registers for the previous year would be completed as part of the same exercise. Although bishop's transcripts are further removed from the original notes of the events they can contain entries that were missed or are erroneous in the parish registers. A lot depends on how clergy and churchwardens went about the task of making copies for the bishop and writing-up the registers.

An example of bishop's transcripts containing more entries than the parish registers is North Cotes, Lincolnshire.

Some diocese made secondary transcripts from the bishop's transcripts which have survived.

From the later nineteenth century there have been a number of individual and society based initiatives to transcribe parish registers, some just as indexes, copies can be found in local libraries, records offices or available through family history or record societies. Generally the fidelity of these transcriptions is reasonable, earlier ones can be excellent or poor and the product of repeated copying, it is difficult to judge them unless they are compared with the parish registers. Recent transcriptions from family history societies can be expected to have some quality checking, though when published, say on CD-ROM such as the National Burial Index, the license agreement prohibits further publication of extracted entries.

The IGI is a compilation of records made by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS or Mormons). The LDS Church sees families as important and to be united in Heaven, hence it's belief that deceased ancestors of church members can be baptised so that they can be reunited in the afterlife. The LDS collection of filmed copies of records is huge and made available through LDS Family History Centers primarily for members to research their families but open also to the public. The IGI is an index to parts of the LDS collection and contains baptism/birth, marriage and death/burial records with a world-wide coverage, it is not however an exhaustive set of all these events; the IGI has been published and is most easily accessed on the internet at the FamilySearch web site http://www.familysearch.org/.

The extracts here from the IGI are not a substitute for visiting the LDS FamilySearch web site which should be consulted. The purpose of presenting IGI entries on this web site are to enhance understanding of the IGI and support it with transcriptions from other sources, this being in the interests of all users of the IGI.

In the simplest terms the IGI contains two types of records, those from controlled extractions from church and other records, and those submitted by LDS members or patrons.

Controlled extractions were made from parish registers, bishop's transcripts and where these were not made available other transcriptions of these sources. In the UK extractions were made before many registers, bishop's transcripts, or filmed copies, were deposited in secular records offices and access to Church of England records depended on the co-operation of the diocese, which varied. Where there was no co-operation extracts had to be made from transcriptions made by others. Of the non-conformist registers that were deposited with the Registrar General about 80% are included in the IGI.

Patron submissions are IGI records that result from LDS members' own family history research and can be duplications of other IGI records.

The importance of knowing the difference between extracted and submitted records comes from the family historians need to know the source of any record, submitted records have been processed and copied more than extracted entries, which naturally increases the potential for mistakes even when care is taken. Patron submissions don't as a rule indicate their sources.

IGI entries have a batch or film number which distinguishes the type of record. Batch number that begin with the letters C, M, P, E, J or K are identified with the controlled extraction programme, further details about batchs can be found on the familysearch web site. A list of batch numbers and more information about them can be found on the Hugh Wallis web site. Where only a film number is available the IGI record is often taken from a record of either a baptism for the dead or a sealing (an LDS ceremony uniting couples, as man and wife, or children with parents).

It can be said that the survival of so many parish registers is a tribute to parishes' responsibilities to preserve them, though they show varying degrees of damage and not surprisingly it is mostly the older ones that are likely to be in poor condition. The earliest registers were effectively made redundant in 1598 and most haven't survived, the pages were of paper which were more fragile than their parchment replacements, the latter being a stiffer material but having the disadvantage that it can crack rather than disintegrate as paper might.

Accidental damage occurs with ink smudges or spills and other types of staining such as with damp or water.

Early registers were in Latin, replaced by italic or secretary script English, the latter requiring some reading practice. Handwriting can present challenges, though the use of watered down ink, or even entries in pencil are more of a problem, also as parchment books were expensive entries were sometimes 'squashed in' or written in a small hand.

Wear and tear was probably not such a problem for parish registers until genealogy became fashionable in the nineteenth century. Registers would not survive the current high level of interest so thankfully they have been deposited in county records offices and filmed, but sadly viewing film copies is not as good as seeing the actual registers. Films are monochrome and contrast can literally 'make light of' already faint entries, it can also distort handwriting by merging it with any staining on the page. Parish register sizes varied but some were large, say, 11" x 15" (28cm x 38cm), when viewing a film it should be enlarged so that it can be read at the size it was written.

Tops and edges of pages are the most likely to suffer wear and it is there that the dates were mostly recorded, this is particularly so for the plain page general registers. One practice was to put all the events for a year on one page with the year at the top, which if unreadable requires looking at the previous or subsequent year pages. Where pages are difficult and entries were made continuously as space allowed then it can be difficult to establish the correct year, particularly for a small parish where there were not many entries. Depending on the date format used, month or day first, either can be lost at the worn edge of a page.

Acts of Parliament from 1666 gifted the English woollen trade by requiring people to be buried in no material other than woollen shrouds and then for coffins to be lined only with wool. Failure to swear an affidavit to this effect would result in a five pound fine for the family or the deceased's estate. Affidavits were recorded in burial registers or sometimes separate registers.

By the time the act was repealed in 1814 it had become mostly ignored.

The Marriage Duty Act imposed a tax on births, marriages and burials until repealed in 1705; it acted as a disincentive to have entries made in parish registers.

In 1752 England fell in line with most of Europe and adopted the Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar still in use in England was ten days ahead and the days 3^rd to 13^th September were struck out that year.

The bigger change that year - from a family history point of view - is that it was the first in England to start on 1^st January. Prior to that a year number did not change until Lady Day, 25^th March, a parish register date of, say, 2^nd Feb 1750, would be to us in our modern calendar 2^nd Feb 1751.

The policy for this web site is that dates should all be measured in the modern calendar, adjustments to years can be made when transcribing parish registers, however, it is not always clear when looking at other transcriptions, such as the IGI, whether a pre-1752 year has been adjusted or not.

Between 1783 and 1794 a stamp duty of 3^d was imposed on registration entries in church records, although paupers were exempt from payment it is calculated that there was a drop in register entries during this period. It is also thought that there was an increase in the number of people claiming to be, and accepted as, paupers.

Vestry meetings were regular, say, weekly or fortnightly, after a Sunday service, and were where the elected parish officers formally discussed their business. Of interest to family historians would be decisions about poor relief and actions relating to the poor laws.

Financial accounting through careful record keeping was necessarily important for both of these parish officers, whether these records survive however is a matter of fortune. Over the years the accumulation of old records would be the cause of disposal, there being no requirement not to destroy them after their useful life.

As said above a churchwarden's role was concerned with the finances and fabric of the parish and these accounts will be chiefly concerned with this, they would include the assessment and collection of the Poor Rate (see below).

Overseers accounts would list in detail money given to the poor or spent on their behalf.

A vital document for someone wanting to live or work in a parish other than their legal settlement parish, particularly if the other parish thought there to be any chance of poor relief being needed in the future. The certificate, signed by parish churchwardens and overseers, stated that the person and any family were legally settled in the parish which had the responsibility of assessing and providing any poor relief should the circumstances arise. A settlement certificate may list dependents.

A copy of a settlement certificate may well have been kept by both parishes. Unless retained by a parish and subsequently deposited in records offices the survival of settlement certificates is unlikely.

Persons newly arrived in a parish, or needing poor relief, who could not convincingly show it to be their place of settlement would be examined by the parish officers and either the claim of settlement would be accepted or not, the latter often resulting in removal to the likely settlement parish. Settlement examinations can be very informative about families and their circumstances.

An order that persons are to be returned to their likely parish of settlement, often stating the exact route they must take. A removal order was signed by two Justices of the Peace and copies were made for both parishes concerned, appeal by the intended receiving parish could be made to the county courts. Removal orders may contain family or circumstantial details.

Children from the age of seven who were a burden to the parish, either as orphans or their parents could not afford to keep them were apprenticed. The apprenticeships sometimes hardly worthy of the title, being as house servants or perhaps in towns as chimney boys. There was a duty, even a rota, for tradesmen to take apprentices. Apprenticeship Indentures arranged though parish officers can give little in the way of family details.

Bastary cases were a matter for the courts, Quarter or Petty Sessions, though a parish would take a great interest if it was thought likely that it might incur any expense or future responsibilty. A parish would be concerned about any costs incurred at the birth and for any financial support that the child would subsequently require. Indentification of the father for the purposes of coving these expenses was a parish priority, if not the father then other family members with sufficient resources.

Called poor rate assessments, the local tax was used also for other statutory responsibilities of a parish. Assessments of property value were made at least annually with the rate to be paid by each owner one or more times a year. The rate reflected the expected costs that the parish will incur or to make up any shortfall for the previous period. The information contained in an assessment varies but should at least name the property owners and the amount due, descriptions of properties and lands maybe given. (See 1830 example)