English Parish Registers

Civil registration didn't begin in England until 1837. To find ancestors before that date, you'll need to rely on church records -- particularly parish registers.

Starting in 1538, each parish was required to register all baptisms, marriages, and burials. Parishes governed church affairs within their boundaries. The library owns a copy of A Genealogical Gazetteer of England which can help you find your ancestors' parish.

Registers can provide an incredible amount of useful information. Each parish decided what to include in their records so you may find that information varies parish to parish but here are some examples of items that might be included in the registers:

• Baptisms: parents' names, address, father's occupation, mother's maiden name, godparents, and date of baptism. (Remember this is not the date of birth! Sometimes parents waited until the children were older to baptize them as well.)
• Marriages: home parishes for both the bride and groom, marital status (bachelor, widow, etc), ages, witnesses, and groom's occupation. Sometimes marriages did not occur at parish churches; therefore, marriage records may not always exist.   
• Burials: date, age, occupation, address, spouse or parents' names, and sometimes the cause of death.

The Church of England has acted as the primary religious institution in England since the 16th century so it is likely that you will find your ancestors in their records. However, dissenters and nonconformist religious organizations also kept records of births, marriages, and deaths so don't give up hope if your ancestor didn't belong to the Church of England.

You can find parish registers on FamilySearch. You should also visit FreeReg. FreeReg has made it their mission to transcribe and index parish registers and nonconformist records from 1538-1837. It is an excellent resource for English genealogy research!

If records are not available online, you will need to contact the appropriate County Record Office to research parish registers in person.

Genealogy Roots Blog

Genealogy Roots is a blog about vital records.

It is designed to help you  find online genealogy databases, records and resources. The focus is on vital records (birth, marriage, divorce & death records), obituaries, census records, naturalization records, military records and ship passenger lists.

ORDERING IRISH CERTIFICATES

ORDERING CIVIL REGISTRATION CERTIFICATES

FOR NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

Certificates for the whole of Ireland before 1922 are at the Republic of Ireland General Register Office.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
General Register Office
Government Offices
Convent Road Roscommon
Ireland (Eire)

to order by FAX using Visa or MasterCard,:
011-353-90-6632999


NORTHERN IRELAND (1922 to present)
General Register Office
Oxford House
49/55 Chichester Street
Belfast BT1 4HL
Northern Ireland

To order by telephone with Visa or MasterCard:
011-44-289-0252000
Phone: 011-353-90-6632900

http://www.groireland.ie/aboutus.htm has information and forms online/
To order online, or to print application for ordering by mail, go to:
http://www.groni.gov.uk/index.htm

(A photocopy of the register entry is less expensive than a full certificate.)

Marriage Certificate Strategies

What do you do if you are unable to find a marriage document on Ancestry Library Edition or Family Search?

Try obtaining the marriage license from the county clerk's website.  (For Cook County, this would be Cook County Genealogy.)    Do not stop with using the index; you may have to purchase a digitized copy of the original document.  The cost is small compared to its genealogical value, because there will be a date and an address for where the marriage took place.

Research this address.  It may turn out to be for an organization such as a church which is not included in microfilmed holdings in the catalog of the Family History Center.

Contact the organization and ask how to obtain a copy of a record for a marriage that took place there. 

The procedure may vary.  But usually they will provide the necessary documents in exchange for a small fee.

This copy may turn out to be a gold mine of information including names of parents of bride and groom, location of birth and / or baptism of bride and groom, names of witnesses, etc.  Sometimes names will be written in an unfamiliar spelling, which may turn out to be significant for your research.

Try this approach if you are stuck, it may provide you with many new leads.

New Adoption Law

A law signed May 10, 2010 allows adopted adults born in Illinois before January 1, 1946 to request non-certified copies of their Original Birth Certificate (OBC), listing the names of their birth parents.

If you are an adopted person born after January 1, 1946, you can now (as of November 15, 2011) request your OBC .

Learn about the new adoption law and how to obtain a non-certified copy of the original birth certificate.

Jewish Records Indexing--Poland

Jewish Records Indexing (JRI) is a searchable online database of Jewish vital records of Poland. It contains 4 million records from more than 500 Polish towns.

St. Clair County Marriages

New in the Genealogy Room...

St. Clair Co. (Ill.) Marriages 1791-1845 / by Robert Buecher.

This index contains approximately 3,000 marriages, or 5,493 names of both spouses. Date of marriage appears under name of groom. People of color are indicated by "C."

Vital Records

Locate birth, marriage, and death records through the vital records division of the state where your ancestor was born, married, or died. Here is a list of websites where you can obtain the vital record you need.