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Church Registers

Registers of christenings, marriages and burials are likely to date back to the fifteenth century for most parishes. They record information about individuals including their age, address, occupation and parents' names.

Reproduced by kind permission of Durham Record Office ref. EP/WOL 25

Extract from the parish register of St. Mary and St. Stephen, Wolsingham, County Durham, recording the burial of Robert Mackintosh, aged ten.
Location
Registers that are still in use will be in the church and it is generally necessary to approach the incumbent to view them. Most older registers have been deposited in record offices. In some areas printed indexes or transcriptions are being put on the local archive websites.
Ideas for use
  • Can be used with inscriptions on gravestones to investigate families who used to live in the area.
  • Can be used to trace victims of epidemics such as cholera.
  • Can be used to investigate issues such as child mortality.


See also the section on Find Sources



Follow any of the links below for more information on basic sources and ideas on how to use them

Studying Your Locality : Historic Maps : Trade Directories : Newspapers and Magazines : Government Commissions and Reports : Photographs : Census : Official Guides : Estate Agent Records : Plans : Taxes and Rating Records : Probate Inventories
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