Parish Registers
Since 1558 every incumbent has been obliged to keep bound written copies (registers) of all baptisms, marriages and burials performed in his church. Originally different types of entries were mixed together on chronological order. Early entries were often written with inferior inks in close spaced Latinised script; hence reading these today can often be very difficult. Most original registers are now safely resident in county record offices, away from the damp, mice and insects that were often an endemic feature of parish chests.
Only rarely does one actually handle original registers these days. Examining microfilm or microfiche copies using special viewing equipment is now the norm. Written or typed transcriptions and indexes of at least some local parish registers are held in book form and on microfilm and microfiche at most record offices.
Entries in parish registers are often subject to the vagaries of spelling employed by the incumbent or barely literate parish clerk. As registers were initially only required to be brought up to date on a weekly basis entries can be erroneous.
Despite their draw back parish registers are the primary source for most genealogically related family history information.
