Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy (19 page)

Monumental inscriptions are the engravings and writings found on the gravestones and tombs of the buried. As such they are of unique importance, sometimes providing vital clues about your ancestors. As they are not official documents, the information varies but can give exact birth or age, next-of-kin details (names of wives and children),
residence and occupation of the deceased. Many family history societies have made efforts to transcribe memorial inscriptions found in churches and graveyards and deposit them in local archives. However, this has not been done for every burial place, and it may be worthwhile visiting the appropriate location to physically search through the graves or memorials. The very earliest inscriptions would be found in the actual church, and wealthy parishioners would have such inscriptions from the medieval period onwards, in the form of tombs, brasses and other monuments. Graves in the churchyard started to be marked from the early seventeenth century onwards by the better off on stone, as opposed to wooden markers, although they may not be legible today.

The majority of parish registers deposited into the public domain in England are held locally in county archives, local studies centres or metropolitan record offices. They are mostly available as copies on microfilm or fiche, as the originals are usually too fragile or delicate to be handled by the public, given the huge demand to see them. Welsh parish records can be found predominantly at the National Library of Wales, with the remainder located at local repositories. The Society of Genealogists has collections of microfilm or fiche copies of parish records for various parishes throughout the entire United Kingdom and continues to expand its collection. Local family history societies are also likely to hold copies or transcripts of parish registers, whilst family history centres run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), otherwise known as the Mormons, can order up copies of parish registers from around the UK on request.

The above has been a guide to the parish records for the Anglican Church. However, there have always been minorities in the country that have not been part of the Established Church. If you are unable to find your ancestor in the Anglican parish records, it may be because they were non-conformists.

One important and large non-Anglican group were the Roman
Catholics, who became a persecuted minority after 1559 when Elizabeth I tried to ban the rituals of Catholicism. Of course, until Henry VIII's break with Rome the Roman Catholic Church was the ‘established' Church.

Having begun an investigation into the family background of Bill Oddie, a combination of civil registration certificates and census returns has pushed the knowledge of his ancestors back to the early nineteenth century. His 2 x great-grandfather, Wilkinson Oddie senior, is listed on the 1851 census aged 41, with a place of birth listed as Mitton, Yorkshire. This was sufficient information to search for details of his origin.

Some geographical research showed that Mitton was one of three closely linked villages in the lordship of Clitheroe, and searches of the parish registers revealed his marriage to Mary Slater in Clitheroe in 1833. A search of records of the neighbouring village, Grindleton, revealed Wilkinson's birth on 21 January 1810 to John Oddie, a weaver. Eight further children were baptized in the parish to John and his wife, Ellen, up to 1828, including twins Elizabeth and Richard.

Having established Wilkinson Oddie senior's parentage, a further search was made in the marriage registers for John and Ellen's marriage prior to Wilkinson's baptism in 1810. However, the limitations of working with parochial material are made clear with the absence of any surviving marriage registers before 1844 for Grindleton, and no record was found in the larger parish of Mitton, of which Grindleton was a chapelry. It is possible that the marriage took place in Ellen's home parish, but without further information about her background, searches were limited to the parishes that surrounded Mitton – always a good tactic in a period when people rarely strayed too far from where they were born. However, in this instance no matches were found.

However, it was possible speculatively to search for one generation further back in time, given the repetitive naming patterns that occur in the Oddie family. A wider trawl for Oddie baptisms was made, covering all parishes that neighboured Grindleton, starting 30 years prior to the verified baptism for Wilkinson Oddie in 1810. A baptism of a John Oddie to parents Wilkinson Oddie and his wife Betty was recorded in Grindleton on 11 December 1785, on the same day that John's elder brother Joseph was also baptized aged nearly three. A further two children were baptized to Wilkinson and Betty after this date. Without further data, it is impossible to state with any certainty that this is indeed the correct lineage, but the circumstantial evidence is compelling, and the appearance of other branches of the Oddie family in the Grindleton area suggests this was the family heartland.

Parish records can also assist with more modern lines of research. Information from civil registration certificates had already shown that Wilkinson Oddie junior, born in 1864 – Bill's grandfather – was married twice, and that his first wife Cecilia died in childbirth. A search of the parish registers for St Clements Church, Spotland, Rochdale, revealed that Cecilia died on 14 December 1897 and was buried three days later. The daughter that she had given birth to, Alice, did not survive either, and was buried on 13 December, the day before her mother died.

Other non-conformist groups also started to appear from the sixteenth century onwards. The term derives its origins as a label applied to those who did not ‘conform' to the Act of Uniformity, passed by Charles II in 1662 requiring the rites and ceremonies prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer to be used in Church of England services. Anyone who refused to use them either left the Anglican Church, or was ejected. All these groups of non-conformists were subject to discriminatory legislation until the nineteenth century. Depending on which non-conformist group your ancestor belonged to, their records may, or may not, exist in record offices.

The majority of records generated by Protestant non-conformists can now be found at The National Archives. This is because, with the onset of civil registration, an attempt was made by Parliamentary commissioners to collect together all non-conformist registers in 1837, with a second collection made in 1857. These were deposited in the newly created General Register Office. Nominally, these registers cover the period 1567 to 1970 (although very few cover the period after 1837) and include Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists and Methodists, amongst others. They are now found in The National Archives series RG 4 to RG 8.

Although infants were baptized in non-conformist chapels, only Anglican baptism certificates were recognized legally and therefore many infants were also baptized in Anglican parishes. In 1742 the law changed, allowing non-conformists to register their baptisms in the General Register of Births of Children of Protestant Dissenters at Dr William's Library in London, which contains records from
c
. 1716 to 1837. These certificates are now available on microfilm in the National Archives under series RG 5. The series contains records of approximately 50,000 births. Similarly, the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry of births was founded in 1818, with records dating from
c
. 1773 to 1838. These records, covering 10,000 births, are also at The National Archives in series RG 4 and RG 5.

Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753 ensured that marriages could no longer be conducted in any place other than Anglican parish churches. Only Jews and Quakers were exempt from the new Act. Prior to 1754, it had been possible to marry in non-parochial establishments, and some registers exist before this date. These records now are mostly found in The National Archives, and occasionally at county record offices.

Non-conformist churches were forbidden their own recognized premises and burial grounds until the Toleration Act of 1691. Before then they would have been buried in local church graveyards (where allowed). After 1691 separate burial grounds were established and their registers can be found at The National Archives, series RG 4 and RG 8.

Aside from the Protestant non-conformists, other religions and groups kept records that can be found in a variety of archives.

The Society of Friends, or Quakers, was established in 1650. They kept detailed records of births, marriages and deaths and were not subject to the restrictions placed on other non-conformist groups. Their registers can be found either at The National Archives (series RG 6) or at their own centre, the Religious Society of Friends' library in Euston, London.

Roman Catholicism is the oldest Christian denomination in the United Kingdom. However, political and religious unrest in the sixteenth century made the practice of Catholicism illegal by 1559, when Queen Elizabeth I passed the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. The situation lasted until 1778 when the Catholic Relief Act was passed. As Catholicism was so strictly prohibited, parish registers are incomplete. There are very few, if any, records from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, as events would not be recorded due to fear of prosecution. Alternative sources need to be used to locate Catholic ancestors, for example criminal records for those tried as recusants or tax records for those fined for their beliefs. These are held at local archives or in The National Archives. As parts of northern England remained Catholic, local record offices for those areas may have relevant records.

‘
Few Catholic records exist because of the fear of prosecution after 1559
.'

There was a surge in Roman Catholicism in the nineteenth century due to the repeal of punitive legislation and large numbers of Irish Catholic migrants arriving in Britain. Bear in mind that your ancestor may well be an Irish immigrant of this time period, rather than an English Catholic. Roman Catholic churches started keeping registers from this period onwards although, due to religious concerns, few churches wished to deposit their registers with the Registrar General in 1837 (unlike the Protestant non-conformist bodies). Nevertheless, The National Archives does have some registers in series RG 4 and others may be found in local record offices. Otherwise, the local church may still have the historical registers. The Catholic Family History Society (www.catholic-history.org.uk/cfhs) and the Catholic Record Society (www.catholic-history.org.uk) may offer useful guidance.

The rise of various Protestant movements in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries caused a great deal of religious and political strife, with many groups having to flee their homelands for fear of religious persecution. One of these groups was the Huguenots, French Protestants who fled to Britain and Holland throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Two events in France led to a large exodus of French Protestants: the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572 (when approximately 70,000 Huguenots were murdered on order of the King, Charles IX), and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 (the Edict had promised religious tolerance to French Protestants). It is estimated that approximately 50,000 Huguenots arrived in England (settling in London and southern England) and a further 10,000 in Ireland.

If your ancestor was a Huguenot or descended from a Huguenot family, you can search for their records through a variety of sources, mostly found at The National Archives or at the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland. The National Archives has calendared lists of immigrants amongst its State Papers series (SP). You may also find records for Huguenots applying for denization or residency from the seventeenth century onwards amongst State Papers too. In 1708 an Act was passed making it far easier for French Protestants to become British citizens. Records of those being naturalized in such circumstances can be found in the Court of Exchequer Rolls (series E) at The National Archives.

The Huguenot Society has transcribed and published many of these series. They are available at their library and larger reference libraries. Huguenot communities established their own churches upon their arrival in England. Surviving registers of such churches can be found amongst the non-conformist parish registers deposited in The National Archives (in series RG 4). Additionally, the Huguenot Society has transcribed these registers and made them available in their own library and throughout larger libraries in the country. Further information about tracing immigrant Huguenot ancestors can be found in
Chapter 22
.

The oldest non-Christian minority in Britain is the Jewish community, who originally arrived shortly after William the Conqueror but were later expelled by Edward I in 1290 in an Edict of Expulsion. Oliver Cromwell relaxed the enforcement of the Edict during the Commonwealth period, and other Jewish communities started to arrive from 1656 onwards. However, as they are not part of the non-conformist Christian community, specific details about tracing Jewish ancestors can be found in
Chapter 22
.

Wales has always had a large non-conformist population and by the nineteenth century the majority was non-conformist. These included a variety of groups, including Baptists, Independent and Calvinistic Methodists. The records can be found at either the National Library of Wales or in local archives.

Although there is no single comprehensive name index covering all parish registers, various collections do exist. The most useful ones are listed here.