Historically, the (Anglican) Church in Wales was an integral part of the Church of England - i.e. the "Established" Church. Its influence declined during the nineteenth century, when a considerable proportion of the people of Wales - perhaps more than half - became adherents of the various nonconformist denominations; and eventually, in 1920, following many decades of religious and political debate, and intermittent civil disturbances, the Church in Wales ( not"Church ofWales") was disestablished and disendowed - i.e. it ceased to be the "State" or "Established" Church.
Because of this, the Parochial Registers and Records Measure of 1978, regarding the care of parish records of the Church of England, does not apply to Wales.
However - in 1944, the Representative Body of the Church in Wales showed considerable foresight, by making an agreement with the National Library of Wales whereby various Church records would be deposited in the Library; and in 1976, the Representative Body reached an agreement with the majority of the Welsh counties, which designated the county Record Offices as additional suitable repositories. The Archbishop of Wales issued instructions as to which records should be deposited, and appointed Diocesan Advisors to ensure that his instructions were followed. Virtually all parish registers for Flintshire (with the obvious exception of those in current use), together with various other records, have now been deposited in Flintshire Record Office and/or the National Library of Wales.
Contrary to erroneous statements which have appeared in a recently published reference work, the records which have been deposited do include almost all the surviving registers of the parishes of Maelor Saesneg ("Flintshire detached").
Members of the public are not normally allowed to handle the original registers. The policy of the Flintshire Record Office is to microfilm the registers on receipt; and members of the public are expected to use copies of these microfilms, rather than the original registers, in the Record Office searchrooms.
Clwyd Family History Society has published full transcriptions, with indexes, of all the parish registers of Flintshire, up to 1812 (and in a few cases, up to 1837 and beyond). Copies of all the transcribed parish registers published by Clwyd FHS are available for study at the Flintshire Record Office.
England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index Marriages 1754 - 1837 on Tinstaafl Transcripts - Work in progress
Family Search UK/Ireland - Historical Record Collections
IGI Batch Numbers - Hugh Wallis's site and Archer Software's site
