Anglican Church Records.

• The Lambeth Palace library has call books for the Archdeaconry of Cornwall 1713-1749 (Court of Arches Exhibits Ff 35c-v). The call books record dates of induction of incumbents of parishes and could be of interest to those with clergyman ancestors.
   
• The list of surviving Cornish parish registers and their availability, appears as part of "Church Records" detail on each parish page.
   
• The Church of England (Anglican) have a website providing information about, and links to, sources for tracing your family history. Much of what is covered will be held in archives and repositories across the country but their pages aim to give a guide to where to find information, and in particular which Anglican sources are likely to be of use and how to find them.
   
• Records of the Diocese of Exeter, (which included most of those relating to Cornwall up to 1875), 13th-20th centuries (including bishops' registers of institutions, ordinations, licences, and consecrations, faculties, marriage bonds and allegations, tithe maps and apportionments, glebe terriers, consistory court act and deposition books, testamentary and other papers) are available in the Devon Record Office.
   
• Further information about English Church records is available from GENUKI.
   
• Original/copies of the Parish Registers of Cornwall are available at the Cornwall Record Office, which also has a more complete collection of Bishops Transcripts. A Source list is available from the Office itself (County Hall, Truro, TR1 3AY).
   
• The Cornwall Centre (Kresenn Kernow) holds copies of the Bishop's Transcripts on microfilm for the majority of parishes in Cornwall. Most date from the mid-sixteenth century to approximately 1670/80, from 1737-1740 and from 1773-1812. The Library produces a list of holdings.
   
• Parish register information in the UK is increasingly being transcribed onto Internet websites by the Free Registration Project which is searchable.
   
• The OPC Project for Cornwall are transcribing parish records: baptisms, marriages and burials; these are on-line.
   
• Cornish Parish Registers - background and details of what is available from Cornwall FHS.
   
• The LDS Church have placed some baptisms, marriages and (a very few) burials on their FamilySearch site. Researchers should be aware that less than 70% of Cornish parish registers have been filmed by the LDS.
   
• The IGI Batch Numbers are available on-line.
   
• A list of Cornwall's Parish Registers, which are in the Library of the Society of Genealogists, is now on-line.
   
• Phillimore Marriage transcripts of Cornish parish registers are available on-line by the UK Genealogy Project. They are increasingly included on the Cornish OPC website.
•  
• Church of England clergy are listed on-line.

Non-Conformist Records.

• Some Non-Conformist records are available on-line through the OPC Search Facility.
   
• Baptisms for the Tavistock Wesleyan Church (incldes East Cornwall) 1866 to 1871 are available on-line through the OPC search Facility (C-PROP).
   
• The Cornwall Family History Society have published transcripts of 1813-37 Quaker Marriages and 1813-37 Quaker Burials which occurred in Cornwall.
• Information from The Bible Christian Magazine is available on-line.

Jewish Records. There is an on-line database listing Jewish records of marriages and burials available.

Specific Information - Baptism Records.

• You may come across quite a few burials (usually children and infants) where the Vicar has made a note in the burial register "lay baptism". A cross-check of burials with the baptism registers reveal none of the lay baptisms are recorded in the register, presumably because the baptism was not performed by the Vicar or had taken place in the Parish Church. 'Lay baptisms' were/are confined to life-threatening situations in which it was unlikely that a priest could attend before the child died; in those circumstances anyone can administer baptism. If you are unable to locate a baptism record in any parish register, it may be worth checking the burial registers to see if the Vicar was notified that a lay baptism was administered.
   
• Some baptisms in Cornwall, including those in non-conformist chapels, are listed in the OPC database.

Specific Information - Marriage Records.

• General. Until 1929, the minimum ages people could marry were 12 for girls and 14 for boys; in 1929 both ages were raised to 16. The consent of parents was required for those under 21.
  Apart from Jews and Quakers, most people had to get married in the parish church. Parishioners were usually married by Banns, which meant that details of the proposed marriage were announced from the pulpit (of both the groom and bride's parish churches) for three consecutive Sundays prior to the marriage and a challenge issued in the usual way: "If any man knows reason why these two should not be joined etc........".
  The delay and public aspect of Banns could be avoided by the purchase of a Marriage Licence (usually from the Archdeaconry Court). Marriage by Licence meant that the couple could be married without Banns being called thus saving time in many instances. Perhaps the groom was leaving the district (member of the navy, or other reason), and they wanted to be married before he left, or perhaps the lady was pregnant, or it might be one of the local 'gentlemen' who worked 'up-country' and only had a short time in the parish, or maybe it was because they could afford to pay for a licence.
  Church records include a register of Banns, which are often kept with marriage registers.
   
• Methodists. From 1 July 1837 Methodists could get married in their own Chapel if it was licensed for marriages BUT the Superintendent Registrar of the area had to be present and record the details in his own register. Before this date, except for Jews and Quakers, all marriages could only take place in the Church of England (Anglican) churches.
   
• Registry Offices. It was also possible from 1837 to have a civil marriage in a Register Office. On 30 June 1837, two Acts of Parliament became law: the Marriage Act 1836, and the Registration Act 1836 (6&7 Will. 4 c86). By these two Acts, covering Births, Deaths and Marriages, the Guardians were directed to provide a register office and to appoint Registrars of Births and Deaths. The Marriage Act provided the opportunity, for the very first time, of marrying with a civil ceremony. The Clerk to the Guardians was given a right of appointment to the office of Superintendent Registrar, and the power of appointment of Registrars of Marriages. Arrangements for carrying out periodic censuses also devolved upon the Superintendent Registrar and the Registrars. That register of marriages was kept by the Superintendent Registrar also. The registers held by at the Register Office cannot be seen, but Index books can be viewed at an hourly cost.
   
• Specific links to on-line marriage information can be found in both Ted Wildy's Marriage Witness Index for Cornwall, and the OPC database..
   
• Anglican Church Registers. Most Church of England marriage registers for Cornwall (up to about 1900) have now been deposited with the Cornwall Record Office, which is the legal requirement.
   
• Non-Conformist Church Registers. Marriage registers for Non-Conformist Chapels in Cornwall are NOT available until the 1890s. The only place to find a marriage in a chapel is to apply at the local Register Office asking the Superintendent Registrar to search his/her own book, and pay for the certificate.

Specific Information - Burial Records.

• Cornwall Parish Registers Burial Search is available on-line. However, the list is fairly limited but is being added to.
• Some Cornish burials have been transcribed by the Cornish Forefathers Society, and are in the OPC database.

Specific Information - Cremation Records. Cremation is now a civil matter rather than a church matter. PENMOUNT CREMATORIUM is a publicly-owned, self-financed facility administered by the Cornwall County Council. It is ideally situated two miles from the city centre of Truro on a secluded country estate of twenty-eight acres, eleven of which having been developed as Gardens of Remembrance. Their cremation records are on-line. The records appear to have started in 1956. To access these records, you need to click on Book of remembrance and proceed as instructed. You would have to go through the pages serially if you don't have specific dates because there is no index.

• BMD Information from the OPC Database.
  • Birth Certificates. The Cornwall OPC Project have a birth certificate search facility on their C-PROP database. Those wishing to donate details to the database are encouraged to do so.
  • Marriage Certificates. The Cornwall OPC Project also have a marriage certificate search facility on their C-PROP database. Those also wishing to donate details to the database are encouraged to do so.
  • Death Certificates. The Cornwall OPC Project also have a death certificate search facility on their C-PROP database. Those wishing to donate details to the database are also encouraged to do so.

• The Open Library has made Charles Cox's 1910 publication The parish registers of England available online.

• FamilySearch has a useful page about Marriage Allegations, Bonds and Licences in England and Wales.

• The L.D.S. (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) have now provided online search facilities for the I.G.I. (International Genealogical Index). As well as the general search facility, there is also a Custom Search page allowing more refined searches. Hugh Wallis has provided a search facility which greatly simplifies searching by batch number. See also Finding L.D.S. Batch Numbers.

• The FreeREG Project provides free Internet searches of baptism, marriage, and burial records, which have been transcribed from English and Welsh parish and non-conformist church registers.

• The largest single collection of Parish Register copies and transcripts is at the Society of Genealogists, and these searched for in the (online) catalogue of the library of the Society of Genealogists.

• The contents of missing Parish Registers can often be obtained by finding the copies that since 1598 have had to be made annually and sent to the bishop, i.e the Bishop's Transcripts. The standard source for locating such copies is: J.S.W. Gibson, Bishops' Transcripts and Marriage Licences, Bonds and Allegations. (FFHS Publications).

• Tithe payments, used to support the clergy, are fully explained on this National Archives page - Tithe Records.

• G. Jaunay. A Parish Finder for England, published by Adelaide Proformat: South Plympton, Australia (2000) 468 p. Includes Ordnance Survey references for all English parishes, both ancient and modern, their diocese, deanery and county as at 1974, their date of creation and dedication, indicating for modern parishes the ancient parish(es) from which they were created, etc.

• The Clergy of the Church of England Database (CCEd) is a collaborative project to create a relational database documenting the careers of all Church of England clergymen between 1540 and 1835.

• Stan Mapstone once put online the list, as certified to the Registrar-General, of Denominations in England and Wales in 1867. Unfortunately these disappeared the closure of AOL's hometown pages, if anyone finds them online at another URL, please let me know using the report link below

To order CDs, click the Order Reference number.

Batch numbers are used to identify the sources of records included on the I.G.I. (International Genealogical Index). Now that the L.D.S. (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) have provided online search facilities to this unparalleled resource, but without as yet providing means of limiting name searches to particular localities, batch numbers have become a valuable search aid because they can be used on the >Custom Search page to restrict searches to a particular parish. Unfortunately the L.D.S. have not provided an online index to batch numbers, and unofficial listings, while useful, are very far from complete and are not completely accurate. However, by following the steps below, it is possible to use the existing L.D.S. place search facility to determine batch numbers yourself:-

Please note: batch numbers for entries extracted from Scottish Civil Registration records (1855-1875) do not appear to be available online.

Church

Records

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General

• Find a Church - a Directory of Christian Churches in the UK and Ireland, providing basic location and contact information, details of services, etc. 
• Free searches of parish and nonconformist registers are provided by FreeReg.
• FamilySearch's page on IGI Batch Numbers for the British Isles and North America
• Hugh Wallis provides a batch number search facility, which greatly simplifies the task of searching the I.G.I. for records from particular churches (useful, for example, in case of strangely-spelled names). A further batch number site is provided by Archer Software.
• The LDS also supply additional church baptism and marriage records on their British Vital Records Index (2nd Edition) CD. A breakdown of the number of records included on the BVRI from each county and parish is provided on the Genoots website.(archived copy)
• Glossary of terms related to church records, by Martyn Parsons.
• The Official Non-Parochial BMD Records Service - a free index search facility for various unpublished registries from 1534 to 1865, from National Archives Refrences RG4 and RG5, with a pay-per-view access to the original records.
• The National Archives provides a Research Guide on Nonconformists - advice on TNA's holdings

Lyon-Turner, G. Original Records of Early Nonconformity Under Persecution and Indulgence - 3 vols. T. Fisher Unwin, London (1911) [Online copies: Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3]

Anglican

Two major marriage licence indexing projects: the Faculty Office Marriage Licence Index (of licences issued by the Master of Faculties of the Archbishop of Canterbury for the period 1714 to 1850), and the Vicar-General Marriage Licence Index (of licences issued by the Vicar-General of the Archbishop of Canterbury for the period 1701 to 1850 undertaken by the SoG are now on www.findmypast.co.uk.

• Free searches of parish registers are provided by FamilySearch.
• Commercial register search sites include Ancestry, TheGenealogist, and www.findmypast.co.uk.
• An article on clandestine marriages - by Jennifer M. Payne.

M.W. Foster. "A Comedy of Errors" or "The Marriage Records of England and Wales, 1837-1899", 19 Khouri Avenue, Wellington 6005, New Zealand, (1998) 223 p. [ISBN 0 473 05581 3]

Baptist

• The Baptist Historical Society - general information.
• The Catholic Archive Society website provides information about the Society and a full Catalogue of its publications.
• The Catholic Central Library has moved to Durham University library.
• Catholic Heritage - website of a project to provide a centralised access point to an online collection of Archive and Library catalogues within the Catholic Church

Breed, Geoffrey. My Ancestors were Baptists (4th ed.). Society of Genealogists (2002) 135 pp. [ISBN: 1903462525]
[". . . a history of the church plus valuable information on what records can be obtained. A complete listing of all Baptist churches and dates by county and appendices showing for instance the important collection in Dr Williams Library.."]

Congregationalists

• Surnam Index Online - a biographical index to the names of 32,000 Congregational Ministers from the mid-seventeenth century to 1972, with "where known, their dates, details of their education, ministries or other employment", provided by the Queen Mary Centre for Religion and Literature in English.

Clifford, David J.H. My ancestors were Congregationalists in England and Wales: how can I find out more about them?, Society of Genealogists (1997) 77 pp. [ISBN: 0946789460]
["Following a useful introduction this book comprises a location list by county of Independent and Congregationalist registers to 1850. Many exist outside the Public Record Office. Details of chapels where no registers have been located are also included."]

Huguenot

Randolph Vigne. Huguenot Family Research Made Easier, Genealogist's Magazine 27, 10 (June 2003) pp. 447-449.

Inghamites

Oates, P.J. My Ancestors Were Inghamites, Society of Genealogists (2003) 149 pp. [ISBN 1 903462 77 0]
["Includes a brief history of the Inghamites, sections on chapels and their records, index of people referred to in the conference books of the Inghamites Societies, various baptism and lists of members."]

Jewish

Joseph, Austen. My Ancestors were Jewish (3rd ed.), Society of Genealogists (2002) 60 pp. [ISBN: 1903462630]
["Covers the emancipation of Jews in Europe, marriage, death and burials, census, secular records, surname information, information on repositories, internet and more."]

Methodist

• The Methodist Archives and Research Centre is located at John Rylands University Library of Manchester, and provides the page Researching Methodist History.
• Information about Wesleyan Methodist ministers 1847-9 supplied by Bob Bester.

Leary, William. My Ancestors were Methodists (3rd ed.), Society of Genealogists (1997) 116 pp. [ISBN: 1859514030]
["The main text [of this 3rd edition] has not changed but the appendixes detailing holdings in the SoG have been revised and updated thoroughly. The book explains the records of Methodism and what to expect from these records."]