Research Before the Census and Certificates

You may be racing through your family history, using the census returns and certificates to get to the 1840's, then...nothing? No census returns. No civil registration certificates. Where do you go from here?

The good news is that records don't stop at this point. A remarkable range of records have survived, produced by churches, courts, landowners, employers, central government and more. Each record type had its own system and quirks. So research success in this period depends on understanding what records exist, where to find them and how to use them.

Has your ancestor gone missing? When using online genealogy collections, remember that if you don't find your ancestor, it may simply be that their county or time period isn't included in that particular collection. For example, the Apprentices collection at FindMyPast is made up of many separate recordsets, each covering different dates and parts of the country - from City of York Apprentices and Freemen 1272-1930 to Electrical Engineering Apprentices & Trainees 1902-1934. If you can't find your ancestor here, you may find them in a different recordset - either online or in physical archives.

Genealogical records are mostly held in archives like The National Archives in Kew, local county record offices and specialist repositories. Archives are generally organised around counties. For example, if you are researching Sherborne in the county of Dorset, the local archive is the Dorset History Centre. Cities like Bristol or Liverpool also have their own city archives. Even if you can't visit these archives in person, most have online catalogues and research guides, describing the records they hold, which have been digitised and where to find them online. It's worth familiarising yourself with your relevant county archive to understand what records they hold for your ancestors' area.

Baptism, burial and beyond

Parish registers began in 1538, when Thomas Cromwell — Henry VIII’s chief minister and now the star of Wolf Hall — ordered parish priests to record baptisms, marriages, and burials. (Note baptism and burial registers - not birth and death. A baptism might happen days or weeks after a birth - sometimes even longer. ) Few registers survive from that first year, but many parishes have registers dating from the late 16th century onwards.

Most parish registers have been deposited in local county archives. Many have been digitised and may be found in various online collections. Check your local archives website to find out about coverage for your parish of interest.

You can see examples of early parish registers - including one from 1538 - on the North Yorks Archives website.

Over time, the parish created much besides the parish register. This administration - known as parish records or parish chest records after the locked chest where they were kept - covered areas like poor relief, church finances, local rates highway maintenance and many other aspects of parish life. Most parish records have not been digitised in full. Two of the most substantial online collections are those for Norfolk, and for Kensington and Chelsea.

Parish chest in St Mary's Church, Whitby - but this one seems to be empty. According to a sign above, the chest "contained the Church Plate and Parish records when [in 1743] it was stolen and thrown over the cliff by robbers. The chest was recovered but without its contents.” (© Brian Deegan (cc-by-sa/2.0))

Where there's a will...

Before 1858, wills in England and Wales were proved in a complex hierarchy of church courts, and which court handled a will depended on where the deceased owned property (not where they lived). Two courts sat at the top of the pyramid

• The Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) for Wales and southern England. You can search for PCC wills online at The National Archives and on Ancestry.

• The Prerogative Court of York (PCY) for northern England. For wills proved at the PCY and smaller Yorkshire courts, search the Borthwick Institute indexes at FindMyPast, and then order copies directly from the Borthwick.

Digitisation of other pre-1858 wills is mixed. Some areas have excellent coverage - such as the Wiltshire Wills collection on Ancestry, which brings together wills from many different church courts - while other counties offer only indexes or require an onsite visit.

Canterbury Cathedral. The Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) served as the superior probate court in England and Wales, proving around 40 % of all wills by the late 1850s.

Who was your ancestor?

Many records in this period relate to who a person was or the job he did. For example, was he a non-conformist who worshipped outside the Church of England, an apprentice or master, a seaman in the Royal or merchant navy, a landowner or a soldier?

Each of these different roles created different kinds of records. The best place to start is with the research guides produced by The National Archives. Each research guide covers a different topic, detailing the records available and where to find them. And for those with London ancestors, the website London Lives (1690-1800) offers freely searchable indexed records for tens of thousands of ordinary Londoners.

How a professional genealogist can help

A professional genealogist can be an invaluable research partner. They know which records exist for a particular place and where to find them, whether in local archives or national repositories. They can help you track down parish records, occupational material, or pre-1858 wills, and make sense of told handwriting or unfamiliar record systems. They can also bring together information from multiple sources, making sure you get the most of both online resources and the many records held in physical archives.

Key Takeaways

• Many early records survive from churches, courts, landowners, and government, but you need to know what exists and where. Most records are held at county archives, specialist repositories or The National Archives in Kew.

• Parish registers began in 1538; survival improves from the late 16th century, with most digitised online.

• Parish chest records covered poor relief and local administration; few are fully digitised.

• Pre-1858 wills were proved in church courts; PCC (south) and PCY (north) collections are searchable online. Digitisation of other pre-1858 wills is mixed; some require an archive visit.

• Records relating to an ancestor's occupation or status may offer an insight into his life. Research guides produced by The National Archives and online databases like London Lives (1690–1800) can help locate records.

• Professional genealogists can track down records, interpret old handwriting, and combine sources to make the most of both online and physical archives.