London and Middlesex Church Records
The majority of historical church records for London and Middlesex are
held by four repositories:
-
London Metropolitan
Archives hold records for most Anglican parishes in Middlesex,
though the registers for a few ancient parishes have not been
deposited, and some are elsewhere. They also have a wide range of 19th
and 20th century non-conformist records. All registers held at LMA are
listed on the
London Generations Database.
-
Guildhall Library holds
records for most Anglican parishes in the City of London, and some of
the Middlesex parishes that adjoin the City.
- The City of
Westminster Archives Centre holds records for most Anglican
parishes in the former Metropolitan Borough of Westminster (corresponding
to the southern part of the current City of Westminster), though some
from this area are not deposited and others are at LMA.
- The National
Archives hold registers from non-conformist and non-parochial
Anglican churches and chapels surrendered to the Non-parochial
Registers Commissions of 1837 and 1857.
- The Westminster
Abbey Library & Muniment Room holds records for a few
Anglican churches in Westminster.
There are other record offices which hold church records relating to
individual parishes in the City of London and Middlesex. Where we know
about them they are listed on the appropriate parish page.
- National Index of Parish Registers, volume 9 part 5 London and
Middlesex by Cliff Webb (2nd edn 2002) is the definitive guide to the
surviving Anglican registers.
-
The West Surrey FHS
publish three Research Aids by Cliff Webb on their website
giving parish-by-parish listings of the coverage of
online images, indexes and transcripts of:
- The list of Middlesex and City of London Parish
Register Copies in the Library of the Society of Genealogists, gives an
indication of some of the records that are available. Copies of the
registers mentioned are likely to be available at other locations as
well.
-
Marriage licences at
Guildhall Library - their leaflet is "a brief introduction to
searching for records relating to the issue of marriage licences, with
particular reference to those held by the Manuscripts Section of
Guildhall Library and elsewhere concerning the City of London and
former county of Middlesex."
- "A Guide to Middlesex Parish Documents (including Poor Law Records)"
by Cliff Webb, published by West Surrey FHS, (3rd edn 1998) is a helpful
list for parishes founded before about 1830.
- London Metropolitan Achives have a general guide to "Records
of non-Conformists in [Greater] London" as well as a guide to their
holdings of
Non-Anglican register transcripts.
- The Guildhall Library has an online list of parishes
covered by its holdings, and has published detailed research guides to
its holdings of:
-
City of London Parish Registers (Guildhall Library Research
Guide 4, 7th edn, 1999),
-
Greater London Parish Registers (Guildhall Library Research
Guide 5, 8th edn, 2001), and
-
Nonconformist, Roman Catholic, Jewish and Burial Ground
Registers (Guildhall Library Research Guide 6, 3rd edn, 2002).
- For Middlesex parishes within the London County Council area in
1890/1903, we have lists of churches arranged by
Rural Deanery with information about locating their records.
-
Harleian Society Parish Register Publications: The Harleian Society published almost 90
volumes of parish registers between 1877 and 1979, as the Register Series, with one in
the New Series. Most of
them relate to the City of London and the adjoining parts of Middlesex.
The volumes are usually full transcriptions, omitting common phrases,
and each contains an index.. For burial records for the period
1754-1812, John
Hanson has reported an error rate of up to 10%, including
mis-transcriptions and missing entries, and presumably that the error
rate is similar throughout.
-
Phillimore Middlesex Marriages
Series includes the registers of 32 parishes in Middlesex.
These volumes have been transcribed and placed online in an
alphabetical form at Middlesex
Marriages.
-
D G
Petch offers scans of a few published City of London registers as
pdf files sent by email.
Numerous individual registers have been published, which are listed in
the National Index to Parish Registers volume noted above, and will be
listed on our relevant parish page.
Indexes
This list only covers indexes which cover multiple churches. There are
many indexes to individual registers, which will be listed the
appropriate parish page.
- The
International Genealogical Index (IGI) includes a large number
of births, baptisms and marriages from London and Middlesex. There are
entries created from parish registers, and from published versions of
parish registers, as well has 'patron submitted' entries from members
of the LDS, which are often not as reliable as the systematic extracts
from registers. Hugh Wallis provides lists of batch numbers which allow
searching to be restricted to a specific systematic extract:
IGI Batch Numbers, Middlesex and London, places A to M and
IGI Batch Numbers, Middlesex and London, places N to Z. An
alternative listing is provided by the Hamilton branch of the NZSG, for
London churches Battersea - Littleton,
the City of
London and Mile
End - Whetstone. There is also a GENUKI guide to finding
batch numbers.
- The British Vital Records Index (BVRI) continues the IGI in CD
format, and indexes births, baptisms and marriages. The Genoot website
provides lists of the registers covered for births and
christenings and marriages.
- The bmdregisters.co.uk website
(pay-per-view) indexes National Archives classes
RG4 covering non-parochial registers, and
RG5 covering the non-conformist registry of Dr Williams' Library
and the Wesleyan Methodist Registry. They provide a brief overview of
the content. Searching the National
Archives Catalogue for these classes may give a better idea of the
coverage. Some of these registers are also covered by the IGI and BVRI.
-
FreeREG aims "to
provide free Internet searches of baptism, marriage, and burial
records, that have been transcribed from parish and non-conformist
registers." Their coverage of London and Middlesex is limited at the
moment, but they provide pages listing the City of London and
Middlesex
registers covered. More volunteer
transcribers are needed.
-
Arthur Hopkins has transcribed the Quaker London & Middlesex
Quarterly Meeting records for selected surnames, births 1654-1719,
marriages 1658-1775, and burials 1670-1719. They are published on
his website.
-
Pallot's Baptism Index once included 12 million entries, but it
was mostly destroyed in the Second World War, so that only 200,000
entries remain. It covered 1780-1840 for at least 22 London and
Middlesex parishes, but is obviously now incomplete. However as
compilation of the Pallot indexes started in 1818 it is possible that
it contains entries from registers now destroyed. The card index is
owned and held at the Institute of
Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, who sell copies on CD, and it is
available online via Ancestry.
-
Dockland Ancestors Ltd offer indexes to baptisms
for a number of East End and Docklands parishes, which are otherwise
poorly covered by indexes. They also sell these indexes on CD.
-
Pallot's Marriage Index for 1780-1837 has excellent coverage of
the City of London and good coverage of Middlesex. Like the Pallot's
Baptism Index it was started in 1818 and contains entries from
registers now destroyed, but this index survives intact. The card index
is owned and held at the Institute of
Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, who sell copies on CD, and it is
available online via Ancestry.
The original handwritten slips are hard to read and thus many errors
have crept into the electronic version.
-
Boyd's Marriage Index was compiled by Percival Boyd between 1925
and 1955, usually using printed and transcribed sources. It covers
marriages in most of the parishes of Middlesex and the City of London
for varying periods. The original index is at the Society of Genealogists, and an online
version is available on
FindMyPast
with a useful explanation
of the structure of the index. Listings of the parishes covered were
formerly on the Origins website, and may now be found on the Internet
Archive for London
and Middlesex.
Microform copies of the index can be found in many local
repositories, including the Guildhall Library. The LDS
Family History Library has microfilm and microfiche versions.
Search
their catalogue for the title "Boyd's marriage index" to locate
them.
-
Cliff Webb has started a project to produce a supplement to
Boyd's index for London and Middlesex parishes not covered in it;
this will also include Jewish, Roman Catholic and Huguenot
marriages. The work is ongoing but thousands of records are already
available on
Origins Network,
with a list
of the parishes and periods covered. The announcement of this
project in the Genealogists' Magazine also promised
hardcopy at the Society
of Genealogists and the
Guildhall Library.
-
West Middlesex FHS Marriage Index covers almost all the parishes
of Middlesex outside the London County Council area. Searches are
available
for a fee paid to the Society, and the index can also be searched on
FindMyPast, where there is a
list
of parishes and dates covered.
- See also Phillimore Middlesex Marriages
Series above.
-
Archive CD
Books marriage licence page describes their CDs which have
various lists of marriage licences for London.
-
Crisp's London Marriage Licences Index covers marriage licences
from more than a dozen large London parishes from the mid-1700s to
1837. It may be searched
by surname for free on the Achievements website, and an
abstract of the content is available for a fee.
-
Marriage licences issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury's
Vicar-General or the Faculty Office at Doctor's Commons, could be for
anywhere in the Archdiocese of Canterbury, but these licence were
particularly used by London and Middlesex couples. There are indexes to
the Vicar-General records 1694-1850 and the Faculty Office records
1701-1850 at the Society of
Genealogists, and an online version of them is available on FindMyPast with a useful description of the
indexes and records.
-
Boyd's London Burial Index covers 243,000 male burials in
London. It is available at the Society
of Genealogists or online at FindMyPast, who provide a description of
the index and a list of
parishes covered. Boyd himself described this index as "a 'lucky
dip' if you find what you want, well & good; if you don't, you have
searched nothing", because it is neither systematic nor comprehensive.
-
The National
Burial Index (3rd edition) incorporates
entries for
London parishes from John Hanson's indexing (see below) and entries
from a limited number of
Middlesex
parishes. It is available on CD, and much of it is also available
on FindMyPast.
-
London Burial Indexes have been produced by Cliff Webb, and by
John Hanson and Monnica Stevens.
-
Webb's index, covering 76 parishes of the City of London for the
period 1813-1854, was first published on microfiche
by the West
Surrey FHS. It is available online at Origins Network, who provide a
description of it.
-
Hanson & Stevens' index aims to cover the City parishes not
included in Webb's index, and to extend it back to 1754. It is
available from findmypast.co.uk,
co-searchable with Webb's index. It currently covers all the
remaining City of London parishes, and a number of the adjoining
Middlesex and Surrey parishes for 1813-1854. Work is ongoing to index
the period 1754-1812. John Hanson has provided a very
detailed account of these indexes.
Find
help, report problems, or contribute information.
[Created 23 Sep 2007 by Andrew Millard. Last updated 28 Jan 2012 by
Andrew Millard.]
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