Parish registers are vital sources to explore back before civil registration and censuses. Tracking down and inter-preting parish baptism entries can, however, prove frustrating.

There is no central index to the records and the content and availabil-ity varies – Phillimore’s Atlas and Index to Parish Registers (available from www.genealogysupplies.com) lists all churches and when registers began.

The International Genealogical Index, compiled by the Mormons and available at every record office, is still a valuable resource for finding baptisms and marriages up to mid-19th century, but it is not fully indexed and is prone to transcription errors.

Many registers have been transcribed and published, and can be purchased as CD-ROMs, but you should always check original entries. Again, www.genealogysupplies.com has many of those available.

There are also many parish records –both searchable indexes made from printed books and transcriptions of original registers – available at www.thegenealogist.co.uk. See the maps below for coverage (which is always growing) to date.

Original entries
Baptisms were usually performed a few days after birth, but in some cases, delayed until much later -widen searches to five years and extend to surrounding parishes, carefully noting all relevant entries.

Bishops’ Transcripts in diocesan record offices can fill gaps where registers have been lost, but beware of errors and omissions.

During the Commonwealth years (1649-60), there are noticeable gaps in the registers.

Illegitimate births
These usually only include mother and child’s names. A search of Bishop’s visitations, accounts of overseer or churchwarden or bastardy Books may reveal the reputed father.

Illegitimate stillbirths were rarely recorded, and children born away from home may be baptised in another parish.

When encountering records of two or more people with the same name, check burial records to see if one can be eliminated.

Nonconformists
Consider Nonconformism if Anglican baptism searches draw a blank. Most record offices hold Noncon-formist registers of births. The definitive online site for these is www.bmdregisters.co.uk – this data is also available to Gold and Diamond subscribers at www.thegenealogist.co.uk.

Dade Registers
From 1770 to 1812 many parishes, particularly in Yorkshire, adopted a more detailed register based on the ideas of William Dade, a Yorkshire clergyman. Dade registers usually record the name of child, parents, including mother’s maiden name, and grandparents, at least in the male line. The main resource for these is the Borthwick Institute for Archives  in York.