Parish register
Jus novum (c. 1140-1563) Jus novissimum (c. 1563-1918) Jus codicis (1918-present) Other Sacraments Sacramentals Sacred places Sacred times Supra-diocesan/eparchal structures Particular churches Juridic persons Philosophy, theology, and fundamental theory of Catholic canon law Clerics Office Juridic and physical persons Associations of the faithful Pars dynamica (trial procedure) Canonization Election of the Roman Pontiff Academic degrees Journals and Professional Societies Faculties of canon law Canonists Institute of consecrated life Society of apostolic life A parish register, alternatively known as a parochial register, is a handwritten volume, normally kept in the parish church of an ecclesiastical parish in which certain details of religious ceremonies marking major events such as baptisms (together with the dates and often names of the parents), marriages (with the names of both partners), and burials (within the parish) are recorded.
[4] Parish registers were formally introduced in England and Wales on 5 September 1538 shortly after the formal split with Rome in 1534, when Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VIII, acting as his Vicar General, issued an injunction requiring that in each parish of the Church of England registers of all baptisms, marriages, and burials be kept.
Before this, a few Roman Catholic religious houses and parish priests had kept informal notes on the baptisms, marriages, and burials of the prominent local families and obituaries of holy persons.
By contrast, surviving Roman Catholic communities were discouraged from keeping similar records, as they needed their names to remain hidden in a country now hostile to the Church of Rome.
[7] Finally, in 1597, both Queen Elizabeth I and the Church of England's Convocation reaffirmed the injunction, adding that the registers were of permagnus usus and must be kept in books of parchment leaves.
[8] During the English Civil War (1643–1647), and in the following periods of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, when the Church of England was suppressed and bishops abolished and replaced by Calvinist ministers under the Directory, records were poorly kept and many went missing after being destroyed (bored by beetles, chewed by rats or rendered illegible by damp) or hidden by the displaced Anglican clergy.
Centuries later, this parsimony and neglect was belatedly remedied by depositing the surviving registers in county record offices where they were better safeguarded, conserved, and made accessible mostly on microfilm as that technology became available.
[9] On the other hand, the accurate parish registers of New France were rarely damaged by external events such as war, revolution, and fire.
[10] In England, the Parochial Registers Act 1812, an "Act for the better regulating and preserving Parish and other Registers of Birth, Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, in England" was passed It stated that "amending the Manner and Form of keeping and of preserving Registers of Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials of His Majesty's Subjects in the several Parishes and Places in England, will greatly facilitate the Proof of Pedigrees of Persons claiming to be entitled to Real or Personal Estates, and otherwise of great public Benefit and Advantage".
In the United States, at least the parishes in the Roman Catholic dioceses maintained a similar practice of recording baptisms, marriages, burials, and often also confirmations and first communions.
[12] But after the Second Vatican Council and its reforms that included translating the Mass into local languages, most register entries gradually came to be written in English.
In Protestant communions with stronger similarities to Roman Catholicism, parish registers are also important sources that document baptisms, marriages, and funerals.
In Protestant and Evangelical churches, individual ministers often kept records of faith-related events among the congregation, but under much less guidance from any central governing body.
The parish register became mandatory in Italy for baptisms and marriages in 1563 after the Council of Trent and in 1614 for burials when its rules of compilation were as well normalised by the Church.
Prior to 1563, the oldest registers of baptisms are preserved since 1379 in Gemona del Friuli, 1381 in Siena, 1428 in Florence or 1459 in Bologna.
Other existing registers prior to orders of civil legislation in 1539 reside in Roz-Landrieux 1451, Paramé 1453, Lanloup 1467, Trans-la-Forêt 1479 and Signes 1500.
[18] Shortly after the establishment of Habitation, the arrival of Jesuit priests in 1615 facilitated the earliest beginnings of the parish register in New France.These earliest accounts entered into the register were recorded primarily within the Jesuits personal logs, and accounted exclusively for the number of deaths in the early settlement period of Quebec.
After the church burned, the parish priest commissioned at Notre Dame-de-la-Recouverance reconstructed the destroyed register entries from memory by recording the rather limited number of births, baptisms and marriages to take place within the colony during this 20-year period.
Moreover, in 1667 the king revealed the Ordonnance de Saint Germain en Laye, a piece of legislation which required parish priests to produce a duplicate of all registers so that all copies may be stored in emerging records offices.
It was only until after cession and the British conquest of New France in 1760 that parish registers began to more openly include Protestants within the registry, and as civil subjects of Quebec.
In country side parishes, each village or industrial town had its own section in the catechetical book, each farmyard its own page, and each person its own row.
William Dade, a Yorkshire clergyman of the 18th century, was ahead of his time, in seeing the value of including as much information on individuals in the parish register as possible.
In 1770 Dade wrote in the parish register of St. Helen's, York: "This scheme if properly put in execution will afford much clearer intelligence to the researches of posterity than the imperfect method hitherto generally pursued."
The application of this system was somewhat haphazard and many clergymen, particularly in more populated areas, resented the extra work involved in making these lengthy entries.
Microfiche copies of parish registers, along with transcriptions, are usually available at larger local libraries and county record offices.
The Family History Library in Salt Lake City also has a vast collection of films of original registers.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has also produced an index (the IGI), of very many register entries — mostly baptisms and marriages.
Histoires de familles: les registres paroissiaux et d'état civil, du Moyen Âge à nos jours : démographie et généalogie.
