Page 164 - Dictionary of Heraldry and Related Subjects

Non-Parochial Registers relate solely
to England and Wales. Almost al1
are £rom Protestant Non-Conformist
Churches; they include several
P
Registers of Huguenot and other
Foreign Protestant Churches in Eng-
land and a separate class of Regis-
ters of the Society of Friends Pakistan - Completed registers are
with
the
(Quakers). Indexes to the latter are deposited
Registrar
preserved in the Libraty of the General of Births, Marriages and
Society of Friends, Friends' House, Deaths of the respective provinces.
Euston Road, London N.W.1. The Registration of Christian and most
few Roman Catholic Registers Parsee mariages date back to 1872
which are included corne mainly and 1865 respectively. There is no
from the North of England; other registration for Hindu, Moslern or
Roman Catholic Registers remain in other religious secrs.
the custody of the present priests-in-
charge of the respective churches. Parish Registers - These were
A few Registers reIate to non- ordered to be kept by Henry VITI
denominational institutions; such as in 1538.
the City of London burial ground
Initially there was considerable
al Bunhill Fields and the British opposition against the keeping of
Lying-In Hospital, Holborn. There Parish Registers, in consequence of
which, except in a very few Parishes.
are no Jewish Registers.
Most Non-Parochial Registers they are very haphazard and in
relate to the period 1775-1837, al- rnany cases almost impossible to
though a few do continue beyond read.
Various Ordinances were passed
tliat date to as Iate as 1857 and
several go back as far as the middle to ensure better maintenance of the
of the seventeenth century or even, Parish records but it was only
in the case of some Foreign Protes- gradually that the sysrem came to
tant Churches, to the sixteenth cen- be adopted wholeheartedly.
lury.
In 1597 an order was issued by
A fuller account of the history of
the Archbishop of Canterbury that
these Registers will be found in copies of the registers should be
' Nonconformist sent each year to the Registrar of
Welch.
Edwin
Registers ' in the Journal of the each diocese. These came ta be
Society of Archivists, Volume II, known as the Bishop's Transcripts.
No. 9, pp. 41 1-417.
Parish Registers, Proceedings for
North Borneo - Al1 registrations Obtaining Information - The first
prior to the Japanese invasion were step is to write to the vicar or rector
los1 but efforts are being made to of the Parish giving hirn as much
reconstruct the oId registers. Regis- information as possible and ask hirn
trations from 15th July 1946 are specific questions to which you
rilade with the Registrar of each require answers.
district. One must remember rhat the
Parish incumbent is a busy man
who is generally poorly paid and
one sliould, therefore. if at al1 poss-
ible. send him tlie rettirn postage fee.
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