4. What you need to get started
• A place, the parish name is good
• Having the village or farm name is best
• Name of the ancestor
• Reference tools
– Gazetteers
– Maps
– Book: Parish Registers of Wales
5. Jurisdictions
• Several levels of
jurisdiction applied to
the area where your
ancestor lived.
• The parish and diocese
are very important for
family history research.
6.
7.
8. A great “free” program that handles
Welsh naming patterns
13. The parish was the center of the world
Before 1834 the parish was
the both the civil and
ecclesiastical center of life.
14. Parish Registers
• Recording christenings,
marriages and burials went
into effect in 1538.
• There are just over 1,000
ancient parishes (created
before 1813) but only 71
have records that survive
before 1600.
• Many parishes have no
registers before 1754.
15. Key Dates
• 1538 Order to begin recording christenings, marriages
and burials
• 1538 – 1732 expect registers in Latin
• 1698 – 1703 some events not registered to avoid
taxation
• 1752 the first day of the year is changed from 25
March to 1 January
16. Key Dates
• 1754 separate, pre-printed forms used to record
marriages
• 1597 – 1917 Bishop’s transcripts
• 1783-1794 Stamp Act taxed all registrations
• 1813 printed forms used for christenings & burials
• 1837 parishes use the same form for marriages as civil
registration
17. Christenings
Christenings often show:
• child’s given name
• Father’s name
• Mother’s name
Sometimes included:
• Family residence such
as the village, street or
farm name
• Father’s occupation
22. Marriages
• Get your bearings
– Map of the country
– Map of the county showing all parishes
– Atlas and Index of Parish Registers
FHL book# 942 E7pa
23. Start with a marriage index
• Search the Family History Library Catalog by
doing a place search for the county
• Use the IGI
• Marriage and Census Indexes FHL book# 942
D27gjh
31. • I’d like to look at a Banns register for 1818 but
according to Parish Registers of Wales the
records do not exist.
• Note that the BTs start a generation earlier than
PRs
Census records are one of the best records for Welsh family history because individuals are listed together in context of a family group.
Margaret died at age 29 and Samuel remarried but it would be difficult to prove this with the parish registers only. The burial is on DGS number 425322, image 30,