What Are English Parish Registers?

English parish registers are handwritten books that have been used by churches to record the baptisms, marriages and burials of their parishioners since 1538. The first parish registers were started on the instructions of Henry VIII.

Henry's Vicar General Thomas Cromwell ordered each parish priest to keep the registers to help keep track of the population.

Parish registers have been kept since that time in every church in England, although many of the earliest books have been lost or destroyed and no longer exist. Only a few parishes in the whole of England have an unbroken record for the whole period between 1538 and the present time.

Baptism, marriage and burial registers are still kept today and each parish church has a current book for each event. Older books and particularly those that have been filled up with entries are now kept at Record Offices. Parish register entries are very useful for people researching their family history.