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Parish Records -  Baptisms, Marriages, Burials

The Church of St. Nicholas has been baptising, marrying and burying villagers since it was first built in the 12th Century.

 

Baptisms, marriages and burials began to be recorded in England and Wales from the 5th September 1538 - ordered by Thomas Cromwell following Henry VIII's split with the Roman Catholic Church and the setting up of the Church of England. The records are handwritten volumes usually kept at the time in the Parish Church (there are also non-conformist records - for example the Wesleyan Methodist circuits). They are generally kept nowadays in County Records offices, with fiches available to the public.

The Parish Register records for Bishop's Sutton were started in 1711. The records were originally transcribed by Mark Allen in 2014 for FreeReg, the online charity dedicated to provide free internet searches of transcribed parish registers, non-conformist records etc. in the UK. They have been provided here for personal use for family history searchers and geneaologists.

Double-Dates

Until 1752, you will see the record year as two years if the date is between 1 January and 24th March. This is confusing, and the reason is this: The Julian calendar was in use up until 1752, where the year began on 24th March until the following 25th March. In 1752 the calendar changed to the current Gregorian one and as much of Europe was already using the Gregorian, records were 'double-dated' showing both possible years if the record was between 1 Jan and 24 March.

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