English Family History: Where to Start
England has the deepest records in the directory and the most ways to waste money on them. The 154 English entries in the Genealogy Resources Directory are mostly county record offices, county societies and county indexes, which tells you where the real research happens. This is the short version.
Two dates to hold in your head
1 July 1837. Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began, and from that date almost every person in England can be found in the General Register Office indexes. The censuses from 1841 to 1921 run alongside, every ten years, naming each household. Between them they carry most families back four generations.
1538. Thomas Cromwell ordered every parish to keep a register of baptisms, marriages and burials. Before 1837 the parish register is the record of ordinary people, and it is kept in the county record office, not in London. Bishop's transcripts, the annual copies sent to the diocese from 1598, fill the gaps. Wills before 1858 were proved in church courts, and those too are mostly at the county offices; after 1858 there is one national calendar.
The ten to open first
- FreeBMD. The free transcription of the civil registration indexes from 1837. Find the quarter and the district, then order a copy from the GRO.
- General Register Office. The GRO's own index adds the mother's maiden name to births and the age to deaths across the whole nineteenth century, and a digital copy of an entry costs a fraction of a certificate.
- FreeREG. Free parish register transcriptions, county by county. Uneven, but growing every month.
- FreeCEN. Free census transcriptions. Check what is covered for your county before you search.
- UKBMD. The directory of local birth, marriage and death indexes made from the register office books rather than the GRO copy: Lancashire BMD, Cheshire BMD, Yorkshire BMD and the rest. They name the actual church or register office, which the GRO index does not.
- Online Parish Clerks. Volunteer transcriptions for Cornwall, Lancashire, Kent, Dorset, Wiltshire, Sussex and Warwickshire, free and often complete for a parish.
- Probate Search. The national calendar of wills and administrations from 1858, free to search, with a copy of the will for a small fee.
- England Jurisdictions 1851. A map that shows, for any place, the parish, the registration district, the probate court and the neighbouring parishes. The tool that answers the question "where would the record be?"
- Historical Directories. Trade and county directories from 1750 to 1919, for the farm, the shop and the street.
- Old Bailey Online. 197,000 London trials from 1674 to 1913, naming witnesses and victims as well as the accused.
Then go local
The county record office is where the research is done. Every one in England is in the directory, from Kresen Kernow in Cornwall to Northumberland Archives, and most have a catalogue online and a partnership that has put their parish registers on Ancestry or Findmypast. The county family history society comes next. Cornwall FHS, Manchester & Lancashire, Midland Ancestors for the West Midlands counties, Kent, Devon, Lincolnshire and the rest hold indexes and transcriptions that nobody else has, and a year's membership usually costs less than a month of a big platform.
Three things that trip people up
Counties moved. The 1974 reorganisation created Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cumbria and the rest, and record offices follow the modern map. A Lancashire ancestor from Manchester is at Archives+, not at Lancashire Archives in Preston. Use Find an Archive to confirm which office holds a parish.
Registration districts cross county borders, so an index entry can place a birth in a district whose name belongs to the next county.
Before 1837, Nonconformists are not in the parish register. Their chapel registers are mostly at The National Archives in the RG4 series, searchable through BMD Registers.
Frequently asked questions
When do English records start?
Civil registration began on 1 July 1837 and the first useful census is 1841. Parish registers begin in 1538, though few survive that early. Most families can be traced into the 1700s with care.
Are English parish registers online for free?
Partly. FreeREG and the Online Parish Clerks projects have free transcriptions for many parishes. The images are usually on Ancestry or Findmypast through a partnership with the county record office.
Which should I join first, a society or a subscription site?
The county family history society. Its indexes cover the parish you need, its members know the records, and a year's membership costs less than a month of a big platform.
The other quick reads
All 154 England entries, with filters
Open the England view of the directory →Research done? See the 72 chart designs.