Searches in Church Registers
The Church of England holds a wealth of information related to family history in the form of Baptism, Wedding and Burial Registers. The civil registration of births, marriages and deaths did not begin until 1837, and so to trace family history before this date an important source of information is the parish registers. In 1538, Thomas Cromwell serving as chief minister to King Henry VIII of England ordered that every baptism, marriage and burial was to be recorded, and from 1597 onwards a second record had to be made and sent to the Bishop. Therefore, from the 1600s parish registers became a source of important genealogical information.
If you are interested in more information on parish registers in general, then a good source of additional information and advice can be found at the Parish Registers website.
The five churches that are part of the Benefice of Coniston and the Crake Valley all have parish registers that date back to their establishment. The vast majority of these records are now held at the Barrow Registration Office:
Nan Tait Centre
Abbey Road
Barrow In Furness
LA14 1LG
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0300 303 2472 | |
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Opening Times: Monday to Friday 9.00am to 12.00pm and 1.00pm to 4.30pm
Naturally, all the five churches hold current records for baptisms, marriages and burials, as well as service registers which additionally record Memorial Services, Services of Blessing, Renewal of Wedding Vows and Services of Thanksgiving and Dedication of a Child.
It is important to highlight that the Church of England has to has to charge statutory fees laid down by the General Synod and agreed in law. Specifically:
| Searching registers of marriages for period before 1 July 1837 (for up to one hour). The search fee relates to a particular search where the approximate date of the baptism, marriage or burial is known. The fee for a more general search of a church register is negotiable. | £32.00 | |
| Searching registers of baptism or burials (including the provision of one copy of any entry therein) for up to one hour. | £32.00 | |
| For each subsequent hour or part of an hour for either of the above. | £32.00 |
For a full breakdown of the current Church fees please see the Church of England's Table of Parochial Fees. If you would interested in requesting a search of one or more of our records then please do contact us through our online Enquiry Form or directly to the vicar or administrator at Who's Who.
All of the churchyards in the Benefice of Coniston and the Crake Valley have been digitised by Atlantic Geomatics using an aerial drone, and all the burial records have been scanned. Every burial in each churchyard has being digitally recorded or is in the process of being recorded. This has allowed us to use Atlantic Geomatics' Burial Ground Management System (BGMS) which is an online and interactive way of exploring and searching for the location of grave spaces.
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The BGMS allows for easy searching on names, with approximations allowed, and any selected name will be linked to a marked grave space on the interactive map. The system also provide photographs, including of headstones and graves, and any biographical details if they are known.
In all, there are eight churchyards in the benefice and we hope to complete the digital records in the very near future. In addition, it is hoped that sometime in the future we will be able to offer public access to these records, so please do come back to check out this exciting possibility!
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