Availability of Parish Registers

[stanmapstone]

In the Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1929, a diocese record office was defined as a church-owned building. However, the 1978 measure aimed to draw on the network of records offices that were subsequently established throughout the country and the Local Government (Records) Act 1962, which allowed local authority record offices to acquire and care for records of local significance. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/legislation/other-archival-legislation/parochial-registers/

Stan

[LizzieW]

If the Diocesan Record Office is usually the County Record Office, then what is the charge for?  I've been to Hants County Record Office and there was no charge, and I've also been to look at archives in Barrow in Furness and Boston, Lincolnshire (although they do not hold many) and there was no charge.

[stanmapstone]

The charge is for registers still held at the church.

Stan

[stanmapstone]

If a particular church does not want to request a fee that is up to them.

Stan

[LizzieW]

"Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials and registers of banns, confirmations and services when completed have to be permanently deposited at the Diocesan Record Office"

So if the Diocesan Record Office is the usually the County Record Office and all registers when completed have to be permanently deposited at the Diocesan Record Office, then surely all but the newest ones should be in the County Record Offices.

[KGarrad]

I can't say for certain the procedure in other places, but here on the Isle of Man the situation is:

All registers up to 1883 have been microfilmed, and can be seen at the Manx Museum Library.
Registers after 1883 are usually available to be read, on application to the museum staff.

Those registers still being used are still with the relevant church or the Register Office. Some of these date to before WW2.
So far, I have failed to get a glimpse of any of these!

But then I can access various microfiche and other records at The Civil Registry, so it's not been a problem so far.

[stanmapstone]

"Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials and registers of banns, confirmations and services when completed have to be permanently deposited at the Diocesan Record Office"

So if the Diocesan Record Office is the usually the County Record Office and all registers when completed have to be permanently deposited at the Diocesan Record Office, then surely all but the newest ones should be in the County Record Offices.

As I posted the Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978 requires that all non-current registers and records which are over 100 year old must be deposited in the Diocesan Record Office and registers whose earliest entry are 150 years old.

Stan

[Guy Etchells]

There seems to be a variety of views from "authorities" about whether Parish Registers should be open to view. 

The registers are surely public documents marking events.

No parish registers are private church documents though they are open to public inspection.   

There is case law to back up the fact the public have a right to inspect and make copies from parish registers.

A marriage is a public declaration of the bond between two people. Because our law forbids bigamy the records should be publicly available for anyone to check that people have the status they declare.  That declaration also can be used to show the legitimacy of any progeny. I think that the Data Protection Acts cannot apply because the marriage is a public declaration by the people concerned. .

Parish registers are exempt from the Data protection Act as there is legislation requiring them to be open for public inspection.
DPA 1998 section 35
“(1)Personal data are exempt from the non-disclosure provisions where the disclosure is required by or under any enactment, by any rule of law or by the order of a court.”

I think I have seen a report of a 90th wedding anniversary but very few get to their 70th and most don't get to their 50th. Why should marriage records be closed for 100 years?

Baptism is similarly (usually!) a declaration by the parents of the birth of a child.  The only reason I can think of why someone would want to hide a baptism record would be if they wished to hide their real age.

Burial records only show that someone with a particular name died.  The dead have no rights under the Data Protection Act.

I can understand some authorities who say that their records are only available at their premises and cannot be put on-line.  I can understand why some authorities put them on-line to save having to deal with the endless enquiries from us, and possibly as a source of revenue from the likes of Ancestry and Findmypast.  What I don't understand are restrictions which prevent them being available until they are 100 years old.  Everyone has seen from "The Day of the Jackal" how records can be used to create false identities but one has to wonder how often that is done. Is it really such a threat as to close the records for everyone? 

What does RootsChat think?

Parish Register (except those where the church has closed) are for all intents and purposes under perpetual copyright as they are never completed (it comes under multiple authors).

The copyright of the registers is held by the incumbent.

It is up to him or her whether anyone can make a copy of the entire register, not the Diocese Archive or the County Record Office even when either of those two archives hold the original register.

"Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials and registers of banns, confirmations and services when completed have to be permanently deposited at the Diocesan Record Office"

So if the Diocesan Record Office is the usually the County Record Office and all registers when completed have to be permanently deposited at the Diocesan Record Office, then surely all but the newest ones should be in the County Record Offices.

As I posted the Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978 requires that all non-current registers and records which are over 100 year old must be deposited in the Diocesan Record Office and registers whose earliest entry are 150 years old.

Stan

Sorry the above is wrong the incumbent may keep the parish registers for his/her church if they so wish.

The Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978 states

“11(3) Where the bishop of a diocese issues an authorisation in writing to that effect, any register book or record which is required by section 10(1) of this Measure to be deposited in a diocesan record office for the diocese and is specified in the authorisation may be retained in parochial custody.
(4) An application for an authorisation under subsection (3) above shall be made in writing by the person or persons having the custody of the book or record in question, and the bishop shall issue the authorisation if he is satisfied that the provisions of the said Schedule 2 are being and will be complied with as respects that book or record.

Cheers
Guy

PS The Act may been seen on my Acts website at
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01gki/

[Andrew Tarr]

I think the argument about preventing Identity Theft is very 21st-century.  Before 1837, marriages were recorded at each church, and I doubt that many spouses, or the clerics, regarded that information as an announcement to the whole nation, only to the local community and those round about - where the partner often came from.  So the OP's contention that those records are, or should be, 'public' may not be quite so persuasive.

After 1837 data became a bit more centralised, but it could still hardly be seen as an announcement to the nation, and I wonder just how much those indexes were searched then.  Newlyweds wishing to go public could send a Hatch, Match or Despatch to a local or national paper.  Maybe the OP should look there?