PRO Indexes & Census Returns
We have placed the following Public Record Office Indexes
and
Census Returns into the Filby
database
on the GOONS (Guild Of One Name Studies) website server:
INDEXES
Births 1837 to 2006 inc
Marriages 1837 to 2005 inc
Deaths 1837 to 2005 inc
Probate 1858 to 1992
CENSUS RETURNS
1851 Census (Devon, Warwickshire & Norfolk)
1881 British Census (Complete)
1901 British Census (F spelling only)
To access these records click on the website link below
www.one-name.org
We will be adding to these records as and when we can.
I hope they are of help in your research.
When
did Records start?
The
start of official Birth, Marriage and Death Records
In
1538 the Official Church of England instructed vicars and rectors to
record the Baptisms, Marriages and Burials in their Parish, but alas the
repeated injunctions to this effect failed to generally stimulate
obedience to this edict, until about 1650 when those recorded were written
in Latin or early English script.
From
1754 onwards, special books were devised in London for the recording of
Banns and Marriages, and soon ruled books for recording Baptisms and
Burials were in use.
How
earlier year's dates were recorded
In
1752 the English Parliament revised the 'Julian' calendar then in use, to
provide for the New Year to commence with January 1st the 'Gregorian'
calendar, rather than on March 25th as had been the custom in previous
centuries. For the year 1750 it was decreed that the day after September
1st should be the 13th to make up for the days lost in the change over of
calendars.
Hence
prior to 1752 (and in most Parish Records through to 1800) the Months of
January, February and March would be written as 1658/59 to include both
the old and the new year. So it was that children might have been recorded
as being born a
few months after marriage when in fact it may have been a year or more.
The
effects of taxation on records
Taxes were always
a problem and for some 80 years
prior to Oct. 1 1783 there was no tax on Baptisms, Marriages, or Burials
recorded in Church Registers but then a tax of 3p. per entry was
required. This Tax Collector's task was added to the Clergyman's duties.
In 1794 it was repealed but undoubtedly in the ten year period unrecorded events took place.
One idea to escape tax was by being declared a
pauper, 3p. was a good sum for most people. One requirement was
generally enforced however, namely that all burials receiving the
benefit of the Church would require the deceased to be "buried in
wool". This was for the benefit of the woollen industry, it
appears. Certificates as to such burials were often demanded.
Burials were usually in common graves running around
the Church edifice for the use of gravestone monuments were not common.
Various Church groups such as the Quakers believed such monuments were
ostentatious and against their beliefs, also some Quakers who died in
Suffolk might be buried in Tivetshall, Norfolk. Their burial ground
there has only two or three stones and these without names. Some of the
early Filby families were Quakers whose records are well kept.