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The Official Non-Parochial BMDs ServiceComing Soon...Launch date: 14 September 2007Background InformationThis year long project of digitisation and transcription has involved the digitisation of thousands of reels of microfilm and the painstaking formatting of the information into an easily searchable online system. S&N Genealogy Supplies who have undertaken the project are the largest UK founded company with divisions in Jersey and England. The company started out as a small enterprise run from their dining room table in 1992 and has grown to a business that employs over thirty people in the British Isles and many hundreds involved in transcription overseas.
Further Detailed Background InformationRG5 Birth Certificates from the Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist Registry and from the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan RegistryThese records are from the General Register Office, 1836-1970 and were compiled from the following registries:-
Scope and content Original parchment and paper certificates from which the entries in the registers of births from the Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist registry at Dr Williams' Library were compiled, and the parchment certificates recorded in the registers of births and baptisms from the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry. These paper certificates are a late example of the many attempts to make such nonconformist registration legally acceptable prior to the 1836 Births and Deaths Registration Act. RG4 Non-parochial Registers covering the period 1567–1858
The Protestant Dissenters' Registry at Dr Williams' Library served the congregations of Baptists, Independents and Presbyterians in London and within a twelve-mile radius of the capital. However, parents from most parts of the British Isles and even abroad also used the registry. Almost 50,000 births were registered in it with details of their family. The register was started in 1742, with retrospective entries going back to 1716, and continued to 1837. The certificates used to compile the registers also survive. Parents wishing to register a birth had to produce two parchment certificates signed by their minister and by the midwife and one or two other people present at the birth, giving the name and sex of the child, the name of the parents, the name of the mother's father and the date and place (street, parish and county) of birth. After 1828, paper certificates were required instead, which had to be signed by the parents as well; this made them more acceptable as legal proof. On receipt of the two certificates, the registrar entered all the details, except the address of birth, in the register, filed one of the certificates and returned the other to the parents with his certificate of registration. The Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry provided for the registration of births and baptisms of Wesleyan Methodists throughout England, Wales and elsewhere, independently of any congregational records. Over 10,000 children were registered here. The registers continued till 1838, with some retrospective registration of births going back to 1773. One of the two original certificates submitted by the parents was entered in the register and filed, and the other was marked as entered and returned to the parents. The certificates and the register entry have the name and sex of the child, the name and address of the father, the name of the mother and of both her parents, the date and place of birth, and the name of the Wesleyan circuit, with the signature (or name, in the register) of the parents, the witnesses to the birth, and the baptising minister. Despite these registers problems continued, as the courts proved unwilling to accept certificates from these institutions. When civil registration of births, marriages and deaths was set up, to start from July 1837, the opportunity was taken to provide for retrospective legislation of the records of births, marriages and deaths which had been registered outside the Church of England. A parliamentary commission was set up in 1837 to collect and examine non-parochial registers, and to authenticate those which conformed to an acceptable standard. Most Protestant nonconformist records were handed in (including the registers and indexes kept by the two central registries), but few Catholic ones and the Jews and the East India Company preferred to keep their own records. The opportunity was also taken by various Anglican institutions, particularly large charities such as the Foundling Hospital and the Royal Hospitals at Chelsea and Greenwich, to hand in their own registers for safe-keeping. Once collected and authenticated, the registers were deposited in the new General Register Office. Certified extracts from these authenticated registers would henceforth be legally acceptable. Not all registers were found to be worth authenticating: the defective ones were returned to the congregations. In some cases, acceptable registers had been kept in a single book with other chapel records: the register section was removed and kept, and the other records returned. Many congregations were unhappy to lose their original registers, despite the benefit of legal recognition of their contents. A further commission was issued in 1857 with most of the registers collected then in RG 8, but some were reunited with the registers collected earlier from the same congregation in RG 4. Some of these registers date from after 1837, but they contain information not included in the civil registers, as failure to use the civil registration system was not penalised until 1875. As RG4 contains registers of births, baptism, marriages and burials from Scottish, Dutch, French, German and other foreign Protestant churches in England and from the English church in St Petersburg, Russia, entries in foreign languages should be expected. Other languages identified include Latin and Polish. What's Next in the Hidden BMDsForthcoming launches include RG6, RG7, RG8, RG32, RG33, RG34, RG35, RG36 and BT158-160
They comprise 294 pieces in total, and contain details of approximately 110,000 images. The format of the various documents reflects the diversity of original sources. Many of the pieces contain printed registers where the format is standard and all information is legible. Some of the documents (notably the certificates in RG 32 and 35) are handwritten in foreign languages, and the information is less clear. The images could present a full page of a register, either single or folio, or an individual certificate, depending on particular pieces. RG7 in detailThe Fleet Registers RG7This growing record set also will include Clandestine Marriages or Fleet Marriages, these were carried out by priests in the Fleet prison chapel and later in chapels, marriage houses and taverns that were established in the Rules, an area around the Fleet prison. It was a cheap way of getting married without too many questions. Many of these events were recorded by the priests in notebooks which are now known as the Fleet Registers. These marriages took place between 1660 to 1754 until rules only allowed the Church of England to carry out the service. Principally registers, 1667-c1777 (with some indexes, 1698-1754) and note books, 1682-1774, giving particulars of clandestine marriages and baptisms performed in the Fleet Prison, at the May Fair Chapel, at King's Bench Prison or within the Mint, as well as entries in the Fleet registers of other ceremonies performed at these places. This series records the marriages of a significant proportion of the population of London and surrounding areas up to 1754. The 'Report of the Commission into Marriage Law' of 1868 estimated that countrywide in the first half of the eighteenth century, a third of all marriages were actually clandestine. Of these, the Fleet registers in this series are the most significant source, containing an estimated 400,000 entries representing over 200,000 weddings. After the outlawing of clandestine marriages in 1754, these registers remained in private hands, being bought by private individuals who then charged the public for making searches. Gradually a large collection built-up and in 1821, for a sum of £260 6s 6d, the government purchased from a Mr William Cox, the bulk of the registers and notebooks which now comprise this series. Under the direction of Lord Sidmouth, secretary of state for the Home Department, these were then deposited in the Registry of the Consistory Court of London where they were held until 1840 when transferred to the newly established General Register Office . RG32 Births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials abroad, and on British as well as foreign shipsThe series contains records relating to births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials abroad, and on British as well as foreign ships, of British subjects, nationals of the colonies, the Commonwealth and countries under British jurisdiction. Events affecting some foreign nationals are also included. These searchable records consist of certificates issued by foreign registration authorities, which are in local languages with the key details translated. RG32 also contains copies of entries kept by incumbents of English churches and missions, chaplains and burial authorities. It also has documents sent by individuals to the Registrar General. For the Second World War period some notifications of deaths of members of the services, prisoners of war, civilians, internees and deaths through aircraft lost in flight are included. Notifications of some post-war deaths of civilians in mining service are preserved. There is also material relating to the Channel Islands and a return for births on Lundy Island ( Devon). Series BT158-160 Births, Marriages and Deaths at Sea 1854-1891There are 6,000 images approximately. These records were created as a result of the Merchant Shipping Act 1854.
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