Your Family Tree Magazine

December 2010 - Promotional Feature

Find Parish Records on The Genealogist

Find your ancestors in parish and nonconformist records using TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist.co.uk has the widest range of information available online that's been extracted from parish and nonconformist records. These cover births, baptisms, Bishops' Transcripts, banns, marriages, burials and deaths.

Detailed Records Unique Tools Unique Data

The records on The Genealogist are highly detailed and can give three-generation trees, original document images where available, and provide a search facility for other family members mentioned in the records.

The site also offers unique parish and nonconformist records that give details of over 22 million individuals for 38 counties and cover a wide range of events.

The Genealogist also includes BMDRegisters.co.uk - the official nonconformist website, with the largest collection of UK nonconformist records available. Some records even provide an image of the original certificate, with nonconformist birth certificates as early as 1609.

Finding your ancestors among this huge collection is easy, thanks to the search features available. The search facilities are more detailed than other sites and include the ability to search for an individual and use the results to find other family members in the records.

The keyword master search tool instantly refines your search to find the one person you're after. rather than trawling through thousands of records. Enter a name to search or click advanced search to refine your results further:

For example, entering John Smith, 1821 for the year of baptism, Sarah in the mother's name, and carpenter under father's occupation, will show the one record you're after.

Searching 'all names' also allows you to find an ancestor when they aren't the subject of a record. For example, you may find the person you're after as a parent or a witness to a wedding that you never knew existed!

The site includes births, baptisms, Bishops' Transcripts, banns, marriages, marriage licences, deaths, burials and wills, not just the standard birth, marriage and death records.

In addition, early birth certificates are all provided as part of your subscription, so there's no need to pay an extra charge to get a copy of the certificate once you've found the transcribed information you're after. Among The Genealogist's collection you can find the birth records of William Shakespeare's children and Florence Nightingale's birth certificate.

The Genealogist's unique parish record collection continues to grow. Just recently, the site has added over 380,000 individuals to its Yorkshire records collection, ranging from 1441 onwards. These include baptisms (1539-1910), marriages (1539-1909), banns (1654-1812) and burials (1441-1909).

The Diamond subscription gives access to millions of new records, which include the following exclusive data sets:

  • new Parish Records
  • new forthcoming census releases
  • electoral records (including poll books and electoral registers from 1710 to 1919)
  • British and International records
  • newspapers and magazines
  • phone directories
  • occupational lists
  • peerage and heritage records
  • bankrupts
  • visitations
  • and more.
 

Step-by-step: Find early birth certificates

Finding Florence Nightingale's birth certificate

1. Enter the name you wish to find records for, or click Advanced Search to refine the search. Searching all names allows you to find an ancestor when they're not the subject of a record. For example, you may find them as a parent or a witness to a wedding you never knew existed.
   
2. Your search will return an Index record, transcript record, and three-generation tree, as well as some early birth certificates - all of which are provided as part of your subscription so there's no need to pay extra to obtain a certificate.
   
3. You'll find that records with certificates show two results. This doesn't mean that two Florence Nightingales were born on the same date; one result is the index record and one is the actual birth certificate that you can download, or print off as part of your subscription.