NONCONFORMIST RECORDS IN ENGLAND
Rebecca Richards
What is a “Nonconformist”?
Nonconformist is a term used to describe religious denominations (and their members) other than Church of England. By 1851 a little over half the church going population of England and Wales attended Sunday School services at a nonconformist church. The history of nonconformists reaches back to when Christianity first came to England. Up until the reign of Henry VIII (which began in 1485) English Christians were Catholic. We are all familiar with Henry VIII and his decision to become the head of the church. Other than the three years when Mary Tudor reigned, The Church of England became the Established Church. It's history is full of changes that followed the different reigns of England's Monarch until in about 1538 when it became more standardized. Nonconformists can either be categorized as Protestants to the established church which leaves out Catholics and Jews or it can mean any one not C of E (Church of England). I will not go into specific religions but the records we talk about will cover all religions except C of E.
How will you know if your ancestors attended a nonconformist church?
If the Church of England registers contain marriages and or burials for you ancestors but no baptisms.
You cannot find the baptism of your ancestor in the Church of England records for the area in which they were born.
Family tradition leads you to believe they were nonconformists. Naming patterns of four names usually including Mary for Catholics.
Old Testament names and the tradition of not eating Pork for Jews. Although Biblical names are an unreliable clue.
Nonconformist churches were called chapels rather than parishes.
Look for all nonconformist chapels in the area where your ancestors lived. People may have traveled miles to attend a certain chapel. If you know which nonconformist chapel they belonged to it will narrow your search. Remember though that they may not have attended the closest chapel, but one where they liked the minister or congregation better.
Denominational lines were not rigid
A baptismal certificate from the C of E was the only one legally accepted in a court of law until the 1840's. Many nonconformist chapels did not have a graveyard so nonconformist may be buried in an Anglican churchyard.
Some families had some children baptized in the church of England and others in a independent chapel.
Families changed religious affiliations, occasionally an entire congregation would change.
Marriages between 1754 and 1837
In 1753 Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act took effect. This law stipulated that all people had to marry in the Church of England in either the parish of the bride or of the groom. The exceptions were Quaker and Jewish marriages. This ended with the beginning of Civil Registration in 1837.
Circuits
A circuit was a group of chapels in various locations visited by the same minister or ministers. The chapels were usually in neighboring parishes but could be as far as 20 miles apart. The minister would keep records of the baptisms. Marriages (before 1754 and after 1837) and burials that he preformed in each location. Even though the register contained entries for chapels in many places, it was called by the name of the circuit head. The circuit head was usually the largest town in the circuit and was often a market town. All the branches of Methodism kept records this way. Although other denominations did not formally have circuits, the practice of one priest keeping a register for many chapels, or people coming from a wide area to a central chapel, was common.
For more information, refer to the section of the Nonconformist Register at the family History Library entitled “Circuits” for help identifying to which circuit a particular Wesleyan chapel belonged. Although this list was created for Wesleyan Methodist chapels only, it may roughly indicate the set-up of other Methodist circuits.
How to find nonconformist ancestors
Search the IGI. Almost all of the pre-1837 nonconformist records that were turned into the Public Record Office have been extracted and are in the IGI. Does everyone know the difference on the IGI between extracted records and submitted records?
Search the British Vital Records Index, 2nd edition (published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Most of Dr. William's library and some of the Wesleyan Metropolitan Registry have been extracted onto it, plus others.
Search the family History Library Catalog (available at www.familysearch.org) for all nonconformist registers at the FHL. These can be found under the Parishes or under the counties and sometimes carry the name Dissenters records.
Look under the parish where your ancestors lived, In the FHLC do a place search and type in the name of the parish. Then look under “Church Record – Indexes”
Look under COUNTY Many chapel and circuit records appear in the FHLC only on the county level because they covered more than one place within the county.
Look under the circuit head (when applicable)
Look under parishes surrounding the parish where your ancestors lived.
Our library has a computer program that will help you determine which parishes are within a certain distance from the one you are searching.
Find Parloc on your computer. Should be red and look like England.
When the search screen comes up, type in the name of the parish you want to know about and click on “find first”. Near the bottom of the page, click on “Select First Parish” Now you can type in the mile radius to give you a list of the surrounding parishes, or type in another parish click on “Find First” then on “Select Second Parish” to see how far apart they are.
You can print this list, start with the closest parishes in your search and work your way out. You should check if these parishes have been extracted and for which years. This way you will not be searching records that have already been indexed.
In Phillimore's Atlas and Index of Parish Registers, edited by Cecil R. Humphery-Smith 2003 FHL call no. 942 E7pa 2003, you will find the dates of parish registers that have been deposited and the years that have been extracted to the IGI
Look in the largest market towns. Market Towns are usually larger and almost always had nonconformist chapels. To identify Market Towns, use Samuel Lewis Atlas to the Topographical Dictionaries of England and Wales, London: S. Lewis, 1849. FHL ref Q942 E51. Market towns are written in capitol letters.
Look under the COUNTRY. Records such as Dr. William's library and the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan registry at Paternoster Row covered multiple counties and therefore are found in the FHLC at the country level.
Dr. Daniel Williams (1643-1716) was a Presbyterian minister of the type whose faith developed later into Unitarianism. He bequeathed his library of books for public use. And in 1729 it opened in London. It is also known as the Dissenters library. It is a comprehensive history of the nonconformist chapels in England and has been added to over the years.
What if the Family History Library doesn't have the records that I need?
Check the series of books called The National Index of Parish Registers (NIPRs)
[London: Society of Genealogist]. There is a book for every county. (FHL British book 942 D27 ste v. 1-13)
If you can't find what you are looking for at the Family History Library
You may need to look at the county pages in England. These can be accessed through www.genuki.org.uk has access to county pages.
How to use GENUKI
click on the picture of England on the home page.
Then click on the region, in this case England.
You will see a list of counties.
Click on the one you are interested in the search what is available there.
Another site is www.ukgenealogy.co.uk
This site also has county pages.
On its home page
choose a county from the drop down menu then click on county.
You will see some commercial sites here such as ancestry.com and Origins but there should be some free information also.
I suggest that you take a look at www.britishorigins.com
It is a pay site but you might find some unique items here.
In 1992 the Church of England required all parish registers of baptism and burials containing entries that are 150 years or more to be closed and (in most cases) deposited in a record office. This is why you will need to contact the county record office for records not on microfilm at the FHL in Salt Lake.
In 1851 there was a religious census taken (approximately 1/3 of the counties have this census in book form) You can find these books at the FHL in Salt Lake of at the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU. To find these do a county search then choose church records and go through the list to see if an 1851 religious census was taken. It might also be under 1851 census.
If you find a lot of your ancestors were nonconformists, you might want to get more books on the history of nonconformists and more about searching the records.
Books to look at:
Family History on the web an Internet Directory for England and Wales
Stuart A Raymond
FFHS Publications Ltd
Chesham Industrial Centre
Oram Street
Bury, Lancashire BLO 9BZ
United Kingdom
or Online Book shop
www.familyhistorybooks.co.uk
email inquiries: orders@ffhs.org.uk or www.samjraymond.btinternet.co.uk/lgb.htm
Ancestral Trails by Mark D. Herber 2000 edition
Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc
1001 N. Calvert St.,
Baltimore Maryland 21202
or available through the BYU bookstore
Phillimore's Atlas also available through Stuart Raymond by quite pricey
The Dictionary of Genealogy by Terrick V.H. Fitzhugh
available through the Society of Genealogists
www.sog.org.ukor through the BYU bookstore
Researching English Non-Anglican Records by Dr. Penelope Christensen
Heritage Productions
c/o Louis St. Denis
30 Wellington Street Eat, Suite 2002
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5E 1S3
email:info@genealogystore.com or www.genealogystore.com