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Ancestry Daily News
7/15/2003 - Archive
Dr. Williams' Library and Its Register
If you are having difficulty finding baptism records in England after roughly
1720 and up until the start of civil registration in 1837 then you need to be
aware of this resource. The register of baptisms maintained at the library for
nearly one hundred years might be the only record of a nonconformist event in
your family.
Dr. Daniel Williams lived from 1643 to 1716. He was a Presbyterian minister
who collected a large number of books and manuscripts, which he bequeathed to
public use. The library opened in 1729 in Red Cross Street, London; its contents,
both original materials and subsequent donations, pertain principally to the
subject of religious dissent. The library remains in existence today in London,
but it is not necessary to visit it to consult the register.
The General Register of Births, as the baptismal register was called, was an
idea that originated with a group of Protestant dissenting ministers of what
were called the Three Denominations (Baptist, Congregational, Presbyterian).
It began to collect details of births of dissenting children because so many
ministers of nonconformist congregations failed to keep registers. Arrangements
were made with the trustees of Dr. Williams' Library for the librarian to receive
and record the information. The record-keeping began 1 January 1743 (New Style).
There was a need to encourage people to submit information, and various tactics
were tried. There was, for example, no charge for the late registration of events
that occurred prior to 1743, so the earliest record is for 1716. There was a
fee for registration, but use increased and many ministers deposited registers
with the library; in 1837 when the records were turned over to the Registrar
General, at the start of civil registration, nearly 49,000 births had been recorded.
All of these birth records have been microfilmed. They can be consulted in London
at the Family Records Centre in Islington and at the National Archives at Kew.
In addition, they are available on microfilm loan through LDS Family History
Centers. The 2nd edition of the British Vital Records Index (BVRI), which can
be purchased at the FamilySearch website, includes the Dr. Williams' Library
register entries in its database.
Some Useful Background
When the registers of dissenting churches were called into the office of the
Registrar General in the mid-1800s, not all complied. Those that were collected
have been filmed, and the majority of these are also available through the Family
History Library (FHL); these are indexed in the International Genealogical Index
(IGI).
It is important to realize, however, that the contents of the IGI and the BVRI
are only some of the events recorded by dissenting congregations, and probably
an even smaller portion of events that actually took place. A wise researcher
will check what is held by the National Archives and what is in local repositories.
In addition, bear in mind that some registers remained in private hands and
may never emerge into the light of day.
Starting a Search in Nonconformist Records
Refer to the Topographical Dictionary of England (Samuel Lewis, 1831),
in order to discover what nonconformist churches existed in the vicinity of
your ancestors in 1831. This publication is widely available today as a reprint,
on CD-ROM and within the Ancestry.com databases (www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=4717&key=D7170
—Editor's Note: Available to subscribers with access to the UK and Ireland
Records Collection).
Next, consult the IGI and the BVRI, being careful to note what is included.
You can get good details about content within the source information options
of the BVRI and, for the IGI, use the Atlas and Index of Parish Registers
(C. Humphery-Smith, 2003), the Parish and Vital Records List at
a Family History Center, or the batch number lists at the Hugh Wallis site:
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers.htm.
There are several other ways to check for surviving nonconformist registers.
Using the National Archives website (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
), search their catalog, Procat; use the place as the keyword and enter "RG"
in the department code box. This tip comes from their own website; try it and
check the results against what is in the FHL. Also accessible through the National
Archives website is the "Access to Archives" search facility. It references
some nonconformist registers in repositories around the country, and is definitely
worth a check. Finally, investigate the holdings of local libraries and archives.
For additional information on nonconformity in general, consult one or more
of these guides:
Shorney, D. Protestant Nonconformity and Roman Catholicism: A Guide to Sources
in the Public Record Office. Public Record Office, 1991.
Steel, D. J. Sources for Nonconformist Genealogy and Family History.
'National Index of Parish Registers, Volume 2.'Society of Genealogists, 1973.
Gandy, Michael. Pocket Guide to Tracing Nonconformist Ancestors. Public
Record Office Pocket Guide, 2001.
Leary, William. My Ancestors Were Methodists: How Can I Find out More about
Them? Society of Genealogists, 3rd ed., 1999. (One of a series of books
with similar titles—several on nonconformity, published by the Society
of Genealogists, www.sog.org.uk )
Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA (Scot) is an author, teacher, and lecturer specializing
in English and Scottish family history. She is the author of Your English
Ancestry (2nd ed, 1998) and Your Scottish Ancestry (1997) and she
is a regular contributor to several journals including Genealogical Computing.
Since 1996, she has been a study tour leader, course coordinator, and instructor
for the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University.
She teaches online for the family history program of Vermont College and has
lectured at conferences in Canada, the United States, and Australia. She is
the president of the Association of Professional Genealogists.
Sherry will be teaching the following MyFamily.com Online Genealogy Training
Courses:
Irish Research Class
29 July 2003 with Sherry Irvine
ancestry.myfamily.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=3560&sourceid=831
English Family Trees
31 July 2003 with Sherry Irvine
ancestry.myfamily.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=3567&sourceid=831
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