England, Essex Parish Registers - FamilySearch Historical Records

England Essex

What is in the Collection?
This collection consists of church records from the county of Essex for the years 1503-1997. Various parishes from Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Kent are also included.

In its most basic sense, a parish register is a record of religious ordinances performed in the Church of England. Beginning in 1538, every parish priest was required to write down certain information about every baptism (officially termed “christening” in Anglican use), marriage, and burial that took place in his parish over the course of each year. He was then supposed to bind these pages into a single volume, thereby annually producing a comprehensive history of his ministerial efforts. After 1754, a new law required that marriages be recorded in a separate book, and banns—public proclamations of a couple’s intent to marry—were to be recorded in yet another book. Starting in 1812, pre-printed registers were introduced, and separate registers were then kept for baptisms, marriages, and burials. It should also be noted that many parish records were not kept during the Interregnum, 1649-1660, due to temporary changes in the hierarchy of the Church of England.

Due to this long and relatively stable tradition, parish registers are central to English genealogical research as they are often one of the only sources for finding families and individuals in England before the start of civil registration in 1837.

One of the 39 historic counties of England, Essex is a coastal county located in the region of East Anglia, with the River Thames forming its southern border. The London metropolis takes up much of the south and west of the modern county. For a list of parishes which historically made up this county, see the Essex Parishes page.

Collection Content
The index to this collection refers to baptism, marriage, and burial records. Baptismal record entries are the most common in the index, followed by burial records, with marriage records constituting the smallest portion.

Sample Images
This is an Index Only Collection. There are no associated images to view. The images below are samples, shown to give an example of what the records look like. If you would like to view the actual records, see the associated microfilm list here: England Essex Parish Registers, 1503-1997. For a small fee, you may view the images online: Essex Record Office($).

What Can This Collection Tell Me?
The following lists indicate potential information given in each type of record. It must be remembered that every record may not provide all the listed information, as the procedures for keeping parish records evolved considerably over the centuries after 1538. It must also be noted that individual parishes often developed record-keeping traditions unique to themselves.

How Do I Search the Collection?
To search for a person in a Church of England parish register, it would be helpful if you knew the following information:


 * Where the person lived and the corresponding parish
 * When the person lived; if you do not know the time period, you must estimate it from what you know of more recent generations.

To search this collection by name:' Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the wiki article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What if I Can't Find Who I'm Looking For?
If possible, you may want to search both the parish registers and the bishops’ transcripts since one is a handwritten copy of the other and might contain differences. Signatures in the records might be used to identify a particular individual by the handwriting style. Knowing the occupation might also provide you the opportunity to find other records about your ancestor. Also consider searching records in nearby localities (Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Herfordshire and Middlesex to the west, and London and Kent to the south).

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):