I was saved at the
Norfolk Records Office a number of years ago, when I couldn’t read the last name
of my GGGG grandmother on her parish marriage record from the mid-1700s in
Necton, Norfolk. A worker at the office looked at my microfilm reader’s screen
and said it looked like “Beetle.” Since I had thought “Castle,” she suggested
we see if it was clearer in the Bishops’ Transcripts (BTs). Yes, it was clearly
“Beetle.”
(Note: Here is an attempt
to tie this post with last about clergy in the COE (Church of England).
England and Wales have two provinces within the church overseen by the Archbishop of Canterbury
and the Archbishop of York. Under them are bishops who have religious
jurisdiction over a diocese or group of archdeaconries, rural deaneries and
parishes. Archdeacons sometimes in some places received annual copies of BMD
records from parishes which were conveniently called Archdeacon’s Transcripts
or ATs.)
Besides clearing up hard
to read microfilm, BTs or ATs may cover periods when the original registers were
lost or destroyed. It is hard to say which source is better. The BTs are transcriptions
and have all the associated problems – entries skipped, numbers transposed. Generally,
the parish registers are in better condition today. On the other hand, making the copy for the
bishop gave a parish clerk the chance to correct mistakes so they may be the
most accurate. It would pay to check both, if possible or if there is a
question.
Most bishop’s transcripts
are in the county records office. If the bishop’s seat is in a different county
than the parish, you will need to find out which county office to approach. A
simple email should do the trick. As familysearch.org puts evermore data online, look there as well.
Source: Herber, Mark. Ancestral Trails. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing
Company 2006.
©2012, Susan Lewis Well
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