Baby Loss Awareness Week and records of stillbirth

This week (9-15 October) is Baby Loss Awareness Week.  Understandably, this is an incredibly emotive issue and one that many people don't think about if it is not something they have direct personal experience of. However, in the UK fourteen babies a day die before, during or soon after birth, so the chances are you …

Bishops’ Transcripts

A guide to finding Bishops' Transcripts for Derbyshire and how they can help family historians. What are Bishops’ Transcripts? In 1598, parishes were ordered to send an annual copy of all baptisms, marriages and burials for the year to the church authorities.  These returns are known as ‘Bishop’s Transcripts’, or BTs for short, and continued to …

Derbyshire Burials

A guide to using church burial and civil cemetery registers and to finding the location of a grave. Image: All Saints Church, Brailsford, c1930s (Ref: DCHQ002850) Note: Before civil registration was introduced in 1837, burial registers are the main source available to identify when a person died, as burials would have taken place within a …

Church Registers

A guide to Derbyshire Anglican, Catholic and Non-Conformist church registers. Derbyshire Record Office is also the Derby Diocesan Record Office for the Church of England.  Many non-conformist churches also deposit their records and registers.  Catholic registers, however, are mostly held elsewhere (see below). Anglican (Church of England) Parish Registers Parish registers are the main source …

Beginner’s Latin

A guide for family historians using church registers before 1733 when Latin is the official language, identifying key words and phrases to help you make sense of the records. Although not the common spoken language in England, the official written language was Latin until 1733. Many priests did start using English before 1733, and it …

Family History – Getting Started

A guide to where to start with your family history and the main types of record to help you. The first thing to do, is to gather together as much information as you can from present day family members and any family documents you have at home.  Record what you already know such as names, …

Digging up information about Burial Locations

Some of the diverse subjects that have been researched in the Local Studies card catalogue this week include air wrecks, monetary equivalents, the surname 'Lomas' and Florence Nightingale.   In particular though, this week, burial locations have been a frequent feature of research requests, so we thought this subject was well past its expiration date (if you'll forgive the …

Another day in the life of…

I may have been a bit eager to get the next instalment of 'a day in the life of...' written, as back at the beginning of November I did promise that another would follow in December, well we've hit 1 December so here it is. It felt like we probably had an ever so slightly …

Winster burials

More from Winster burials: a man buried on 5 October 1892: “A Man Unknown: 5ft 8″ high, full beard, scraggy whiskers, prominent front teeth, aged about 50. He asked at Concannons on Winster Bank for lodgings on Monday night Oct 3 1892 and was taken in to lie on the sofa, but died a short …

Winster burials

A transcriber of parish registers has noticed some oddities in the 1886-1946 burial register for Winster (D776 A/PI 5/2). In 1892, the vicar started making notes about the deceased on the inside covers. For instance, Mary Spencer (buried aged 38 on 9 Feb 1895) was “for many years an ailing woman, died rather suddenly at last, …