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Parish Registers

Some notes about local parish registers and at the end some pointers regarding divorce records.

Intro

Parish Registers (PRs) contain baptisms, marriages and banns and burial entries. They are a valuable source to anyone tracing a (not non-conformist) family back before 1837, when central registration of births, marriages and deaths started.

Of course, after 1837 your ancestor may also have baptised their baby at church, married there or been buried in the churchyard (once South Ealing Cemetery opened in 1868 your ancestor may have been buried there). So from 1837 to the current day there are potentially two records available to help in your research: the certificate from civil registration and the baptism, marriage and burial entries in the PR.

The original PRs for Brentford parishes are held at London Metropolitan Archives (LMA); in each case the LMA reference is given (DRO...) and the dates of baptisms (C), marriages (M) and burials (B):

  • Brentford St Paul (DRO/060) C 1868-1982 M 1868-1988
  • Brentford St Faith (DRO/076) C 1901-1969 M 1907-1992
  • New Brentford St Laurence (DRO/058) C 1620-1961 M 1618-1961 B1570-1843
  • Old Brentford St George (DRO/059) C 1828-1959 M 1837-1959 B 1828-1867
NB the parish registers for Isleworth All Saints (the parish church for those living in Brentford End) are not held by LMA but LMA does have copies on microfilm. I struggled to locate the details however.

Some registers are also available on-line:

On this website - some baptisms

Before paying a subscription to ancestry, the next option below, it is worth checking the five sets of Brentford baptisms held on this site, thanks to Peter Stuart's transcriptions: the Name indexes incl WW1 page provides links. They cover baptisms, mostly during the ninteenth century into the early 1900s, to those involved in education, health, the law, public houses and those who worked on the waterways. Worth a try, you may be lucky.

On-line sources: ancestry.co.uk

Original PRs have been scanned and indexed for the following Brentford parishes on the ancestry.co.uk website as part of the project to incorporate London parish records on their database (you need to pay to see the images - a subscription is the most practical way).

There are two ways to search:

  • 'Birth Marriage & Death, including Parish' option, to search for a person by name (date and location can be included); this should take you straight to the PR page; or you can
  • 'Browse Individual Records' to search page by page a particular PR: you need to have a good idea when the baptism, marriage or burial took place (or be patient)
The 'Browse' search is accessed from the left column and you need to choose 'Hounslow' from the 'Borough' list to view the Brentford parishes (with a few exceptions, where the Borough needs to be 'Ealing' - noted below). On choosing one of the parishes a list of years is displayed allowing you to home in on the period you are interested in.

Coverage on ancestry.co.uk

Baptisms 1813 onwards:

  • Brentford St Paul 1868 - 1906
  • Brentford St Faith 1901 - 1906
  • New Brentford St Lawrence 1813 - 1906
  • Old Brentford St George 1828 - 1906
  • Ealing St Mary 1813 - 1904 (Choose Ealing as Borough; the Parish or Poor Law Union as 'West Twyford' or 'Ealing St Mary'; NB St Mary was the parish church for Old Brentford residents until St George's church opened in 1828)

Marriages

  • Brentford St Paul 1888 - 1915
  • Brentford St Faith 1908 - 1921
  • New Brentford St Lawrence 1754 - 1921
  • Old Brentford St George 1837 - 1921

Burials 1813 onwards: If you are not sure where your ancestor was buried and do not have a subscription to ancestry, see burial help for some ideas.

  • (Choose Ealing as Borough, not Hounslow) Ealing, St Mary (includes burials of some Old Brentford residents, particularly pre 1829) 1813 - 1910
  • New Brentford St Lawrence 1813 - 1843
  • Old Brentford St George 1828 - 1867

Baptisms, marriages and burials before 1813 are available in larger chunks, for example St Lawrence's records cover 1577 - 1813 in total, spread across 5 registers, the first covering 1570 - 1653. So 'browsing' is trickier: you need to find the right part of the register. One register may contain baptisms, marriages and burials; sometimes entries are completed in different parts of the register (eg baptisms at the front, burials at the back); sometimes entries are chronological (ie mixed); sometimes baptisms, marriages and burials are recorded for a year at a time, but eg baptisms are on left pages, burials are on right pages and marriages fitted into any gaps.

  • New Brentford St Lawrence 1577 - 1813 (for the period 1801 - 1812 it is possible to browse by a year or two at a time)
  • (Choose Ealing as Borough, not Hounslow) St Mary, Ealing (inc Old Brentford) 1627 - 1812
  • Isleworth All Saints - within Hounslow Borough; records appear to be BTs and are available for 1715-1769 and 1800-1813 according to ancestry.co.uk

Divorces 1858-1937

The National Archives includes a searchable divorce index - scroll down to point 3. to enter the person's name; however the survival rate of files varies:
  • 1858-1927: almost 100%
  • 1928-1937: 80%
  • After 1937: less than 0.2%

Published April 2011; updated February 2020