Discover if your British ancestors were baptised in historic Yorkshire in the bishop’s transcripts of Yorkshire baptisms. Find out their names, the dates of their baptism as well as the names of their parents by searching over 2.5 million records.
Each record contains a transcript and an image of the original record. The information contained can vary but you could find out the following about your ancestor:
Name
Year of baptism
Place of baptism
Father’s first name
Mother’s first name
There are over 2.5 million records of baptisms in Anglican parishes across the three historic Yorkshire counties. These records come from the Borthwick Institute for Archives and form part of the most comprehensive online collection of Yorkshire parish records – the Yorkshire Collection at Findmypast.
Situated in the north of England, Yorkshire is the largest British county. The area has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Historically Yorkshire was divided into the three Ridings - North, West and East. The word “riding” comes from the old Danish “Threthingr” meaning a third.
The East and North Ridings were separated by the River Derwent and the West and the North by the Ouse and the Ure/Nidd watershed. The historic Ridings were abolished in 1974.
Before civil registration was introduced in 1837 the most reliable record of births, marriages and deaths were in the parish records. Comprehensive records had been kept since the Church of England made them compulsory in 1537. Many surviving records start the following year. Until 1774 baptisms, marriages and burials were all recorded in a single volume with standardised forms being introduced in 1812.
Bishop’s transcripts were abbreviated copies of the parish records sent to the Diocesan bishop several times a year. They can be an invaluable source of genealogical information when the original record has not survived.
From records in the custody of the Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York.