Check The Small Print

To avoid mistakes, it’s important to read the description of any database you search carefully

Most websites list the source of their information. For example, Ancestry has a search engine for ‘UK Parish Baptism, Marriage and Burial Records’ (found at ancestry.co.uk/search/ categories/epr). In the sidebar, ‘About this collection’ provides a link to all of the individual datasets making up the collection, and explains that it’s composed of two major types of indexes – keyed transcriptions of original documents with a link to the scanned document, and ‘extracted’ records usually copied from transcriptions or indexes created by a third person or a family history society that have not been verified for completeness or accuracy.

This latter type of record can also be found on findmypast.co.uk and other genealogy websites, and rarely has an image attached to it. It’s essentially a finding aid to help you locate the original document in the archives. For example, the collection of Essex Parish Registers 1538–1997 on familysearch.org contains an index entry for the christening of Sarah Fokes in Castle Hedingham on 10 April 1711, and the collection’s description explains that the original registers need to be consulted in Essex Record Office. However, that archive happens to have scanned a range of its parish registers that can be browsed online for a fee at seax.essexcc.gov.uk/parishregisters.aspx.

Many county archives have teamed up with genealogy websites to get their parish register holdings online. Ancestry has a mammoth collection of scanned London registers and the small print in the ‘Source Information’ box reveals that these are from the London Metropolitan Archives. However, you should also check findmypast.co.uk for your London ancestors, because the City of Westminster Archives Centre’s registers will be found there.

Even where a search result on a genealogy website has an image attached, it may be a scan of an old transcription. The parish record books searchable on thegenealogist.co.uk are antiquarian volumes published by the likes of genealogist Frederick Arthur Crisp and Phillimore & Co. (find out more about the coverage at parishregister.co.uk/online). Similar publications are also found on Ancestry and are much easier to read than the handwriting on the registers, but should always be verified against the original document from the archives.