Bishops’ & Archdeacons’ Transcripts

Although they may look like the original parish registers, BTs and ATs are handwritten duplicates – so you need to beware of important omissions, or mistakes creeping in

From 1598 priests were required to copy out the entries in their parish registers and send them annually to the bishop or archdeacon. These copies are known as Bishops’ and Archdeacons’ Transcripts (BTs and ATs). They’re fantastic if the original registers no longer survive or are too faded to read, but there’s always a risk that information was copied inaccurately.

The 1841 BT for St Mary’s, Lewisham, states that Charles Hodgins was baptised on 31 January in that year but gives 10 January 1842 as an improbable date of birth. There’s no clear indication on ancestry.co.uk that this record is a BT; however, the search results for Charles’ baptism reveal two slightly different handwritten images – a classic sign that one is the parish register and the other a BT. The London Metropolitan Archives’ reference code for each document is given in the source information, and the archive’s online catalogue confirms that the document that contains the wrong date of birth is a BT.

It’s a giveaway on post-1754 marriage registers if all of the handwriting is clearly in the same hand. Where the bride, groom and witnesses’ signatures have been inked in different handwriting, you can feel sure that you’ve found the original parish register signed by the parties present.

Note that BTs and ATs frequently contain less information than the original parish registers, because it was a time-consuming chore for clergymen to copy them in full. Therefore it’s always worth investigating whether the original parish register survives, if you find information in these transcripts first.