Staffordshire Collections on Find My Past
This exciting project is a partnership between Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service and Find my past (part of the DC Thompson Publishing Group). It is for the digitisation and indexing of some of the county’s key family history sources, and making them available online through the find my past website.
A wealth of material will be made available, including:
- over 3,400 individual parish registers
- a quarter of a million wills
- 180,000 records of marriage
Records stretch back as far as 1521. Eventually, nearly 6 million names will be available to search through, allowing people to explore the past and understand the lives of their ancestors.
Scope of the project
Staffordshire parish registers, 1538-1900
These cover all Staffordshire Anglican parish registers held by the archive service up to 1900. Over 3,400 parish registers, an essential source for family historians, will be made available.
They record all the baptisms, marriages and burials carried out in the parish church. In this context Staffordshire refers to the ancient county, including the City of Stoke on Trent and the parishes now within the City of Wolverhampton, and the Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall.
However, the project does not cover any registers held by other archive services or those retained by the parishes themselves. Search the parish registers on Find my past.
We are aware that a small number of registers are still not live. We are working with Findmypast to ensure that they go live as soon as possible.
Printable list of parishes
Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry Marriage allegations and bonds, 1636-1893
Around 180,000 Lichfield and Coventry Consistory Court marriage allegations and bonds, (dating 1636-1893) are now available. Marriage bonds and allegations are the surviving records from an application by a couple for a marriage licence. A licence would enable the couple to marry quickly and also carried a certain status, as the licence required payment.
For the Lichfield Consistory Court they survive from 1636. The Consistory Court jurisdiction covered Staffordshire, Derbyshire, north Shropshire and north Warwickshire.
Search the marriage allegations and bonds on Find my past. Marriage bonds from the various peculiar jurisdictions will be added in due course.
Wills and inventories, 1521-1858
c.250,000 Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry original wills, inventories and letters of administration, proved in the Consistory Court of Lichfield, are now available. They can help to establish family relationships, not always apparent in other records.
Wills often give occupations, at a time when other records do not provide this information, whilst inventories of household goods and trade tools provide a wealth of detail about a family’s economic and social situation.
Search the marriage allegations and bonds on Find my past.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will I have to pay to access the 'Staffordshire Collection' on Findmypast?
Searching the indexes on Find my past is free. Viewing and downloading images can be done in various ways:
All libraries and record offices in Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent
You will be able to use Find my past to view the Staffordshire Collection and download images free of charge.
At libraries and record offices elsewhere
Some organisations elsewhere have an institutional subscription to all collections on find my past. Ask at your local library or record office.
In your own home
Find my past offer a range of subscription and pay-as-you-go options. This enables you to access the Staffordshire Collection at a time convenient to you.
Will the parish registers in the Staffordshire Collection still be available at record offices?
This collection on Find my past is a new option available to you and is the one which we will recommend.
Existing microfiches of parish registers will still be available to you in Archive Service reading rooms, where it is currently available.
In order to preserve the vulnerable original registers, they will be made available in the reading room only where both the digitised images on find my past and the microfiche in the record office reading rooms are found to be illegible.
Will the original wills and inventories, and marriage bonds and allegations, be available at Staffordshire Record Office?
This collection on Find my Past is a new option available to you and is the one which we will recommend.
In order to preserve the vulnerable original records, they will be made available in the reading room only where the digitised images on Find my past are found to be illegible. A minimum of two working days' advance notice of production is also required.