England, Staffordshire, Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection contains an index to and images of baptismal, marriage, and burial records from the county of Staffordshire for the years 1870-1914. This set of records are from the Staffordshire collection held by the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service.

The church records in this collection are primarily parish registers. These records have been kept at the local level across England since the mid-1500s, and due to this long and relatively stable tradition, they are central to English genealogical research. Often, they are one of the only sources for finding families and individuals in England before the start of civil registration in 1837.

To learn more about the content and significance of parish registers, please see the England Parish Registers page.

Image Visibility
Whenever possible, FamilySearch makes images available for all users. However, rights to view images on our website are granted by the record custodians.

These images can be viewed online by members of the supporting organization(s), at a Family History Center near you, or the Family History Library. Also, the images are viewable to users who are part of the (enter the contributing organization here) and to users who have contributed to the FamilySearch Indexing effort. Learn how to be a part of FamilySearch indexing here.

For additional information about image restrictions, please see the Restrictions for Viewing Images in FamilySearch Historical Record Collections page.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
Baptism records include:
 * Name of the child
 * Date and place of baptism
 * Parish
 * Names of parents
 * May include date of birth

Marriage records include:
 * Names of the bride and groom
 * Date and place of marriage
 * Parish
 * Residences
 * Ages
 * Birth years
 * May include occupations, marital status, and fathers' names

Burial records include:
 * Name of the deceased
 * Date and place of burial
 * Parish
 * Age
 * Date of death
 * Names of parents

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * Name of the person
 * Date of the record

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Look at an image of the original record, if possible. The online index entry only lists the most basic information from a record; the original may contain further information which was not included in the index
 * Save or print a copy of the image whenever possible
 * If a christening record is found, use the date to estimate a birth year and search for a birth record
 * If parents are listed, search for the family in censuses
 * If a marriage record is found, look for the new family in census records
 * If a burial record is found, use the age to estimate a birth year
 * Continue to search the index for people with the same surname to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives
 * Family members often appear on an individual's records, such as in the role of witnesses to a marriage

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * Try variations of given names and surnames. An individual might have been listed under a middle name, a nickname, or an abbreviation of their given name
 * Spelling was not standardized for much of the period of this collection, so names were often spelled as recorders heard them. Pay attention to how the name should have been pronounced and try spelling variations that could have that pronunciation
 * Vary the search terms. For example, expand the date range or search by either the given name or surname to return a broader list search results
 * Search the records of nearby locations. For this collection, nearby locations could include parishes in the bordering counties of Cheshire to the north, Shropshire to the west, Worcestershire and Warwickshire to the south, or Derbyshire to the east
 * The individual in question may not have records in the Church of England at all, but rather might have belonged to a nonconformist denomination. See England Nonconformist Church Records for more information

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.

"England, Staffordshire, Church Records, 1538-1944." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : accessed 2017. Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent Archive Service, Stafford.
 * Collection Citation:

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