Braintree, Essex Genealogy

Guide to Braintree, Essex ancestry, family history, and genealogy. Parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
Braintree (St Michael the Archangel), is a small town, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district in Essex. The town stands on the river Blackwater, on the Roman road to Coalchester, and on the Blackwater Valley and Bishops-Stortford railway, it is 6 1/4 miles NNW from the Witham Junction of the Eastern Counties railway, and 12 miles NNE of Chelmsford. There are four dissenting chapels; within the sub-district of Braintree there are Independents, Baptists, Quakers, and Wesleyan Methodists.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
Braintree parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the Essex Record Office (online records available at Essex Archives Online).

Deposited parish registers Seax - Essex Archives Online From the Essex Record Office reference DP/264 Images are available online.

Bishop's transcripts for Braintree Microfilm copy of original at the Essex Record Office in Chelmsford.

Essex Record Office, Chelmsford, no.: D/CR 48.

Baptisms, burials, marriages, 1800-1830 FHL BRITISH Film 1702171 Item 8 Baptisms, 1831-1833, 1844-1864; burials, 1831-1833, 1844-1863; marriages, 1831-1833 FHL BRITISH Film 1702172 Item 1

Non-Conformist Churches

 * Baptist
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
 * Independent/Congregational
 * Particular Baptist

Poor Law Unions
Braintree Poor Law Union, Essex

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Essex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
Braintree on GENUKI

Essex Ancestors - offers images of genealogical records for the county of Essex ($)