England, Staffordshire, Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

This collection consists of church and school records from the county of Staffordshire for the years 1870-1914.

Why Should I Look at This Collection?
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.

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

How Do I Search the Collection?
Before searching, it is best to know the following information: As you search, compare your results with this information to find a match.
 * Name of the person
 * Date of the record

View the Images
You will be able to search this collection when it is published.

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

 * Copy down all the information in the index entry.
 * Cite the record; see below for help citing records in this collection.
 * Look at an image of the original record. 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 in the appropriate period, use the information which has been discovered to find the individual in civil records. Particularly useful for research in nineteenth-century England are the England Census and civil registration records.
 * Continue to search the index to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives. Remember that family members often appear on an individual's vital records, such as in the role of witnesses to a marriage.

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

 * When looking for an individual with a common name, look at all the search results before deciding which is the correct person. Use other information, such as place of birth, age, occupation, or names of parents, to help with this decision. If listed, a personal title may be a clue to property ownership or occupation, either of which might be noted in other records.
 * Try variations of given names and surnames. An individual might appear under a different name in a record for a variety of reasons:
 * - They might have been listed under a middle name, nickname, or 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.
 * - Some women returned to their maiden names after the death of their husbands.


 * 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. While most people in this period never lived more than 20 miles from their place of birth, moves within this distance were common. 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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