England, Lincolnshire, Parish Registers - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection includes baptism, marriage, and burial records within the county of Lincolnshire for the years 1538-1990. Availability of records may vary by year and locality. The Church of England was established in 1534 by King Henry VIII and three years later a law was passed that required ministers to record the baptisms, marriages, and burials that took place within their jurisdictions.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:

Collection Content
Sample of indexed information:

Coverage Table
A coverage table showing the number of records for each locality in this collection can be found at England, Lincolnshire, Parish Registers, Coverage Table - FamilySearch Historical Records.

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of the individual
 * Approximate date of the event

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?

 * Add any new information to your records
 * Save or print a copy of the image or record, if possible. The original may contain information that was not recorded in the index
 * Use the information which you have found to estimate ages in other life events. For example, use a christening date to approximate a marriage date, or a burial record to calculate an estimated year of birth
 * Once you have found a christening or a burial church record, you may want to search for birth and death in civil records (1837 and later)
 * Use the information you have found to find the person and families in census records
 * Continue to search the index to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives. Note that 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?

 * When looking for an individual with a common name, look at all the search results before deciding which is the correct person
 * If your ancestor does not have a common name, collect entries for every person who has the same surname
 * Be careful using the listed age on a marriage record to estimate a birth year. Rather than listing actual ages, clerks often wrote in 21 as the age of both the bride and groom to show that they each were of legal age
 * Search the records of nearby locations
 * Norfolk to the south east
 * Cambridgeshire to the south
 * Rutland to the south west
 * Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west
 * South Yorkshire to the north west
 * East Riding of Yorkshire to the north
 * It also borders Northamptonshire in the south for just 20 yards (18 m), England's shortest county boundary
 * Check for other names. 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 scribes heard them. Try searching based on how the name may have been pronounced
 * Vary the search terms. For example, expand the date range or search by either the given name or surname to return a broader list of results
 * The individual might not have records in the Church of England at all, but rather might have belonged to a nonconformist denomination
 * When you search baptismal records, remember that it was not unusual for a child to be baptized weeks or even months after birth
 * Some parish records might have been lost over time. Bishop's Transcripts can also be a good source of information
 * Note that marriages often took place in the parish where the bride resided

Research Helps
The following articles will help you research your family in Lincolnshire.
 * Lincolnshire Guided Research
 * England Record Finder
 * England Research Tips and Strategies

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.