England, Herefordshire Bishop's Transcripts - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This is a Church of England parish registers containing, christening, marriage, and burial entries that occurred in Hereford, England from 1583 to 1898. They may contain name, parents, spouse, father's occupation, residence, date of birth, date of marriage, burial date and place and more depending on the record type. The original records are held in the Hereford Record Office. Bishop’s transcripts contain more or less the same information as parish registers, so they can serve as a replacement when a parish register has been damaged, destroyed, or otherwise lost. Bishop's transcripts are often of value even when parish registers exist, as priests often recorded either additional or different information in their transcripts than they did in the original registers.

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

Birth records
 * Name of the child
 * Date and place of birth
 * Gender
 * Names of parents

Baptism records
 * Name of the child
 * Date and place of baptism
 * Names of parents

Marriage records
 * Name of the bride and groom
 * Date and place of marriage
 * Marital status
 * Age
 * Estimated birth years
 * Names of parents

Death records
 * Name of the deceased
 * Date and place of death
 * Gender
 * Age
 * Estimated birth year

Burial records
 * Name of the deceased
 * Date and place of burial
 * Age
 * Estimated birth year

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

 * 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
 * Shropshire, England to the north
 * Worcestershire, England to the east
 * Monmouthshire, Wales and Gloucestershire, England to the south
 * Radnorshire, Wales and Breconshire, Wales to the west
 * 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
 * Note that marriages often took place in the parish where the bride resided

Research Helps
The following articles will help you in your research for your family in Herefordshire.
 * Herefordshire 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.