With the support of the Worcestershire Archive this project was started in 2007. The Society photographed all the Worcestershire Parish Registers. These are transcribed and then audited.
The list of parishes includes those which were transferred to other counties (Gloucestershire and Herefordshire) with the changes of the boundaries in the 1900s.
The Society started with the baptism records and divided this project into 3 phases:
- Phase 1 covers entries from 1813 – 1839
- Phase 2 covers entries from 1754 – 1812
- Phase 3 covers entries from 1539 – 1754
Most of phase 1 and 2 plus part of 3 is completed. We are now onto the most difficult part: the older records (a good way to practise reading Latin and old handwriting!) and those not housed at The Hive.
We have a team of volunteers working on the transcribing or auditing the parishes. Completed parishes are available from the S&N website.
The project involves:
- Photographing the registers, which is now complete.
- Transcribing register entries into a formatted spreadsheet.
- Auditing the transcriptions.
Whilst we have been transcribing the baptism records, S&N are doing the marriage and burial records from our photographs of the registers. All these records are available on the website.
Accessing the Parish Records
S&N have made the Worcestershire parish records available on both their websites:
- Their main website: The Genealogist – for which you have to buy a subscription.
- The website where they hold records that have been transcribed by various local societies, such as MFHS: FHSOnline. This site has an annual subscription charge of £14.95 for access to the baptism transcriptions and £29.95 for baptisms, marriages and burials to access just the records we have transcribed.
Join us and save
The Worcestershire parish records on FHSOnline site are available free to MFHS members using a dedicated password, so joining us is the cheapest way to access the information. Once you have joined, you need to apply for a password (on the Members’ Area menu).
If you need to see the images or can travel to Worcester
The records are available free to researchers visiting the Worcestershire County Archive at The Hive, Worcester.
Check the status of the parish transcriptions
Click the button to view a table showing the status of every parish register. Complete registers are available via FHSOnline.
