A digitisation project in conjunction with Ancestry has been completed and now over 4 million entries spanning nearly 500 years of Church of England parish registers in Berkshire are available to view online via an Ancestry subscription.
There are some interesting finds amongst the collections including the burial of King Charles I in Windsor 1649 as seen in the image above, as well as the burial of the famous crime writer, Agatha Christie, in Cholsey in 1976 (image below). The two entries also show how different the registers are in terms of handwriting and level of detail.
Below are links to the parish register collections covering 1538 to 1998 on Ancestry:
Berkshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1538-1812
Berkshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1925
Berkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1941
Berkshire, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1998
Ancestry have indexed the parish registers to make them searchable, but Berkshire Family History Society volunteers have also transcribed them which may include detail not picked up such as officiating ministers and witnesses. Such information may also be of help with your research and you can find these via the subscription website Find My Past.
If you do not have a subscription with Ancestry or Find My Past, you can access the images onsite at the RBA free of charge through our library subscriptions. Just ask to book a computer. See our Planning a Visit page for details on how to book.
We hope you enjoy exploring these fascinating records!
Serving Up Opportunity
Pass’d Home: Victorian Heir Hunters
The Hoyle Diaries: Part 3
