Parish Records
The parish was the smallest unit of local government in the country. Every parish was centred on an Anglican or Church of England church and, after the Reformation, was responsible for administering civil and religious government at a local level.
Main groups of documents
Parish registers
Vestry minutes
Parochial Church Council minutes
Churchwardens' accounts
Overseers of the poor accounts
Constables' accounts
Settlement examinations, certificates and removal orders
How to find the document you want
Main groups of documents include:
Parish registers
Coverage: from 1538
Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials
Vestry minutes
Coverage: 18th - early 20th centuries
Minutes of the meetings of the parish vestry. The vestry was formed usually from local rate-payers and was responsible for the administration of the parish's civil functions, including the appointment of parish clerks, church wardens, overseers of the poor and constables. In 1894 the civil functions of the vestry were replaced by parish councils; vestries themselves survived as ecclesiastical bodies until 1922, when they were replaced by Parochial Church Councils.
Parochial Church Council minutes
Coverage: 20th century
Minutes of the Parochial Church Council (PCC), which discusses parish affairs relating to the church. They replaced the vestry in 1922.
Churchwardens' accounts
Coverage: late 16th - 19th centuries
Financial records relating to the church
Overseers of the poor accounts
Coverage: 17th - mid-19th centuries
Financial records relating to the allocation of money for the relief of the poor from the local tax (poor rate) paid by the other residents of the parish
Constables' accounts
Coverage: 17th - 19th centuries
Financial documents recording the expenditure of the rate on the militia, vagrants etc.
Settlement examinations, certificates and removal orders
Coverage: 1662 - mid-19th century
The allocation of money to the poor from the local rate was restricted in 1662 to individuals who were 'settled' in the parish: there were various qualifications that an individual needed to fulfil in order to be settled, such as being born in a parish or having been apprenticed to, or legally assigned to work for, another member of the parish.
To determine settlement, individuals requesting money (or 'relief') from the overseers of the poor were examined, and the resulting examinations can provide much genealogical information. If a candidate were successful, they would be issued with a certificate and would receive relief; if not, they would receive a removal order and be forced to return to the last parish where they were settled, and to request relief from there.
How to find the document you want
Parish records are arranged by individual parish. Catalogues are available in the search room, each parish organised alphabetically by place name. The variety and extent of documentation varies between parishes.
Parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials are available on microfiche for all Nottinghamshire parishes up until 1950. They are arranged by year, and are not indexed by name, so you will need to have an idea of which year the baptism, marriage or burial you are looking for occurred in. Use our online finding aid to see which registers we hold.
There is an index in the archives search room of settlement certificates, examinations and removal orders, arranged alphabetically by the surname of the individual being examined. There are also place, photograph and maps and plans indexes available in the search room.
Download our leaflet on Registration Records [PDF 146KB] 
