Tips for searching parish records

[RobinC]

Can anyone offer tips for searching parish records for baptisms, marriages and deaths.

What is the best way to find the marriages and births of the parents for people I've already found?

For example, I've found that my 4 x grt grandfather was baptised at St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey in 1787 and his parents were Thomas & Mary Crouch.

Is it best to estimate an age range for the parents or just trawl through the records until something comes up?

[RobinC]

What would be the best method of finding the baptism record of Thomas Crouch as I don't know his year or place of birth?

[michaelpipe]

What would be the best method of finding the baptism record of Thomas Crouch as I don't know his year or place of birth?

If you can find a burial record stating age at death then you might be able to determine an approximate birth date.

[Peter Goodey]

What would be the best method of finding the baptism record of Thomas Crouch as I don't know his year or place of birth?

Find his marriage and take ot from there.

[RobinC]

Find his marriage and take ot from there.

I've found the marriage already which is as follows:

Name: Thomas Crouch
Spouse Name: Mary Hodges
Record Type: Marriage
Event Date: 7 Sep 1784
Parish: St Mary Magdalene, Woolwich
County: Middlesex
Borough: Greenwich

But it still doesn't give me any clues as to where he was born.

[RobinC]

I've found two possible deaths but not sure if they're likely or not?

Name: Thomas Crouch
Record Type: Burial
Event Date: 11 Mar 1823
Age: 72
Estimated birth year: abt 1751
Parish: St Andrew Holborn
Borough: City of London
County: London

or

Name: Mr Thomas Crouch
Record Type: Burial
Event Date: 26 Apr 1824
Age: 63
Estimated birth year: abt 1761
Death Date: 26 Apr 1824
Parish: St Peter And St Paul, Godalming
Borough: Parishes Not in A Borough
County: Surrey

[RobinC]

Are there any other methods as I really don't know how to proceed, mainly because it was pointed out to me that if someone only has to be living in the same parish as the church if they are listed as being "of this parish" when they're married.

This doesn't really help me find Thomas or anyone else I'm looking for.

[arthurk]

From the extracts you've quoted, it appears that you've looking at the London parish registers at Ancestry. Nothing wrong with that - but bear in mind that not all parishes are online yet, so Thomas's burial (or baptism) might not be available yet.

After browsing through the Bermondsey register for 1787, I see (with a bit of difficulty) that Thomas was a shipwright - does that match with any burial information?

Another possible line of enquiry: have you looked for wills? There are a number of wills for men named Thomas Crouch proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (index at The National Archives' Documents Online) - as well as the information in the will itself, it may lead you to a burial with an age. For example, there is a will in 1822 for a Thomas Crouch, victualler of Deptford (which isn't very far away, and if he got too old or decrepit to wield a hammer...). And checking in a burial index for Deptford St Paul's, this one appears to have been aged 74 at his death.

One more thing - the more you can find out about Thomas, e.g. other children and their marriages, the more likely you are to find him. If nothing else, these extra names might help you to work out if a particular will related to him or not.

Have fun!
Arthur

[RobinC]

Hello Arthur,

I have just found the baptism entry you mentioned above and can confirm that it says Thomas was a shipwright, this matches with census information that I have for Thomas's son Robert as he was listed as being a shipwright on the 1851 census. I haven't found any other offspring for Thomas & Mary as yet.

I might be asking a daft question here but how do I match someone's occupation to their death record if the death was prior to 1837?

I'll have look at the wills that are available online in the mean time.

Thanks

Robin

[RobinC]

Furthermore, I have Robert living in Deptford in 1851 so the Thomas who was a victualler could be the right one, so I have ordered the will from the TNA.