Parish Church

Visiting the Parish Church can be interesting and revealing.

Take a pen and writing pad or digital camera to records what you find.

Have a list of relatives or information that promted your visit to remind you what you are looking for.

The first action should be to buy a church guide if one is on sale.

These provide a plan of the church , a list of the most interesting points and often details of all of the memorials.

Obviously check the walls of the church for monuments and memorials.

Some memorials will be specific in respect of a single person, some will list families and some such as war memorials may have a long list of people.

Then check the floors for memorials and brasses on the floor of the church. This can be more difficult as many churches have now carpeted over floor memorials and protectively covered brasses.

If there is a churchwarden or verger in the church talk to them about the Church and explain the reason for your visit.

Sometimes areas of the church have been enclosed through the ages and some memorials are now in cloakrooms or vestries only available to view with permission. Churches also sometimes have records that once again can only be viewed with official approval.

Then visit the churchyard to look at the headstones.

Many churchyards were replaced by Council Burial Grounds so check for recent graves. If there are none then check for the first and last dates on the headstones to find out when the churchyard functioned as the parish burial ground to see if it fits in the period that your ancestors were alive.

Be methodical when checking headstones walk along a line and then repeat with the next line.

Do not forget the purpose of the graves and so do NOT walk on them as you will almost certainly upset relatives or members of the Church.

Do NOT try to scrape or in any way alter the face of the headstones as you can cause until damage by doing so. For advice on reading/cleaning headstones follow this link.