Registers
for the Parish Church of St Michael the Archangel
Some of the early registers were stolen
in 1970s, but fortunately the missing periods are covered by the
printed YPRS transcript copy (1597-1690) and by the Bishop's Transcripts.
The Cookson Manuscript Index to the registers produced about 1914
also covers this period.
Known deficiencies in the records
include a gap from April 1625 - November 1626; few entries for the Civil War period 1644-46 due to "negligence";
no Burial or Marriage entries in 1686; and no entries at all in the
period 1687-91 (although BTs do still exist for 1690).
Original
Registers
The Stolen Registers
covered the following periods:
- Baptisms, Marriages and Burials for the period: 1597-1653
and 1653-1692
- Baptisms and Burials for the period: 1692-1773
- Marriages for the period: 1692-1753
The remaining Original Registers
are deposited in the North Yorkshire Record Office 
at Northallerton
and cover the following:
- Baptisms: 1773 -1816, 1813 -1839, 1839 -82, 1882 -1961
- Banns: 1854 -1938
- Marriages: 1754 -1919
- Burials: 1773-1937
Some are available on microfilm : MIC485/486
The Current Registers
which are held by the incumbent cover the periods:
- Baptisms: 1961 - date
- Marriages: 1920 - date
- Burials: 1937 - date
- Banns: 1940 - date
Normal Parochial Fees set by the Church of England
apply to access of the records still held at the church. This currently
stands at £14 for the first hour, inclusive of one official
copy and £11 per subsequent hour or part of an hour, plus £14
for each additional official copy.
Cookson
Manuscript Index
The Rev Cookson produced two hand written copies of
an index to the registers from 1597 -1811which are lodged with the
main Leeds and Bradford Libraries, the North Yorkshire Record Office
has a filmed copy of the handwritten original and a typed transcript.
The index lacks the important details often included in
original registers which make sorting out family groups easier.
It also has some known ommissions and he wrongly groups some similar
family names together (Hurtley and Hartley and Wellock /Wallock/Willock
being particularly bad to sort out), so it should only be used as
a finding aid or last resort.
Bishop's
Transcripts
Fortunately these are good copies of the original
registers retaining the details of occupation, residence etc. that
make sorting out families simpler and cover the period of the stolen
original registers. The original Bishop's Transcripts are held at
the Borthwick
Institute of Historical Research, York and include:
-
Baptism, Marriage and Burial records
for the periods: 1600, 1607, 1631-32, 1634-39, 1641, 1661-64,
1666-69, 1671-73, 1676-78, 1683, 1690 , 1692, 1694-1711, 1713-80,
1782-1837
-
and Baptism and Burial records for: 1838-41,
1844-46
The West Yorkshire
Archive Service, Leeds holds the BTs with Baptism and Burial
records for: 1848-69
Transcripts of the Baptism and Marriage entries from
the BTs are included in the IGI on the FamilySearch website and are easy to use as a
finding aid, especially if they are accessed via our search form. A Surname only search will
allow you to download every occurrence of that Surname in the Parish.
These entries lack the details often included in the original BT's they were transcribed from,
such as the township and occupation of individuals and of course
the LDS church don't include burials in their data, which can lead
to wrong assumptions being made. The LDS filmed copies of the original BTs
do show the complete entries though and these are available at their
Family History Libraries. The IGI coverage is actually only partial, although the coverage dates would suggest otherwise, checking 200 years of marriages, the Cookson Index indicated 1500 over the period, whilst the IGI recorded just over 900.
Copies
of Parish records
Various full and partial transcripts are available,
although without checking it isn't always obvious whether these are based
on the original registers or the BTs. These include:
Chr:Marr:Bur: 1597-1690 Printed transcript published
by YPRS in 1938; which is still available on fiche from the YAS
Parish Record Group.
Banns: 1854-1938 (microfilm NYCRO);
Index to Chr/Marr/Bur: 1597-1816 (Manuscript index
created by Rev E Cookson circa 1914 , two original copies are at
Bradford and Leeds Libraries, microfilm at the SOG, microfilm and
typed transcript copies at NYCRO) There are some omissions and some similar surnames have been amalgamated, but it is a good finding aid.
Baptism sponsors: 1850-56 (microfilm at NYCRO)
Christenings: 1690-1815 Marr/Bur:1690-1811 (Leeds
Lib) Cookson index or LDS film?
Christenings: 1813-1882 (transcript at NYRO)
Chr/Marr/Bur: 1600-07, 1632-1846 (microfilm at the
SoG)
Marriages: 1607-1837 (Boyd's Marriage Index at the
SOG, Copy at York Library)
Marriages: 1690-1810 (Loomes Marriage Index at the
SOG)
Marriages: 1754-1812 (transcript at NYRO)
Chr:Marr:Bur:BTs on microfilm. FHL 919150 from the
Genealogical Society of Utah contains: 1600, 1607, 1631-2, 1634-1639,
1641, 1661-1664, 1671-1673, 1676-1678, 1683, 1690, 1692, 1694-1711,
1713-1780, 1782-1841, 1844-1846 (marriages to 1836 only)
British Vault film 1849349 from the Genealogical Society
of Utah : Chr/ Bur 1848-1869
Burials: 1813-1862 (transcript at NYRO)
Extracts in the IGI : Chr/Marr: 1592-1690; Chr:
1683-1846 Marr: 1683-1837 are listed under the Batch numbers : E009271 - P009271 - M009271 - C009272 - M009272 -
M009273 - C009273 serach them directly from the form below. The FamilySearch online version of the IGI contains
details of Kirkby Malham Chr/Marr: 1592-1690 from the YPRS transcript and from the
available BTs for marriages up to 1836 and Baptisms up to 1846. However checks of the number of entries returned by the IGI against the actual number of entries in the Parish Records and BTs, show that a great many entries are missing from the IGI transcripts.
The
IGI can be used to search for transcriptions of Baptisms and Marriages in other local parishes too.
You can use the search form on out Genealogy Search page to look at the records for all the surrounding parishes. This uses the IGI batch numbers to search the transcripts and tells you what periods are covered by the records for each Parish, making searching very easy.
Monumental
Inscriptions
Current memorials are recorded in a manuscript card
index produced by The Malhamdale
Local History Group and available in KM Church. They have also
been transcribed and updated by Keighley
and District Family History Society and published in booklet
form costing £3.85 incl UK P&P.
In addition, early MIs, records of the stained glass
and Arms etc. were recorded by Roger Dodsworth in Yorkshire Church
Notes 1619-31, editor JW Clay, published 1904 by YAS (Record Series
Vol.34).
Terriers
Terriers are a written survey which act as a legal
safeguard of each church's possessions and are often copied into
the early Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts.
"...the archbishops and all bishops within
their several dioceses, shall procure (as much as in them lieth)
that a true note and terrier of all the glebes, lands, meadows,
gardens, orchards, houses, stocks, implements, tenements and portions
of tithes lying out of their parishes, (which belong to any parsonage,
or vicarage, or rural prebend) be taken by the view of honest men
in every parish, by the appointment of the bishop, whereof the minister
to be one, and be laid up in the bishop's registry, there to be
for a perpetual memory thereof."
The Terriers for the Craven Deanery are held at the
Borthwick Institute
in York and they include those for Kirkby Malham taken in the following
years:
1716; 1727; 1743; 1748; 1764; 1770; 1777; 1781; 1786;
1809; 1817; 1825
