CONGRESS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



Report of the Parish Register 

 Committee, 1896. 



The Committee in issuing the present supplement to their Report 

 and Lists of 3 892 have great pleasure in calling - attention to the large 

 increase in the number of Transcripts made; many of these, there is 

 reason to believe, owe their existence to the help and stimulus given 

 by the former report. 



It is to be noted that a large number of the Transcripts have been 

 made for the use of the various Parishes, and will therefore be 

 accessible to the public. 



It appears to the Committee that the evidence supplied by this 

 supplemental List shows that the supposed impossibility of ever 

 transcribing the whole of the Parish Registers of the Kingdom is 

 imaginary, and that by enlisting and encouraging local effort, the very 

 desirable object may be obtained at no great distance of time. 



The list of Transcribers' names shows how much may be done by 

 individual workers, and much more might easily be done by some 

 organised effort by Diocesan authorities. 



The Committee hail with satisfaction the successful formation of a 

 Society for printing Parish Registers, under the patronage of the Arch- 

 bishops and many of the Bishops. The Hon. Sec. is E. A. Fry, Esq., of 

 172, Edmund Street, Birmingham, who will be happy to give any 

 information on the subject. The Society has already issued five 

 Registers in return for the annual guinea subscription, and in the event 

 of an increase in the number of subscribers will be able to print more 

 Registers annually. In cases where some local help can be guaranteed, 

 special arrangements can be made for printing Registers. 



Mr. W. P. W. Phillimore (124, Chancery Lane) is also printing a 

 series of complete Marriage Registers of Counties. Those of Gloucester- 

 shire are now being printed, and others for Hants, Kent, Northants, 

 Notts, and Somerset are in active preparation. It is intended to 

 arrange for other Counties. 



Mr. Wm. Brigg, B.A. (Harpenden, Herts.), is printing in the 

 "Herts. Genealogist" a useful series of Bishops' Transcripts for the 

 periods for which the Parish Registers are lost. 



It is gratifying to find that, at the instance of the Diocesan Confer- 

 ences of St. Alban's and Worcester, Committees have been formed to 

 obtain from all Incumbents in the Dioceses returns of the Registers 

 existing in their Parishes, their exact dates and condition. 



An effort will then be made to get the books put into proper repair. 



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