Bristol, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1994

This collection contains images of Church of England parish registers of burial records for the years 1813–1994 from Bristol, England.

Both the British state and the church had an interest in record keeping, and a 1538 act of Parliament required ministers in the Church of England to record baptisms, marriages, and burials. In 1812, George Rose’s Act called for preprinted registers to be used for separate baptism and burial registers as a way of standardizing records.

In addition to keeping parish registers, lists of baptisms, marriages, and burials were required to be sent to the bishop of the diocese and this collection comprises contemporary transcripts of the original records. These copies of the parish registers, called bishop’s transcripts, can sometimes fill in gaps where parish registers are missing, however, they may vary slightly from the parish registers. This may be because an error was made as the information was copied, or a correction or additional details may have been inserted as the copy was being recorded for the bishop. For these reasons, if both copies are available, it’s wise to check both of them.

See the browse on the right to determine which parishes are included in this collection and the date coverage for each parish.

About Burials
Burials took place within a few days of death. Records generally list the name of the deceased, residence, burial date, and age at death. The early records may contain less detail.

Updates:
Mar 2020: Added additional images and indexes for Bishop Transcripts.