Castle Hedingham Parish Records

Holly Adams has painstakingly created a catalogue of .xls files (which can be opened by Excel and many other speadsheet programs) based upon her research of Microfiche records at the Essex Record Office. She continues to add to her records, and to check her exisiting work. I am extremely grateful to her for making them available to this website, where I hope that they will provide a valuable resource to visitors. The original documents are now being scanned by the ERO, and are becoming available online.

In addition, Peter Ward has now also kindly allowed me to publish his transcription of the census records for 1851, 1861, 1871, 1891, 1901 and 1911.

Holly makes the following points -

"Sometimes entries are poorly written, and appear to have been entered some time after the event – this particularly applies to those in the mid-C18th. Entries have been copied in the order in which they appear, not in chronological order, so check the dates carefully when looking for something which you believe should be at a certain time. At one point in the burial register, the same dozen or so burials were entered twice on two adjacent pages. By the mid-1730s, either there were very few vital events happening in Castle Hedingham or they weren't being recorded. Perhaps the Sible Hedingham records for that period may show a large number of Castle Hedingham families. Most recent addition is an Excel transcript of the LDS film C067131: births, baptisms & burials (one burial!) from Castle Hedingham Independent Church 1775-1837."

"Dates have been converted into New Style dates, with the 1st January being New Year's Day. Prior to 1751, the New Year began on 25th March, so the date 21 February 1748 would be in the final months of 1748 under the Old Style, but be in the first few months of 1749 under the New Style, which we use to this day. The dates are generally written as 21 February 1748/9, but I've opted just to use the New Style. I've indicated throughout where the minister used both OS and NS dates, except in the marriage records."

"This page sets out where in the register to find the entries for the C16th and 17th, since they are all mixed up throughout – baptisms, banns, marriages and burials all over the place. The Word document just lists what is at the top of each image when viewing the scans at SEAX, where you can study the original registers on-line for free – in fact, the register description at the ERO reads “Entries in confused order” – I agree wholeheartedly! I’ve added a few hidden columns to the Excel spreadsheets to force them into chronological order. Sometimes the register numbers themselves were out of order, or at other times entries from November preceded some from September of the same year, but I’ve no way of knowing if the clerk wrote the wrong month. I’ve transcribed what was there and made notes where things seemed a bit odd."

Census, 1841 (353kb) & Notes