Birch, Essex Genealogy
Guide to Birch, Essex ancestry, family history, and genealogy. Parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.
| Birch, Essex | |
|---|---|
 St. Peter Birch Essex | |
| Type | England Jurisdictions |
| Civil Jurisdictions | |
| Hundred | Lexden (Colchester) |
| County | Essex, England Genealogy |
| Poor Law Union | Lexden and Winstree |
| Registration District | Lexden |
| Records begin | |
| Parish registers: 1560 | |
| Bishop's Transcripts: 1800 | |
| Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions | |
| Rural Deanery | Coggeshall |
| Diocese | Pre-1846 - London; Post-1845 - Rochester |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Legal Jurisdictions | |
| Probate Court | Court of the Archdeaconry of Colchester |
| Location of Archive | |
| Essex Record Office | |
Contents
Parish History[edit | edit source]
Birch (St Peter), is a parish in Lexden district, Essex; it is 3 1/2 miles SE of Marks Tey railway station and 5 miles SW of Colchester. It comprises two ancient parishes, Great Birch and Little Birch.[1]
Resources[edit | edit source]
Civil Registration[edit | edit source]
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.
Church records[edit | edit source]
Birch parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:
| Birch Online Parish Records | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indexes | Images | Indexes | Images | Indexes | Images | |
| BOYD | 1560-1753 | |||||
| ESSEX | 1560-1990 | 1560-1938 | 1560-1940 | |||
| FSPRs | Undefined | Undefined | Undefined | |||
| NBI | 1560-1938 | |||||
Non-Conformist Churches[edit | edit source]
None
Census records[edit | edit source]
Census records from 1841 to 1911 are available online. For access, see England Census. Census records from 1841 to 1891 are also available on film through a Family History Center or at the Family History Library.
Poor Law Unions[edit | edit source]
'Great and Little Birch were combined for parish government from the 18th century or earlier. In 1757 teams of farmers and labourers from both parishes were set up for highway maintenance. In 1783 there were 31 ratepayers and 20 out dwellers. In 1836 at a vestry seven of the principal inhabitants elected 2 church- wardens, 7 overseers, 2 assessors, 2 surveyors and 2 constables. In 1726 a woman was paid £4 4s. for cures and physic for the poor. Bread was bought for the poor in 1779 with the proceeds of a fine levied on an unlicensed beer seller. In 1835 the overseers' purchases included loaves and flour; illness and unemployment were frequently recorded. In 1758 a workhouse was built on land near Great Birch church leased from William Round. In 1838 C. G. Round sold the workhouse to Lexden and Winstree poor law union. The building survived in 1999, called Church Cottages.
'Birch's rate of poor relief expenditure per head of population was about average for Lexden hundred. In 1608 the 'towne house called Stocke house' belonging to Great Birch parish was leased, presumably to raise money for poor relief. In 1776 costs were £239, and in the period 1783-5 averaged £224 a year. In 1801 they were £946, equivalent to 33s. 9d. a head. Between 1802 and 1815 they fluctuated between £419 and £822, except for 1812 when they reached £1,103 (41s. 2d. a head). In the period 1816-22 they ranged between £1,000 and £1,207 and in the period 1823-35 between £615 and £971. In 1836 they were £819 (21s. 11d. a head).'[6]
Probate records[edit | edit source]
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Essex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.
Maps and Gazetteers[edit | edit source]
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.
Websites[edit | edit source]
Essex Ancestors - offers images of genealogical records for the county of Essex ($)
Birch on GENUKI
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ John M. Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870). Adapted: access date 7 May 2013
- ↑ 'Boyd's Marriage Index - Parish details by county,' Origins.net, accessed 12 June 2011.
- ↑ Essex Ancestors: Unearth Your Roots, Seax - Essex Archives Online From the Essex Record Office, accessed 3 March 2012.
- ↑ 'England, Essex Parish Registers (FamilySearch Historical Records),' FamilySearch, accessed 2 September 2014.
- ↑ 'Parish Records - National Burial Index Records 1538 - 2005 Coverage,' Find My Past, accessed 15 May 2012. For a breakdown of missing years, see 'National Burial Index - Coverage: Essex,' Federation of Family History Societies, accessed 15 May 2012.
- ↑ 'Birch: Local government', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 50. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15148 Date accessed: 11 February 2011.
