My Church Records
As Christians we are always excited to find new tools for mission. With that in mind, Busbridge & Hambledon Church is leading the MyChurchRecords initiative, using historic Church of England archives across the country to help people with their family history research. This is a growth area as people seek connection with their past. We believe that this helps people consider who they are, their future and how we were created to play our part in communities.
We’re encouraging people to reconnect with their historic family church – first online and later by visiting in person. There are often family living in areas even after some people have moved away. The Church of England celebrates this qualifying connection for pastoral services. We’re extending this connection to family and relations who can connect with their family church in new and meaningful ways. Our mission is to connect people to churches, to connect people to exploring identity, place and purpose.
Contact Us any time for more information. We’ve got a small full and part time project team who are here to help. There’s no charge for this because we’re being generously funded by the AllChurches Trust, Bishop Radford Foundation and by private donors.
We’re grateful for the support of Mr S Marriott of Church of England Procurement, Mr D Kelly of the Church of England Archives and Rev A Aurora, Director of Communications for the Church of England.
THE PROJECT
The Church is sitting on a GOLDMINE OF INFORMATION THAT BRINGS MEANING TO PEOPLE'S LIVES
There is a huge, growing public interest in tracing family history, evidenced by the increasing popularity of TV shows like ‘Who do you think you are?’ and websites like Ancestry.com. Church birth, marriage and death records are one of the most valuable sources for this information. While the UK government has recorded births, marriages and deaths for around 150 years, the Church of England has captured this info for over 500 years!
There are written records and there are visible records on headstones, gravemarkers, memorials and dedications both in church buildings and in the churchyards. These are places of meaning where people ask questions of identity and meaning. Providing digital connection to these places and records is a mission field for the Church.
To date, some Church records have been made available online, but this is not consistent and is not currently generating much benefit for the Church. These records represent a valuable asset, both financially and for Church mission and growth.
We will use this to drive COMMUNITY CONNECTION & MISSION, in two ways:
We are partnering with commercial genealogy providers to digitize Church records and offer them to the public online. The crucial addition to this partnership is that we will attach mission links to individual records – highlighting the local Church the record came from, and encouraging visitors to explore their family’s place in the Church either in person or online.
We have created guidance for local vicars, assisting them in their efforts to receive and act on these sorts of family history visitors and drive local Church growth. This is available for download.
We have formed community support guidance for those who wish to support their community by logging and indexing churchyards. This is a requirement of the Church of England but many parishes find it hard to achieve. We’ve created guidance for community groups who wish to support their local church in this way.
An example – reconnecting the Smith family with their traditional Church:
John Smith is searching for his ancestors on a commercial site, and finds a parish birth record there showing his great great granddad David Smith was buried in Busbridge parish church in 1870. He notices a link button on the relevant web page inviting him to “Rediscover Smith family history at Busbridge Church”. This links him through to the relevant church page on the Church Heritage Record website, with photos and deeper information on the Church, its Churchyard as well as location, facilities and service times. He may choose to visit the Church in person, as the graveyards represent a valuable additional resource for those researching their family history. However he proceeds, this represents a real opportunity for the Church to reconnect with David and welcome his family back to the Church community.
HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED
It’s EASY and FREE for YOUR CHURCH to get involved
Your Church has years of archives, likely stored in a local county archive office. We need your agreement to access these and use them to connect new people to the Church through their interest in local family history.
Our team will act as gatekeepers for the process, we will do all the work!
Currently we are building a roster of dioceses in the Church as initial partners for the project. We will roll each of these out as soon as commercially possible, continuing to standardize as we expand across the country. This will include both the Mission elements described and revenue generation for your diocese based on the commercial partnership.
So NOW WHAT?
Sound good? – get in touch, let us know if you’d like your Church or diocese to be involved.
And contact your diocesan team to let them know you support the initiative and they should contact us if they haven’t already.
Not sure? – get in touch anyway! We’d love to hear your thoughts
THE TEAM
We are a CofE team, with a clear focus on Church growth nationally.
The church records history project is an initiative by Busbridge & Hambledon church on behalf of the Chair of the National Procurement Group of the Church of England. The project is grateful to The Bishop Radford Trust and the Allchurches Charity for their financial support in underwriting the first year of the project.
It has only been possible to initiate the project with the support of the Director of Lambeth Palace IT, and Archives, Mr Declan Kelly and the Chair of the National Procurement Group, Mr Stephen Marriott.
Our team are:
Darren Montgomery (f/t project lead)
Mr Nick Pinches (p/t administration)
Mr Matt Smith (p/t digital content and mapping)
Mrs Karen Kinder (p/t communication)
Volunteer management group:
Rev Simon Taylor (project initiator)
Mr Guy Cookes (data specialist)
Rev Peter Muir (local history specialist)
CONTACT
DOWNLOADS
This single sheet provides a brief explanation of how you can use old archives to connect with people.
We’ve included a few tips for church volunteers to get started.
Guidance for Vicars
This short Word document includes
A more detailed description of the potential for church history and archives as a tool for mission
Real examples of how this leads to new Christians and church growth
Quick wins for church teams to engage family history researchers
A guide to suggested parish resources