Most of our Church of England parish registers 1538 to 1987 (baptisms to 1912, marriages to 1937 and burials to 1987) are now available to search and view online on Ancestry and Findmypast. More parish registers from 1900 onwards, recently deposited registers and more early registers will be added later. Ancestry and Findmypast can be used free of charge by Surrey Libraries members in all Surrey Libraries and at Surrey History Centre.
Surrey parishes lie in three different dioceses: Guildford, Southwark and London.
Parish records from the Diocese of Guildford (which includes a small part of Hampshire) and from a large part of the Diocese of Southwark (all except the South London and Sutton section) are the responsibility of Surrey History Centre. To protect the original registers, searchers are normally required to use microfilms or transcripts when these are available. Print-out facilities are available. Short, specific queries can be answered by letter or e-mail. Before you visit, please contact us to confirm that the parish records you are interested in have been deposited, as they may be still at the parish.
Guide to parish registers held at Surrey History Centre
The inner London part of Southwark Diocese (the present London Boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark including Newington, and Wandsworth) is served by The London Archives. Bishop's Transcripts for parishes in both dioceses are also held there, with other records of the Archdeaconry of Surrey, but survival of the Bishop's Transcripts is poor.
Parish registers for the Diocese of London (which includes parishes in the present Borough of Spelthorne, transferred from Middlesex to Surrey in 1965) are also held at The London Archives.
At the Surrey History Centre we hold indexes to the registers of a number of individual parishes, and general county-wide indexes which have been compiled by local family history societies.
