COLLECTIONS GUIDE 2 NONCONFORMIST REGISTERS Contacting Us What does ‘nonconformist’ mean? We recommend that you contact us to A nonconformist is a member of a religious organisation that does not ‘conform’ to the Church of England. People who disagreed with the book a place before visiting our beliefs and practices of the Church of England were also sometimes searchrooms. called ‘dissenters’. The terms incorporates both Protestants (Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Independents, Congregationalists, Quakers WYAS Bradford etc.) and Roman Catholics. By 1851, a quarter of the English Margaret McMillan Tower population were nonconformists. Prince’s Way Bradford How will I know if my ancestors were nonconformists? BD1 1NN Telephone +44 (0)113 393 9785 It is not always easy to know whether a family was Nonconformist. The e.
[email protected] 1754 Marriage Act ordered that only marriages which took place in the Church of England were legal. The two exceptions were the marriages WYAS Calderdale of Jews and Quakers. Most people, including nonconformists, were Central Library therefore married in their parish church. However, nonconformists often Northgate House kept their own records of births or baptisms, and burials. Northgate Halifax Some people were only members of a nonconformist congregation for HX1 1UN a short time, in which case only a few entries would be ‘missing’ from Telephone +44 (0)1422 392636 the Anglican parish registers. Others switched allegiance between e.
[email protected] different nonconformist denominations. In both cases this can make it more difficult to recognise them as nonconformists. WYAS Kirklees Central Library Where can I find nonconformist registers? Princess Alexandra Walk Huddersfield West Yorkshire Archive Service holds registers from more than a HD1 2SU thousand nonconformist chapels.