Error Report - Collection Description - Lancashire Non-Conformist Church Records
The title of this collection is England, Lancashire Non-Conformist Church Records, 1647-1996, and, as far as I have found, it contains only records from Lancashire.
Unfortunately, the description on the collection landing page indicates the records are from Norfolk.
Could we please get this corrected? Thank you.
Answers
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Well spotted, Aine, and I hope someone at FamilySearch will find time to remove the "Norfolk" reference.
On the broader point of the actual contents of this collection, no - it does not just contain records relating to the county of Lancashire. I believe there are parishes in Cumberland included, too, according to previous comments on this forum.
The problem seems to arise due to these records all being held at the same repository. I regularly encounter a similar problem with the Northumberland Non-conformist collection, which not only includes non-conformist records for adjoining County Durham but Anglican church records for that county, too!
In the case of the Lancashire collection, I believe the records are held together at one location (Manchester or Liverpool). With some non-conformist denominations (particularly Wesleyan Methodists) their chapels are grouped into "circuits", which are sometimes arranged "cross-county".
The problem with those for chapels not actually located in the county of Lancashire is where to place them? If there is not an existing collection for, say, Cumberland, should one be created? I have previously requested that the records for Durham, that are currently in the Northumberland collection, should be moved to avoid confusion, but my request was refused - there was nowhere appropriate to transfer them to.
Sorry to digress from your very straightforward original point, but hope this provides insight into the fact that, whilst Norfolk records are almost certainly not included, records certainly are for at least one other county adjoining Lancashire. Perhaps that could be acknowledged at the same time the "Norfolk" reference is removed.
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