Which Parish?

LegacyUser

melena king said: What's the point of an entry like this;
Name: Elizabeth Sparrow
Event Type: Christening
Event Date: 10 May 1660
Event Place: Essex, England, United Kingdom
Gender: Female
Father's Name:John Sparrow
Mother's Name:Mary

which doesn't say where in Essex? I realise Essex is a tiny place in the context of the USA but there are still enough people here for this record to be of no help whatsoever. The original must have had the name of the parish attached, so why do you leave it out?

LegacyUser

Paul said: Melena

This point was recently discussed under another topic heading. While it is true this sort of indexing can be exasperating ("But WHERE in Essex - there are 400+ ancient parishes to choose from?"), there can be specific reasons for this happening.

It could be that the record custodian (probably Essex Record Office) has not given permission for this important detail to be shown. Only speculation, but maybe they want people to go to their (pay-to-view) website or otherwise obtain the detail through them. In other cases, it might be a local family history society or FamilySearch "partner", like Find My Past" is imposing restrictions on "their" records, for similar reasons.

In fact, as I was typing the above, I decided to check the record to which you refer. The camera icon alongside reveals, "Image at a partner site". Unfortunately, from my public account (I don't know about yours) the link appears to be broken. So I cannot ascertain which website has the image, or whether you would need to pay a fee to view it. However, that - alongside the detail in the citation to the record, which refers to the Essex Record Office - appears to confirm my thoughts as to why the parish name is not available directly on the FamilySearch website.

LegacyUser

Paul said: Melena

Success! Whilst I do not have a subscription to Find My Past, I am a registered user so was able to search its indexed records. These show the event to have taken place at Great Braxted parish (in 1660).

It is well worth registering with other websites, where the basic information (there is no full date shown here, just the year) is often available for free.

By the way, there does not appear to be an image available through Find My Past (just a transcript), even for subscribers to view. The image would almost certainly be available through the Essex Record Office website - although only for a fee.

For certain parts of Essex, and many other counties in England, the (free-to-view) website at https://www.freereg.org.uk/ provides very good coverage, although not in the case of your example.

LegacyUser

melena king said: Hi Paul,

Thanks for the replies. Some Essex records give the parish, so there's no obvious reason not to give them all. Thanks for the info, I actually got the record at the ERO long ago but as I have free access to FMP and Ancestry while we're in lock down - only for a few more days - I was looking again but still find more detail and a much better search system on FS than the absurdly expensive pay sites. It's just that these records without the parish are so frustrating. Sometimes the pay sites acknowledge FS as its source rather than the other way round.

LegacyUser

Paul said: Yes, I have commented elsewhere that it doesn't make too much sense why only some records are affected by this problem. However, I also suggested the problem might be similar to what I encountered with records for certain Norfolk parishes being withdrawn altogether, while others remain. I have been advised it could relate to the local vicar (rather than the diocese or record office) actually having the authority to say what FamilySearch (and other websites) can show, and what they cannot. Otherwise, we're back to the "makes no sense" position, as the indexing project instructions (parish name included or not) should surely have been the same for the whole collection.