Family history: Millions of Sussex historic parish records available for first time

This is the first time the entire Sussex Parish Registers collection has been digitised and brought online, in an exclusive collaboration with Ancestry, allowing people to discover information about baptisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths and burials within the historical county of Sussex.

The records show that 1919 was the most popular year for marriages with more than 11,000 couples saying ‘I do’ while 1880 saw the most baptisms with 11,524 taking place.

The 125,700 records in this collection can range in date from the early 1500s to the mid- to late-1800s.

Working with the East and West Sussex Record Offices, the records on Ancestry hold detailed information about the ancestors of many of the counties families and will be searchable by parish on the Ancestry website.

Wendy Walker, county archivist at West Sussex Record Office, said: "Archives are full of stories waiting to be told and the parish registers are where so many of these stories begin. Within their pages lie the hidden lives of people in the county dating back over four hundred and fifty years. We are delighted to be working in partnership with Ancestry and our colleagues in East Sussex to make this major resource for Sussex history available to people all over the world."

Ceris Howard, team manager archive services and The Keep, home of the East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office, added: “We are delighted that through this joint project with our colleagues at the East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office and Ancestry, centuries of local history is now digitally accessible. The Parish Registers detail the important milestones in the lives of the people of Sussex over hundreds of years. Making these invaluable historical records available online will enable people to learn more about their local history and ensure the stories from our community’s past continue to be told.”

Featured in the records are several prominent Sussex residents including:

Victor Barker (1895- 1960) – Barker’s marriage record is the first documented instance of a marriage between a trans man and a woman in the UK. Victor Barker was born Lillias Irma Valerie Barker and met wife Elfrida Haward in Brighton. The couple married at St Peter’s Church, Brighton, on November 14, 1923.

Emily Sheila Kaye-Smith (1887-1956) – Author and novelist, Sheila grew up in East Sussex and her baptism record outlines she was baptised in St Leonards on April 3, 1887. Kaye-Smith’s marriage record from October 16, 1924 outlined she married the Rev Theodore Penrose Fry. He was a curate at the Anglo-Catholic St Leonards Christ Church which Emily visited secretly because the church was disapproved of by her staunchly Anglican parents.

John Bullaker (1574–1627) - Physician and lexicographer, John was born in St Andrew's parish, Chichester, Sussex, and his baptism record shows he was baptised there on November 13, 1574.

William Juxon (1582–1663) - William was an English churchman, Bishop of London from 1633 to 1646 and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1660 until his death. The records show that he was baptised in Chichester on October 24, 1582.

Martha Gunn (1726-1815) – Gunn’s baptism record tells us that she was baptised on September 19, 1731 in Brighton. Remembered in Brighton for being the most famous ‘dipper’ or bathing attendant, a dipper was the operator of a bathing machine used by women and helped bathers get in and out of the water.

Ina Sarah Forbes Bonetta (1843-1880) – Bonetta was the ward of Queen Victoria and her marriage record shows she got married to James Pinson Labulo Davies, a west African merchant, at St Nicholas, Brighton on August 14, 1862. Queen Victoria took to Sarah (or Ina as she later called herself) and sponsored her education.

Over 2.4 million marriages are recorded in the new collection, with 1919 being the most popular year for couples to say ‘I do’, seeing more than 11,000 marriages registered in this year. Meanwhile, 1880 was the most popular year for baptisms with 11,524 taking place.

Kristian Lafferty, content acquisition manager at Ancestry® said: “The East and West Sussex Record Offices set themselves a goal to extend their presence online through the digitisation of the Parish Registers for the county and Ancestry is very proud to have worked with them to make this happen.

"By bringing in our team of experts to scan, index and publish these historical documents we have been able to make the records searchable for people all around the world for the first time ever. Spanning four centuries, the collection offers insights into life in the county that inspired some of Britain’s most creative minds.”

All of the data was converted as it was originally presented in various published registers and books. For this reason, you will find interesting phonetic spellings and large descriptive tables of contents.

The Sussex registers are free to access at The Keep, in Brighton, East Sussex a purpose built state of the art archive centre, and all libraries across East and West Sussex, and if you are a library member you can sometimes access them at home alongside British Newspapers Archive and FindMyPast.

At West Sussex Records office you can also access the parish registers on microfilm or fiche in the search room.

To start searching for your family history and look at the new digitised Sussex parish records, visit www.ancestry.com/