Find your ancestors in Halifax St John burials

Each record comprises a transcript of the original register. The amount of information listed varies, but the records usually include a combination of the following information about your ancestor:

• First name(s)
• Last name
• Birth year
• Age
• Death year
• Death date
• Burial year
• Burial date
• Relative’s first name(s)
• Relative’s last name
• Relationship
• Address
• Church
• Parish
• County
• Country
• Notes (e.g. if a pauper, cause of death)

Anonymous deaths

An entry dated 25 October, 1801 notes the burial of “Three infants of one birth” in St. John’s Church, with no further details provided.

On 20 September 1850, “A Man Unknown” was found dead in the canal.

There are a number of other records in this record set in which the deceased is unknown, many of them infants. There are 80 cases of pauper burials between 1786 and 1800, often noted simply as ‘P.’

Parish registers

In 1538, following the split with the Roman Catholic Church, it was decreed that each parish priest must keep a weekly register of baptisms, marriages, and burials. A fine was put in place for failure to comply, and from 1733, entries had to be written in English instead of Latin. Parish registers are an important resource in researching your family tree, as the census and official records of births, marriages, and deaths only go back as far as 1837, when civil registration began.

Halifax

Halifax is a Minster town, an honorific name given to certain churches in England. It lies within the metropolitan borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire. Halifax Minster is dedicated to St. John the Baptist.

Included in these records are Yorkshire and Yorkshire (West Riding). Yorkshire is a historic county in Northern England, the largest in Britain. The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of the county.