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Contributed by Richard Ratcliffe
It is not easy tracking down Methodist ancestors—there are so many sources in a large number of repositories!
The 1851 Ecclesiastical Census shows that there were over 15,000 Methodist Chapels in England, Wales and Scotland attended by Wesleyan Methodists, New Connexion Methodists, Primitive Methodists, Bible Christians, Welsh Calvinist Methodists, Protestant Methodists, etc. Following amalgamations in 1857 and 1907, the different Methodist groups eventually united in 1932 to form the Methodist Church.
Consolidation since then has seen many chapel closures particularly in towns and villages where there were previously 2 or more Methodist chapels. This has resulted in many Methodist records being deposited in County Record Offices. Sadly many records have also been lost through negligence at the time of chapel closures.
Earlier in 1837 when Civil Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths was introduced, the Registrar General called in early Baptism and Burial Registers from all Nonconformist Churches.
856 Registers from Methodist Chapels were surrendered and these are listed by County for England and Wales in My Ancestors were Methodists by William Leary (now out of print but possibly available through at your local reference library or through the inter-library borrowing system).
Principal Methodist Archives
The main Methodist Church website: has links to many of today’s Methodist Chapels some of which have very informative pages about their history and records.
The National Archives website includes information provided by the Access to Archives network so that researchers can check holdings in a County Record Office for a particular Methodist Chapel or the Circuit in which it is located.
Records of a Methodist Chapel
From earliest days Methodists have always been very conscientious in keeping written records of Chapel meetings and of the many and varied committees within the life of the Chapel.
The records of a typical Methodist Chapel dating from the early 19thCentury may include some of these records:
Records of a Methodist Circuit
Every Methodist chapel belongs to a Circuit, or used to belong to a circuit before the chapel was closed. A Circuit may comprise only 2 or 3 chapels in some towns and cities but as many as 20-30 chapels in rural areas. Circuit records may include duplicate records of chapels in the circuit as well as records of the different circuit meetings and organisations.
A typical list of Circuit records may include:
Local Newspapers are a rich source of information about Methodist activities in local chapels or of circuit events. There may be reports about Sunday services and weekday meetings, Chapel Anniversaries, Sunday School Anniversaries, Chapel and Sunday School outings, Boys’ Brigade and Girls’ Brigade activities, Choir concerts, Circuit Rallies— especially the annual celebration of Wesley Day on May 24th, and pen portraits of prominent local worthies some of whom were Methodists.
Recently the British Library has started to digitise newspapers published between 1800-1900, many of which contain reports on Methodist chapel activities. For more details visithttp://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs
Census returns between 1851 and 1911 are another source for locating Methodist ancestry. They record a Minister’s occupation as “Wesleyan Methodist Minister” or “Primitive Methodist Minister” and some Local Preachers are recorded as “Farmer and Wesleyan Methodist Local Preacher.” In some instances children are recorded as Methodist Sunday School scholars. For more information read Stuart Raymond’s book “The Census 1801-1911” [The Family History Partnership 2009].
Further Reading:
The Census 1801–1911: A Guide for the Internet Era, by Stuart A Raymond. The Family History Partnership 2009. ISBN 978 1 906280 16 1.
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