Kirkby Malham
Parish Church Records
The ancient parish church of St Michael the Archangel is situated in the village of Kirkby Malham.
The Anglican Parish of Kirkby-in-Malhamdale was originally part of the the Diocese of York and became part of the Rural Deanery of Craven in 1836. Since 1919 this has been part of the Bradford Diocese and Kirkby Malham is now part of the rural Deanery of Bowland.
The parish originally consisted of the townships of Malham Moor, Malham, Kirkby Malham, Hanlith, Scosthrop, Airton, Calton and Otterburn and for a time included Bell Busk and Coniston Cold, which were originally part of Gargrave Parish. The church of St Peter, Coniston Cold was founded in 1840 and was united with Kirkby Malham Parish in 1987, the incumbent serving both churches, however in 2008 St Peter’s was associated again with Gargrave.
The Quaker Meeting House has a small burial ground but the Malhamdale Methodist Chapels have no graveyards, so prior to the Waltonwrays Cemetery being opened in 1874 at Skipton, most non-conformists would be buried here.
The immediately adjoining Parishes are, moving clockwise from the North : Arncliffe / Halton Gill: Rylstone (Originally part of Burnsall): Gargrave: Long Preston: Giggleswick / Settle, Langcliffe, Stainforth and Horton-in-Ribblesdale.
See also the page about Parish Records for the
Non-Conformist Chapels of Malhamdale
Registers for the Parish Church of St Michael the Archangel
Some of the early registers were stolen in 1970s, but fortunately the missing periods are covered by the printed YPRS transcript copy (1597-1690) and by the Bishop’s Transcripts. The Cookson Manuscript Index to the registers produced about 1914 also covers this period.
Known deficiencies in the records include a gap from April 1625 – November 1626; few entries for the Civil War period 1644-46 due to “negligence”; no Burial or Marriage entries in 1686; and no entries at all in the period 1687-91 (although BTs do still exist for 1690).
Original Registers
The Stolen Registers covered the following periods:
- Baptisms, Marriages and Burials for the period: 1597-1653 and 1653-1692
- Baptisms and Burials for the period: 1692-1773
- Marriages for the period: 1692-1753
- Baptisms: 1773 -1816, 1813 -1839, 1839 -82, 1882 -1961
- Banns: 1854 -1938
- Marriages: 1754 -1919
- Burials: 1773-1937
Some are available on microfilm : MIC485/486
The Current Register s which are held by the incumbent cover the periods:
- Baptisms: 1961 – date
- Marriages: 1920 – date
- Burials: 1937 – date
- Banns: 1940 – date
Normal Parochial Fees set by the Church of England apply to access of the records still held at the church. This currently stands at £14 for the first hour, inclusive of one official copy and £11 per subsequent hour or part of an hour, plus £14 for each additional official copy.
Cookson Manuscript Index
The Rev Cookson produced two hand written copies of an index to the registers from 1597 -1811which are lodged with the main Leeds and Bradford Libraries, the North Yorkshire Record Office has a filmed copy of the handwritten original and a typed transcript. The index lacks the important details often included in original registers which make sorting out family groups easier. It also has some known ommissions and he wrongly groups some similar family names together (Hurtley and Hartley and Wellock/Wallock/Willock being particularly bad to sort out), so it should only be used as a finding aid or last resort. This is incorporated in the Parish Record Index.
KirkbyMalham.info Parish Record Index 1597-1813
Members of the Wharfedale Family History Group made up a composite index based on the IGI and Cookson Index for the 1690-1813 period, then added further details extracted from the MLHG Archive’s copies of the Bishop’s Transcripts. We have taken that and added a further index for the 1597-1690 period made by comparing the Cookson Index and IGI to create the most comprehensive index to the parish records of St Michael the Archangel, Kirkby Malham that are available.
PRindex 1597-1813
KirkbyMalham.info Marriage Index 1754-1910
Transcribed from the original registers and double checked by MLHG members, this database can be searched by Bride or Groom’s names.
Marriages 1754-1910
KirkbyMalham.info Baptism & Burial Index 1773-1910
Transcribed from the original registers and double checked by MLHG members, this database can be searched by Bride or Groom’s names.
Baptism & Burials 1773-1910
Bishop’s Transcripts
Fortunately these are good copies of the original registers retaining the details of occupation, residence etc. that make sorting out families simpler and cover the period of the stolen original registers. The original Bishop’s Transcripts are held at the
Borthwick Institute of Historical Research
,York and include:
- Baptism, Marriage and Burial records for the periods: 1600, 1607, 1631-32, 1634-39, 1641, 1661-64, 1666-69, 1671-73, 1676-78, 1683, 1690 , 1692, 1694-1711, 1713-80, 1782-1837 and Baptism and Burial records for: 1838-41, 1844-46
The
West Yorkshire Archive Service
,Leeds holds the BTs with Baptism and Burial records for: 1848-69Transcripts of the Baptism and Marriage entries from the BTs are included in the IGI on the FamilySearch website. A Surname only search will allow you to download every occurrence of that Surname in the Parish. These entries lack the details often included in the original BT’s they were transcribed from, such as the township and occupation of individuals and of course the LDS church don’t include burials in their data, which can lead to wrong assumptions being made. The LDS filmed copies of the original BTs do show the complete entries though and these are available at their Family History Libraries. The IGI coverage is actually only partial, although the coverage dates would suggest otherwise, checking 200 years of marriages, the Cookson Index indicated 1500 over the period, whilst the IGI recorded just over 900.
Copies of Parish records
Various full and partial transcripts are available, although without checking it isn’t always obvious whether these are based on the original registers or the BTs. These include:
Chr:Marr:Bur: 1597-1690 Printed transcript published by YPRS in 1938; which is still available on fiche from the
YAS Parish Record Group
.Banns: 1854-1938 (microfilm NYCRO);
Index to Chr/Marr/Bur: 1597-1816 (Manuscript index created by Rev E Cookson circa 1914 , two original copies are at Bradford and Leeds Libraries, microfilm at the SOG, microfilm and typed transcript copies at NYCRO) There are some omissions and some similar surnames have been amalgamated, but it is a good finding aid.
Baptism sponsors: 1850-56 (microfilm at NYCRO)
Christenings: 1690-1815 Marr/Bur:1690-1811 (Leeds Lib) Cookson index or LDS film?
Christenings: 1813-1882 (transcript at NYRO)
Chr/Marr/Bur: 1600-07, 1632-1846 (microfilm at the SoG)
Marriages: 1607-1837 (Boyd’s Marriage Index at the SOG, Copy at York Library)
Marriages: 1690-1810 (Loomes Marriage Index at the SOG)
Marriages: 1754-1812 (transcript at NYRO)
Chr:Marr:Bur:BTs on microfilm. FHL 919150 from the Genealogical Society of Utah contains: 1600, 1607, 1631-2, 1634-1639, 1641, 1661-1664, 1671-1673, 1676-1678, 1683, 1690, 1692, 1694-1711, 1713-1780, 1782-1841, 1844-1846 (marriages to 1836 only)
British Vault film 1849349 from the Genealogical Society of Utah : Chr/ Bur 1848-1869
Burials: 1813-1862 (transcript at NYRO)
Extracts in the IGI : Chr/Marr: 1592-1690; Chr: 1683-1846 Marr: 1683-1837 are listed under the Batch numbers : E009271 – P009271 – M009271 – C009272 – M009272 – M009273 – C009273 serach them directly from the form below. The
FamilySearch
online version of the IGI contains details of Kirkby Malham Chr/Marr: 1592-1690 from the YPRS transcript and from the available BTs for marriages up to 1836 and Baptisms up to 1846. However checks of the number of entries returned by the IGI against the actual number of entries in the Parish Records and BTs, show that a great many entries are missing from the IGI transcripts.
Search the Kirkby Malham Baptism & Marriage transcripts in the IGI Firstname:Surname : (Both are optional) Choose the records to search:Baptism 1597-1690 from the YPRS transcriptBaptism 1683-1812 from Bishop’s transcripts Baptism 1813-1846 from Bishop’s transcripts
Marriage 1597-1690 from the YPRS transcript
Marriage 1683-1812 from Bishop’s transcripts
Marriage 1813-1837 from Bishop’s transcripts
Corrections
The results will open in a new FamilySearch window or tab.
Monumental Inscriptions
Current memorials are recorded in a manuscript card index (not sure if this is still available {2023}, produced by The Malhamdale Local History Group and available in KM Church. They have also been transcribed and updated by
Keighley and District Family History Society
and (possibly!)published in booklet form costing £3.85 incl UK P&P.In addition, early MIs, records of the stained glass and Arms etc. were recorded by Roger Dodsworth in Yorkshire Church Notes 1619-31, editor JW Clay, published 1904 by YAS (Record Series Vol.34).
Terriers
Terriers are a written survey which act as a legal safeguard of each church’s possessions and are often copied into the early Parish Registers and Bishop’s Transcripts.
“…the archbishops and all bishops within their several dioceses, shall procure (as much as in them lieth) that a true note and terrier of all the glebes, lands, meadows, gardens, orchards, houses, stocks, implements, tenements and portions of tithes lying out of their parishes, (which belong to any parsonage, or vicarage, or rural prebend) be taken by the view of honest men in every parish, by the appointment of the bishop, whereof the minister to be one, and be laid up in the bishop’s registry, there to be for a perpetual memory thereof.”
The Terriers for the Craven Deanery are held at the
Borthwick Institute
in York and they include those for Kirkby Malham taken in the following years:1716; 1727; 1743; 1748; 1764; 1770; 1777; 1781; 1786; 1809; 1817; 1825
See also the page about Parish Records for the
Non-Conformist Chapels of Malhamdale
Malhamdale Local History Group 