York family records dating back to 1500s go online

More than two million records dating back to the early 1500s have been placed online by the University of York.

The archive lists baptisms, marriages and burials in the city and the surrounding area.

It includes famous families such as the Fawkes of gunpowder plot infamy and chocolate makers Rowntree and Terry.

Also recorded are some unusual names such as Ishmael Fish, Phineas Butter and Theophilious Sealbut.

The archive also contains the marriage certificate of a Mr Duck and Miss Peacock.

The records are held at the University's Borthwick Institute for Archives and are from the archdeaconry of York.

Keeper of the archives Gary Brannan said digitising the documents made "Yorkshire's genealogy accessible remotely".

"We currently have around 30,000 people from more than 140 countries coming to our catalogue each year and wanting to do research," he said.

"The vast majority of people can't come to York directly so this partnership makes these important historical documents globally available.

"People have a huge desire to trace their roots and the discoveries people can make can be intensely personal and profoundly moving. Individuals living around the world are always really and rightly proud to discover they have roots in Yorkshire."

Some of the records offer unique insights into the past, such as the Dade registers that were in use in Yorkshire between 1777-1812.

These contained a level of detail that was unusual at the time, from recording information such as a small history of a person at their baptism, or details of their cause of death such as "old age" or "King's evil" in a burial register.

The archive has been created in partnership with online genealogy company Ancestry.

Income generated will be used to develop and support the Borthwick's activities, enabling the University to make more records accessible to the global genealogy community.

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